I wanted to get maximum lift out of it so I decided that the lowest that they could reach would be the ground, so I calculated what my frame shold look like. I bought new (heh, when you are in a hurry you do things like that) some 40 x80
mm with a 3
mm wall thickness. With a hole saw I prepared vertical pieces with places for a piece of pipe to support the carry bar. Carefully aligned then all up and welded the pieces of pipe into the supports.
I made my frame by welding a piece across the top and then 2 shorter pieces between the legs as a back rest for the forks and an attach point for the 3 point mount. These pieces are on edge to give more strength in the lifting points and to allow the forks to be straight. All the welding on the top frame had caused the legs to spring together, but a small hydraulic jack pushed the legs apart to make room for the bottom cross pieces.
At this point in time I ran out of wire for the welder--argh!
So, this morning, yes I am caught up, I had a couple of "honey-dos" and then I bought some wire and headed to finish the forks up, as the lathe was supposed to come today. And it did. the delivery guy, they must be the same the world over, simply dropped it in the drive and from there it was up to me. Since it weighs almost 1000 pounds. Rain was forecast so back to the shop. I quickly finished the welding and made some 3 pt brackets for the bottom lift arms, after fitting it on the quick connect I finished it off by making top link connection. The fit and finish leave a bit to be desired. The ends of the boxes should be closed in and the spatter clean up a bit, the brackets need smoothing out and rounding off, but it seemed functional. Now to give it the test.
Mike