Burned cubs - salvage or scrap?

[willray]

I expect a band saw could save a lot of milling time. There might be internal stresses from the heat in the castings, so parts might move as you're cutting pieces out.

Definitely. Lost the big bandsaws in the fire too, but eventually those will get replaced.

My one of my horizontal mills, and my shaper were in another building, so they're still good to go (and I just love cutting things on the shaper - there's something just serene about watching it cycle gently back and forth, peeling off shavings. Mine's only a 14", so it just takes little bites, but a friend has a 24" hydraulic that makes chips that go "clank" when they hit the floor. Someday I'm gonna get me one of those...)

I think I like this idea. I'm going to keep at least the spare engines that were on pallets and see what I can turn them into.

The iron/steel parts that were not heat treated are probably OK if they have not warped beyond usability.

Any thoughts on bolsters? Generally I'm worried about strength in thin-section iron load-bearing parts that have gotten hot. There's enough meat in the axle housings and body tube that if they're not cracked (magnaflux to the rescue) I'd bet on their structural integrity even after a fire, but I'm not too sure about the bolster.

[Boss Hog]

cast iron parts should be ok, as far as the axle, I expect it will be bent if it got as hot as I think. I have no use for badly burnt tractors
Boss

[staninlowerAL]

cast iron parts should be ok.... I have no use for badly burnt tractors Boss

I salvaged an injector pump and block from a 3 cyl YANMAR (JD), castings only, about 20 years ago. Replaced all the internal parts and have not had any problems with it. Maybe I just got lucky.

[Greg Armstrong]

This is terrible news, So sorry to hear about the fire!! Glad no one was hurt. Did your 184 or 185 have a 3 point or front blade? I would hate to see something that is possibly useful go to scrap.

[Jim Becker]

Any thoughts on bolsters? Generally I'm worried about strength in thin-section iron load-bearing parts that have gotten hot. There's enough meat in the axle housings and body tube that if they're not cracked (magnaflux to the rescue) I'd bet on their structural integrity even after a fire, but I'm not too sure about the bolster.

We have really reached outside of an area where I know much. There are probably several members that could make better comments than I can. Having not seen the tractors first hand, it is hard to make specific statements. Follows are some observations that may help.

Given that burn-off ovens are routinely used to clean up oil-soaked steel and iron parts, I think my burnt oil test is very conservative. Even the front bolster holds the steering gear lube, so the test should be good. The only cast part I can think of where that may not apply is the steering gear base, where the axle support extends far from the mass of the part. That part is easy to find, so I'd scrap it.

Taking the opposite extreme from the oil guideline, a lot of people claim that a cracked cast iron part can be repaired by welding. If a cast part isn't measurably warped, it is unlikely it was exposed to temperatures as high as the area near a weld. So if you trust a weld repair, you have to consider the cast parts to be OK.

I'm not that confident in welded cast iron, so I lean more towards the conservative oil guideline. Many of us have run into problems with warped or brittle exhaust manifolds, so heat clearly has an effect.

[Eugene]

Whole lot of unknowns.

How hot was the fire (really hot) and how much water did the fire department dump on the metal (rapid cool down).

[dgrapes59]

Whole lot of unknowns.

How hot was the fire (really hot) and how much water did the fire department dump on the metal (rapid cool down).

WOW Eugene that makes 15K Posts! Thats a bunch of helpin' goin' on there!

Sorry for the hijack, also sorry to hear about the fire...

Best of luck,

[Eugene]

WOW Eugene that makes 15K Posts!

That's mostly the result of chronic back pain. Work for a bit until I can't stand the pain. Sit in the office chair waiting for the pain to subside, visit the Farmall Cub board.

Sorry guys. This is my go to site.

[AL Farmall Boy]

Sad news. There are 4 less cubs in the world. Our barn just burned, and it took out two older "Standard" cubs, as well as a 184 and a 185.

I've never tried to restore a piece of iron that's been through a fire before, and honestly I'm not sure I have it in me to re-do these again, so I come seeking the wisdom of the community:

Should I just have the carcasses scrapped, or, is there enough value in them for parts, that I should push them off to the side and offer anything that doesn't look too-far-gone up for any takers here?

Absolutely, anything aluminum or burnable on them is gone. Things got hot enough that a good number of iron implements in the barn are warped.

Scrap them whole, keep them for parts, anyone want to come and strip bits they might want off the dead bodies?

Any advice or wisdom from experience most greatly appreciated.
Will Ray

Sorry for the casualties. Post some pictures of the tractors so we can help you better in deciding on what you should do with the parts.

Also, check out the registry page and make sure you add your (4) tractors to the page with serial numbers and that they have burnt and are being parted or scrapped.

[Clark Thompson]

I have bought a couple burned cubs over the years. I was able to salvage and reuses some castings. but anything that was hardened steel such as shafts , gears and axles were non usable. I got a cub that was in a garage fire that was hot enough to bent the front expandable axle tubes. Nothing was usable. even the castings were cracked.