Homemade quick attach

[Chilly807]

I'm with RBA50.. I've used the Kubota MM (Mickey Mouse) level indicator for years. Granted it's not an ideal situation, you have to be able to see the top of the bucket and the little piece of steel to have any idea if the bucket is level. But, it works.

If you're that picky about fit and finish, you can work on my gear anytime you like! I find the older I get the more practical I am about stuff I build, it doesn't have to be perfect anymore, it just has to be safe and work. If I'm paying for it things are a little different, but still..

Sure you haven't got a touch of OCD going on here?? Ooops.. I spelled that wrong, it's CDO, because "O" does NOT come before"C"!

Sean

 

[Chilly807]

I took the indicator off mine because it always needed to be lubed to keep from screeching. It took about 3 times operating to get used to it.

Mine hasn't screeched yet. Then again, it's only a little piece of steel welded to the top of the bucket, so I suppose it wouldn't screech anyway Have you considered adding a Kubota-type indicator to the Deere? They're Mickey Mouse but do work, you can even paint it green if you like!

Sean

 

[swick1]

Mine hasn't screeched yet. Then again, it's only a little piece of steel welded to the top of the bucket, so I suppose it wouldn't screech anyway Have you considered adding a Kubota-type indicator to the Deere? They're Mickey Mouse but do work, you can even paint it green if you like!

Sean

I'm used to it now. I never even think about needing one. Funny how that works eh? Lift capacity on the other hand...

 

[CDN Farm Boy]

I've always hated the rod type indicators. I find they always in the way, noisy or bent. Never mind the fact that you can't judge cutting angle below flat. I don't mind the MM (as it's been called here) on my Kubota but it's really not hard to figure it out without one. I, like probably many others on here have spent more hrs/yrs using buckets without indicators than with.

Set the heel of the bucket on the ground, watch the top lip of the bucket as you roll down. When the "roll" changes to "lift" is when you pass the "flat on the ground point". Or do the same thing watching the heel of the bucket and you will see when it just lifts off the ground.

Can yours not simply be mounted on the outside of the bracket???

 

[ericher69]

I didn't want to pay for shipping, so I had the bushings come in on the bi-monthly stock order to my dealer. That was today! Here are a couple of the bushings.

<img src="http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=298035"/>

For the side plates, I'm working with 3/8" thick by 2 1/2" flat stock. I cut the stock to 12" length using a my new Harbor Freight 4x6 bandsaw, which was the tool that I used this job as an excuse to finally buy. The final straw on the chop saw was that it always arced out at the end of the cut, meaning my ends were never straight.

I drilled pilot holes 8" apart, using the first piece as a jig for the subsequent ones. I hand-aligned the blank with the cut piece and drilled the first hole in the blank, then I stuck a 1/4" bolt through the two holes and drilled through the cut piece's second hole into the blank. This guarantees that the spacing between the pieces is the same.

Next, I went at it with a hole saw. I prefer to pre-drill my pilot holes when using a hole saw in metal because it ensures that the hole is exactly where I want it, and also because the pilot bits that come with hole saws aren't stellar drill bits.

<img src="http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=298037"/>

My 1.5" hole saw fit the bushings perfectly, but unfortunately, my holes were not precisely positioned enough to exactly match the pin spacing on the bucket. So I ran to the hardware store and got a 1 5/8" hole saw. This should give just enough slop to allow positioning the bushings, while not leaving so much gap that it ends up being hard to weld the bushings in. I had to go back and enlarge the 1" holes that I drilled, which took some figuring out, since there was nothing to hold the pilot bit in place and keep the hole saw from skipping all over. I ended up putting a second piece of metal underneath and aligning the two so that the pilot hole on the bottom piece caused the hole saw to line up correctly on the top piece.
.

Ive had this happen in the past as well. You did ok with your second pilot hole plate underneath.

I have used a piece of hardwood slightly bigger that the hole 1 1/2 bit use 1-5/8 and sand to fit tight.

You now have a good pilot hole jig and the hole saw will cut its new groove before the jig gives up!

Obviously you can use steel also but much harder to get a tight fit.

