Homemade quick attach

   / Homemade quick attach #221  
Chilly807, Glad to see that your back to work on your quick attach, I'll try to keep an eye on your build. O.K. guys, here's an update on my homemade quick attach. I'm in the process of building another bucket for my tractor. I had a pair of plates made to weld to the back of the new bucket. (a friends son works at a fab/welding shop) To keep it simple for him making it, I just told him to make the sides straight and I'l trim to fit. So during the trim stage I didn't leave enough clearance for the "roll out" when removing the bucket, just didn't see it I guess. So I'm testing the removal of said bucket and got hung up on it. After a little fighting with it, I got it free from the loader and started to back up. I looked on the ground and there is my cross bar laying there. Now me being a suave, debonair, prim and proper kind of guy, the first words out of my mouth was "WTF? For those of you that read a little bit on my quick attach know that I used a piece of spring steel for my cross bar. After looking at the breaks, I now wonder if it is a lot stronger than that. Either way, it snapped off. 600RIDER said that he used a piece of 1-¼ round stock because he said thats what Kubota used. I'm pretty sure that I have something like this in the scrap pile so now I get to do a repair on the quick attach. Lesson for the day, dont use spring/hardened steel for the cross bar.

If you look where the adaptor is pinned on at the top, you can see that there isn't enough clearance for roll out. I didn't see that until I tried removing the bucket (Doh)

adaptor1.JPG

Here is the broken piece.




broke2.JPG broke1.JPG
 
   / Homemade quick attach #222  
I don't like hijacking a thread beyond a couple of posts, and that's what I'd be doing if I kept talking about the build I'm doing. So, in that train of thought, I'm going to start a new one in the "build-it-yourself" part of the forum in the next day or so.

Once I get it started (the thread, that is) I'll post back here with a link to the new thread so you don't have to look all over the place to find it.

Those of you that want to follow along are very welcome indeed, some of your different points of view and unique approaches to problem solving have made this a project I feel comfortable doing.

That's not saying mine will work, or that I won't make any mistakes along the way. But, I hope I've learned enough from your builds to make mine easier to do. Feel free to tag along and watch the fun (or swearing, whatever the flavour of the day happens to be!) creative criticism is always welcome.

Sean
 
   / Homemade quick attach #223  
So during the trim stage I didn't leave enough clearance for the "roll out" when removing the bucket, just didn't see it I guess. So I'm testing the removal of said bucket and got hung up on it. After a little fighting with it, I got it free from the loader and started to back up. I looked on the ground and there is my cross bar laying there. Now me being a suave, debonair, prim and proper kind of guy, the first words out of my mouth was "WTF? For those of you that read a little bit on my quick attach know that I used a piece of spring steel for my cross bar. After looking at the breaks, I now wonder if it is a lot stronger than that. Either way, it snapped off. 600RIDER said that he used a piece of 1-¼ round stock because he said thats what Kubota used. I'm pretty sure that I have something like this in the scrap pile so now I get to do a repair on the quick attach. Lesson for the day, dont use spring/hardened steel for the cross bar.

If you look where the adaptor is pinned on at the top, you can see that there isn't enough clearance for roll out. I didn't see that until I tried removing the bucket (Doh)

Yeah, I think I see what you mean about not enough clearance. Right at the top where the adapter is close to the new bucket ears? It looks like about the only way to get it out would be to put the bucket on blocks and go straight down? Trimming the ears back a little should cure that.

As for the cross bar, welding it in must have hardened the steel to the point it was brittle.. PITA to replace it now, getting it cut out will be the worst part I think. Your's goes through both side plates, right? I was briefly contemplating only butt welding it to the inner plates, then decided it'd be easier and stronger to go right through to the outside of the outer plates. I'm planning to use pipe for mine. I don't have anything lying around that will work, so I might as well buy some pipe.

Sean
 
   / Homemade quick attach #224  
Ahh, but that's because you're naturally lucky, James :) Me, maybe not so much.

Plus, the QA from Kubota that you used was specifically designed to work with the LA463 loader bucket, so the angles would have been already considered by someone that does it for a living, unlike me. About the only thing you could have gotten screwed up was the height of the adapter plate on the back of the bucket, other than not getting it square or something like that.

That's another reason I'm reluctant to use the SSQA adapter for the LA524 loader, because that loader also has a different part number for the bucket as well as the adapter itself. How much different is the bucket? I don't know and I don't like surprises, especially ones I've already paid for.

