Hard metal

[Old Spot]

i am thinking of making a small mole leg for a turf mole plough.
The one I have is showing signs of wear.
What is the hardest metal to make a leg out of?
Is there a heat treatment for mild steel that will make it harder?
What is the wearability of maybe stainless steel.
The leg is made of 6mm metal with a 25mm bullet.

 

[Kevtherev]

Have seen a mole leg made out of wide bucket cutting edge.
The point made out of old Hyd ram rod.

 

[robin banks]

I made my own mole plough. Got a 12" piece of bucket edge about 4' long cost about 100 euro at the time about six years ago. Welded a piece of 4" bar on end that I cut a long slope on to get a point. That way the mole leg always pulls slightly down to give traction. The bar was just mild steel. Cost 20 euro and had enough for 2 from scrapyard. Put a proper bought expander on back which I think was six inch that came on a chain. Some wear on leg at this stage but nothing serious. Very happy with it. Used a bought mole plough and wore off front replaceable edge in one season. My leg so far done 6 and reckon it would do 20 more. Cause its all hardened

 

[Rust]

I cut a bit of plough wing to fit and welded in

 

[Rust]

Point is muck tine.

Triggers broom/subsoiler

 

[ACEngineering]

You want boron 500 or hardox plate, these are what the decent bucket wear edges are made of but there is a lot of buckets out there with cheap edges made of a lower grade of Boron like 230-240.

You could always get some hard facing rods and lay a bit on in key areas aswell if you wanted to.

 

[MickMoor]

Don't forget if you are using a stick welder,you should use low hydrogen rods with that hard stuff, or the weld breaksoff.

 

[ED.D]

Suggest talking to Roy denyer at Pegasus profiling at thetford or John Moore parts at Stafford. Roy has just done some replacement legs and points from Hardox for me. A very good service and very helpful.

 

[Ley253]

Don't forget if you are using a stick welder,you should use low hydrogen rods with that hard stuff, or the weld breaksoff.

Stainless steel should be ok, and easier to use than low hydrogen.

 

[bovrill]

I had some well worn subsoiler legs that I built back up to their old profile with hard facing rods (I'd been given some 6mm rods which weren't much fun to hard-face TripleK tines with!!).
I've still got that subsoiler, and those legs have done many many hundreds of acres with hardly any wear showing. I put it down to having the thickest layer of hardfacing (well over an inch) where a leg takes the most wear. I've got a new machine this year, and I'll definitely do the same again when these legs get thin.