 

[k0ua]

I would agree with Chilly, In some ways the MM Kubota indicator is better than the fancy smancy rod and tube one on the Kioti Which I wadded up in the first 10 hours on the Kioti, I did repair it and not had any more trouble with it, but like someone said you cannot judge tilt less than horizontal anyway as the rod disappears down the tube. And that rod sticking up and brush and tree limbs seem to have an affinity for each other.

James K0UA

 

[ericher69]

Yes, exactly. At least the areas that will be welded. It's surplus steel, so it's pretty rusty even after I've run over it with a wire wheel. I plan to try electrolytic rust removal on the two brackets before welding the rod in between them and then painting. That should be pretty cool!

Do a search on You Tube Molasses and water to dissolve rust. Tried it and much more effective than commercially available rust dissolvers

 

[puckgrinder85]

If you're having this many issues your money is probably well spent just buying an SSQA quick attach and being done with it. I know my time is worth something, Im sure yours is too. That titan attachments on here is selling the pin boxes pretty cheap, all you'd need to do is cut off your bucket ears and weld those onto the pin boxes then of course weld the SSQA plate onto the bucket. I didnt have this cheap of an alernative when i built my quick attach, if I did I would've went with the ssqa right off the bat.

 

[joshuabardwell]

I appreciate the encouragement, folks. Part of my motivation for starting over is that getting a working QA has always been my secondary goal. My primary goal has always been to hone my fabrication skills. The incorrect spacing of the side plates, and the fact that the side plates are way out of square, is an indication that those are skills that I need to work on. Getting your finished product to the intended dimensions and alignment is a pretty basic fabrication skill. If I was to have a shop teacher looking over my shoulder, he'd be saying, "Grind out those welds and get it right," not, "Ahh... it's fine. Go on to the next step."

Yeah, getting a working QA is in there somewhere, but for me, at this point, the number of mistakes has crossed a threshold where there's too much opportunity to continue to learn. I'd really feel like I was letting myself down if I just charged ahead and produced a finished piece that was full of mistakes and that I couldn't feel proud of. If I thought that I couldn't do any better, then I might decide to just git-r-done, but I know that I can do better.

I do hope that the lessons I've learned so far are helpful, or at least entertaining to others.

If you're having this many issues your money is probably well spent just buying an SSQA quick attach and being done with it. I know my time is worth something, Im sure yours is too. That titan attachments on here is selling the pin boxes pretty cheap, all you'd need to do is cut off your bucket ears and weld those onto the pin boxes then of course weld the SSQA plate onto the bucket. I didnt have this cheap of an alernative when i built my quick attach, if I did I would've went with the ssqa right off the bat.

Thanks. I'll look into that. SSQA would, of course, be preferable to pin-style QA. If this project ever crosses the line from, "learning experience in fabrication," to, "I just want a QA right now, darn it," I'll look into it. I'm not too worried about the time, because welding and fabrication is currently just what I do for fun. So if I wasn't doing this, I'd be sitting in front of the Xbox. The money I've spent on materials is a little harder to shrug off, but this has been a lot more interesting that welding coupons, so it's probably still money well spent even if it doesn't produce a working QA at the end.

 

[puckgrinder85]

There are two options you can go with and I linked the thread to you. You can get both pin boxes (left and right) and then somehow get your loader to hook up to that. Or like I mentioned to them is make a boxed in version so all the customer would have to do is cut off the bucket ears and transfer those to the boxed in version (which had to be done anyhow) and then obviously weld on the SSQA plate to the back of the bucket.

I had planned on doing this untill i looked up pricing on all this stuff. At the time NO WAY in **** was I spending that much on an SSQA. Thats precisely why i made this thead and built my own pin on QA. In the meantime this product came out at a very awesome price point, at least in my eyes its well worth it and would have definatly went that direction rather than building one.

Dont get me wrong i learned quite a bit but could have came out ahead just buying one and doing some minor fabrication.

Heres' the link:

http://stores.palletforks.com/-strs...k?xcategory=Acessories and other attachments#



When reasearching I couldnt find anything close to them on this price range. Take advantage before it goes up!