Pins and bushings question

I forgot to say that since I am now RETIRED, I now have the time for my restoration projects

Pins and bushings are hardened, you need special equipment to handle them, like tool post grinders.

 You could make your own pins and bushings for loaders and backhoes. They won't last as long as "store bought ones" but you could have fun making them. Getting grease to the working points will make em last as long as you'll ever need if you don't make a living with the machines.
 The heat treat process can vary widely with materials used and can be complicated. You can harden oil quenched material with a torch, if you know what you are doing but tempering is a little trickier.
 You might be able to buy stock in sizes that would work just by cutting to length. The problem there is having to buy long lengths and needing multiple sizes.
 Aww heck, just buy the lathe and have at it. Of all the machine tools I have used in my life, the lathe has always been my favorite, just some are more fun than others.
 


Edited by CTuckerNWIL - 08 Feb 2014 at 9:07am

Track pins and bushings are left to the mfg. as more to them than home projects.

I was seriously thinking of doing this myself a while ago. Pins and bushings are made of low alloy steel and hardened. Turned Ground and Polished barstock is available. It happens that My HD6G uses 1.375 pins (a standard size available with tight tolerences) SAE 1040 TG&P steel is up to the task with exelent hardenability. That is ware the good news ends. When I priced the steel it was $12.79 per foot. Each 10 foot bar weighs 50.43# The raw material for one track is $306.96 If you are uncomfortable taking a 50# 10 foot bar into your basement, for a little bit more you can have your steel supplier cut the pins to length on their automatic saw. Now all you have to do is face and chamfer the pins and take them to the heat treater.

For the bushings DOM alloy tubing is available in SAE 1040, 1045, 1050 and 4130 all good choises. The bushing material is more expensive than the pins.

The last set of pins and bushings I was able to purchase cost $475 and $125 for shipping for one track.

If you need a couple pins and bushings that you can't purchase, then go to it.

I consider myself more than frugal, I'm down right cheap and I think many of us who like to play with old crawlers are verrrrry cheap. So realisticly you have no market. Sorry

I expect that some of you will argue that pins and bushings are made of more exotic alloys than I have mentioned but my experience shows that replacement pins and bushings are made of lower alloy and carburized.