Sean

About the only consideration I gave it was to get the plate on straight, which wasn't too hard as I butted it up against the top strengthening bar I put on top of the bucket. This gave me something to weld the top of the plate to, and made the top of the bucket stronger for hooks. And I made two bars of steel for the bottom near where the pins go thru the cutouts in the plate. This made it much stronger and I beveled them to fill with weld metal. It all came out pretty well, I was very pleased with it. But I agree, it was more luck that everything worked out than engineering skill. If you need pictures or anything let me know. But building the adapter to go on the tractor itself is beyond my fab ability's so I bought it:) I am looking forward to your build thread. I know you will be very pleased with the results and utility value when you get it done

James K0UA
 
   / Homemade quick attach #225  
About the only consideration I gave it was to get the plate on straight, which wasn't too hard as I butted it up against the top strengthening bar I put on top of the bucket. This gave me something to weld the top of the plate to, and made the top of the bucket stronger for hooks. And I made two bars of steel for the bottom near where the pins go thru the cutouts in the plate. This made it much stronger and I beveled them to fill with weld metal. It all came out pretty well, I was very pleased with it. But I agree, it was more luck that everything worked out than engineering skill. If you need pictures or anything let me know. But building the adapter to go on the tractor itself is beyond my fab ability's so I bought it:) I am looking forward to your build thread. I know you will be very pleased with the results and utility value when you get it done

James K0UA

This is the part I have trouble with too.. I'll likely have a few issues with building this type, let alone something as complex as the SSQA adapter. In fact, I could see myself getting into trouble just cutting the ears off the back of the bucket as you did. I'd be ok for the first half hour or so, then the impatience factor would come into play and things would go downhill from there.

I'm lucky that the guys on TBN that have built these already have done the pioneer work, and found out where the tricky spots are. I came really close to getting the guys at work to do some of the bends instead of welding the different plates together, but since I don't know exactly what I need until I can eyeball it as it goes together, there's not much chance that would work out for me.

If the SSQA for the LA463 loader was still available.. I'm kinda on the fence if I'd go that way now.. I'm already starting down the road of the other style now, I've got the material bought and I'm cutting metal now. So it's a tough call to make at this point. After a couple more days if I'm getting frustrated with it, I might have a different point of view.. :mur: :pullinghair:

Sean

So, we'll do it this way and cross our fingers!
 
   / Homemade quick attach #226  
... and furthermore, this means that the "correct" alignment will be different for different people, depending on the angle of the back of their bucket. When you consider that (as far as I know, anyway) there isn't a standard for the relative angle of the back of the implement to the ground, there isn't really a universal answer either. For example, if you had a set of pallet forks, the back of the forks may be 90 degrees relative to the ground, while your bucket's back surface may be 70 degrees. There's going to be 20 degrees difference in their dump/curl, and nothing you can do about it.

Now that's something I hadn't thought of, but you're right! I'll have to take that into account when I build the frames for my bale spear and eventually a set of forks, if it looks like it may be critical. Both of those shouldn't be a problem, since a few degrees up or down from horizontal should be fine for their intended uses. The bucket is still going to be my primary tool, so I want that as close to standard as I can get it without going overboard.

Sean

Forks and spear are less crucial than the bucket as far as the angle is concerned. You already have the bucket to work with. When you make the frames for the forks or spear, build in enough angle on the attachment side mount that you have "some" roll back when flat on the ground, the exact angle isn't as important with them.

The other comments about the offset of the holes is exactly right. With the bucket flat on the ground, you want the pins to be in the same plane. It's not so much for the angle of roll-back but to keep the forces in the same plane as originally engineered when pushing forward into a pile or digging, that's where the loader will see the most forces (usually)
 
   / Homemade quick attach #227  
Chilly. Yep, you seen what I was talking about with the ears on the bucket, gonna fix its little red (orange?) wagon with a torch and grinder. I took the QA off of the Kubota today and torched the cross bar pieces out of it. I found a nice rusty chunk of 1-¼ solid bar stock to replace the broken one and spent almost an hour grinding off the rust. I ran out of time today to finish it. I also found another “build booger” while repairing the QA and will post what it was and how to fix it. (hopefully tomorrow) Not a full blown booger mind you, just more of a snot bubble that needs a little attention. That way you can build yours “Booger” free and correct the first time out. Ahhh, trial and error eh kids? (sigh)
Steve
 
   / Homemade quick attach #228  
   / Homemade quick attach #230  
Not much to follow seeing the last post was 5 years ago.
 
 
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