Reworking plow shares

Getting pretty tired of watching it rain. Chomping at the bit to get out and play with my tractors!

So, if I can't be out working with them, might as well be tinkering with them, and pasting pictures about them!

I bought this plow a while ago. I posted a thread about it looking for info, and I was amazed how people on here could tell the share wouldn't suck in just from a picture.



Well, I tried it out, and sure enough, my plow didn't suck. (Bitter irony)

Dad told me that he used to take his shares into town to a shop to get them reworked. So did his Dad. The shop is still there, so I took the share off, and Pa took it in for me. The grand-step-son runs the shop now, looks like he learned the trade pretty well, this thing looks wicked!



Tried it out, that puppy will sink as far as you let it now! I had the depth set all the way down, went across the entire field with the front end of the B off the ground. Had to readjust things to get it plowing nice.



Well, time marches on. Bigger is better, right? Pretty soon, found this on Craigslist. Can't let this go to scrap, fits just right behind the WC.



It plowed OK, but I think these shares could use the same treatment.





Went up to Pa's today, pulled the plow into the shed and popped the shares off. The wheels for drawing the shares tight are frozen, but otherwise, I am always amazed at how well this old iron comes apart. I just took the whole J bolt and pivot assembly off, I can take them to work and heat them up to get them apart without twisting them off.

This plow is probably what, 80 years old? And the bolts came off with a crescent wrench. I have been told the reason this stuff comes apart is because of "virgin" metal.




Anyways, this plow has two different shares on it. One says Allis on it, the other says Star Mfg. Co. on it.







The Star one is actually 1" longer than the Allis one. Pa is going to take them in this week, I told him to see if they can tack on an inch so they match.

When it dries up around here, I will get to test them out.

Thanks for looking!

Pretty interesting. I Thought about getting some of my older ones done two but didn't know where to take them anymore or if the newer style shares could be refaced vs the older blacksmith shares.

Not many around anymore that know how to do that.  Our old blacksmith did up a bunch for our tractor club about 10 years ago, he still had some of the new points but used them all.  He is still around but his son took over the shop and he doesn't want to do them anymore.  He used to have many sets around on the floor like said earlier when everyone used them.

 Thanks for sharing. Nice to see pictures of people working on equipment. I to I'm getting tired of the rain, wind and just cold weather. I think it's May 1st but sure don't feel like it. You're lucky to have someone near you that can fix the shares. Don't know any where around here that would want to do it. My dad worked for Star Mfg. in Freeport IL for some time. They have gone out of business now. When they were open I called them to see if I could get any Allis plow shares and they told me that all the tooling had been scrapped years ago. It's getting harder to find parts for most the Allis equipment anymore.

On the dairy in Upstate NY, we were lucky to have a local gentleman that ran around the valley in a 64 Ford one ton and this fella could do everything including engine block cracks in-place. Handy fella that had to be pushing 75 years old in the mid 70's and every few years my dad would have him up to "rebuild" the points on our Kverneland(s) heavy 3-bottoms. Remember he always had a big cheek full of "OhBeJoyful" tobacco and kept the cardboard from boxes of tobacco he bought behind the seat in that old truck for making templates.
Layed out the points after asking how aggressive you wanted them and discussing soils, rocks, etc. Traced them out of cardboard and went to work. Knew plows well, all brands and what he made lasted well.
Those Kverneland plows were nearly new, came from an auction and a farmer we knew also bought a 4020 at the same auction and offered to bring them by our place when he drove the JD home. Rolled the JD a few miles from our place and the only thing that saved him was those plows as they hung up on a tree keeping him from rolling the JD completely over. Dealer said "junk em, they are sprung and will never plow right".
That old timer sorted them and we ran em' nearly ten years until the farm sold.
Those old craftsmen are getting harder to come by these days.

Tim what happened to roll the 4020 ?

Tim
thanks for sharing a neat story about a smart man who knows his stuff! Gosh those guys just don't grow on trees, and I look up to them big time. I had never heard of a Kverneland plow. So I seached for an image...did it look like this?



Around our parts when I was growing up in SE Iowa people had Oliver and John Deere and Allis plows, some of those Little Wonders by Farmall too.
Mike in Iowa

TimNearFortWorth wrote: On the dairy in Upstate NY, we were lucky to have a local gentleman that ran around the valley in a 64 Ford one ton and this fella could do everything including engine block cracks in-place. Handy fella that had to be pushing 75 years old in the mid 70's and every few years my dad would have him up to "rebuild" the points on our Kverneland(s) heavy 3-bottoms. Remember he always had a big cheek full of "OhBeJoyful" tobacco and kept the cardboard from boxes of tobacco he bought behind the seat in that old truck for making templates. Layed out the points after asking how aggressive you wanted them and discussing soils, rocks, etc. Traced them out of cardboard and went to work. Knew plows well, all brands and what he made lasted well. Those Kverneland plows were nearly new, came from an auction and a farmer we knew also bought a 4020 at the same auction and offered to bring them by our place when he drove the JD home. Rolled the JD a few miles from our place and the only thing that saved him was those plows as they hung up on a tree keeping him from rolling the JD completely over. Dealer said "junk em, they are sprung and will never plow right". That old timer sorted them and we ran em' nearly ten years until the farm sold. Those old craftsmen are getting harder to come by these days.

Oh and LittleMarv,
Thanks for sharing about your plows! Very interesting indeed.
I look forward to seeing and reading more.
Pastor Mike

Well, $50 later, here we go.



Freed up the adjusters and reassembled.





Took a few passes, but I got it dialed in pretty good.

I pulled it with the WC last fall. Worked pretty good, I'm sure it will work even better with the shares reworked.

The WC is actually kind of on hold. While I was plowing, the gorilla tape holding the tube in the tire let go and POTCH! I fertilized a portion of the field with calcium chloride.



Luckily, I had a spare set of tires on hand. The only problem is I now have one good 24" tire, and one good 28" tire on the tractor. They are pretty close in overall height, but I don't really want to work it hard with mismatched tires. So, I am saving up to but a matched set of rear tires AND paint the WC at the same time. Cha Ching!

That picture is a little deceiving. Its taken at a bit of an angle. The plow pulls real nice, but I could try and move the coulters over and see if they cut cleaner. Thanks!