Chrome Points, Shovels Last Up To 20 Times Longer

Chrome Points, Shovels Last Up To 20 Times Longer CULTIVATORS Cultivators (58C) 5-2-33 Business is booming for a small Idaho machine shop that does the "impossible". "You can't weld chrome to steel, according to most welding experts. But we've figured out how to do it," says Ray Stueckle, president of R & H Machine, Caldwell, Idaho. "We weld on tips, points and shovels made of 25 to 28% chrome, which is as high as you can go in percent of chrome. If it's higher, the replacement shovels and points are too brittle and will break too easily." Stueckle's customers claim they're getting 10 to 20 times more wear from the long-wearing chrome alloy cultivator, subsoiler, chisel and harrow points and shovels from R & H Machine. The company offers a wide variety of points, shovels and sweeps up to a maximum width of 4 to 5 in. "Chrome parts wider than this tend to get too brittle and fragile to stand up against rocks and hard ground. Farmers have asked us to make up chrome plow shares but we've declined because of this same brittleness problem since width of the chrome replacement would be more than 4 to 5 in." Cost of chrome alloy replacementparts from R & H Machine generally run about twice the cost of conventional points and shovels. "In addition to lasting 10 to 20 times longer, you'll discover that it takes a lot less power to pull a chisel plow, field cultivator, subsoiler, ripper or harrow equipped with our chrome points," Stueckle points out. "For example, nothing pulls harder than a subsoiler equipped with points that have been cross welded and easily cake up with dirt. Also, standard points and shovels self-sharpen to a point, then start to heel. Ours stay mirror bright and are designed to self-sharpen without giving you this heeling or sledding action, which makes the implement pull harder," explains Stueckle. He offers this "tip" for anyone doing his own hard surfacing of shovels and points: "Don't make the mistake of hard surfacing only the area where the point or shovel will wear. You have to go beyond that and also hard surface the opposite or underside so both sides wear evenly." R & H Machine offers complete, ready to mount chrome points and shovels. Or, you can buy weld-on chrome tips and points and do the welding yourself ù using special rods furnished by R & H Machine. "We encourage farmers to test our chrome parts by putting two or three of our shovels or points on a machine and run them right alongside new standard parts purchased locally. You'll find that when the standard parts are completely worn out, ours will barely show any wear. What's more, they'll outwear 10 to 20 standard shovels or points." For more details, contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Ray Stueckle, R & H Machine, Box 1348, Caldwell, Idaho 83605 (ph 208 459-1508, or 1507).

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