Abstract: A boltless U-shaped holding clamp providing resilient clamping force and a reversible cutting tooth made from solid, hardened bar stock material. The clamp has a snout receiving channel for wedgedly engaging locking grooves of a digging member shank, and a tooth receiving channel of constant transverse cross section for receiving the hardened reversible tooth, also of constant transverse cross section. The bar stock tooth includes beveled cuts at each end which mate with an inclined stopper wall in the rear of the tooth receiving channel of the clamp when the tooth is inserted therein. Axial forces on the tooth during excavation or digging operations drive the clamp into greater frictional engagement thereby to achieve self-tightening.

Abstract: An adaptor enables conventional earth working machinery to use boltless holding clamps for cutting teeth made from bar stock material. One end of the adapter has a shank engagement end which couples a digging or cutting member of the machine while the other receiving end is adapted to receive the boltless holding clamp and the cutting tooth in wedge-tightened clamping engagement. The shank engagement end may employ bolts, dowels, pins or may be welded to the digging or cutting member, e.g., a bucket, blade, scarifier shank, shovel, etc. The clamp receiving end has wedge-locking grooves which interlock with complementary locking flanges of the clamp and a flat bearing surface which frictionally bears against the cutting tooth when clamped. Frictional properties at the interface between the adaptor bearing surface and the tooth differ from frictional properties at the clamp-to-tooth interface in a manner to provide self-tightening in response to axial impact loads on the tooth.