Angle iron on FEL Bucket

[jhortonvt]

After much consideration of opinions on TBN, I decided to put angle iron on the top of my bucket vs hooks alone.

A few of the notables I thought were valuble:
-The angle iron kills two birds with one stone by providing attachments AND stiffening the bucket's top plate
-The slots act as grab hooks for chain but I plan on setting up a slip hook with a couple links of chain to set in the slots
-The angle iron helps keep material in the bucket when full to the brim /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Here are some pics....

 

[jhortonvt]

So the first one was the 3/8 angle iron cut to fit the bucket.

This one shows my marking to bevel for the existing weld.

 

[jhortonvt]

The bevel cut...

 

[jhortonvt]

The notches cut and it's ready for welding..

 

[jhortonvt]

Well I've got more pics but the files are too big. Not sure why they're different size than the other pics but I'll have to work on that tomorrow.

More to follow...

 

[Egon]

Looks good. When are you gona make the bucket shinny? /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Egon

 

[Deerlope]

Good idea. However when you cut all those slots you lost a lot of your stiffening value. Hollow square tube w/ a 3/16 wall would have served you better. But then you wuold have had to but a few hooks.

 

[Thomas]

Good idea /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gifare you also considering maybe adding on iron under top of the bucket to make it tad stronger??

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Just curious about your bucket since you didn't have a "before" picture. Deere makes several different buckets.

I'm guessing that the top of the bucket simply had an open curl of sheet metal as top lip? What are you going to do to reinforce the angle iron slots? Are you going to weld small triangles in on the backside, on either side of the slots so they simply don't bend/flex open under load?

I like the idea of multiple slots cut so you can adjust load connection points. Neat idea.

 

[Syncro]

It looks good, but I too wonder about those notches taking away strength, also a chain hooked in one of those could easily bend the angle, there is a lot of force there.