Skid Steer adapter plate build w/ boom pole

[GuglioLS]

Latest project I'm making is a Skid Steer adapter plate for the FEL QA I mounted on my old Ford. This is the link to that project Sooner or later I'll get a QA setup just like it for the Jinma FEL so I can use all the gizmo's on either tractor. This adapter plate will have a 10' boom pole attached. The main plate and some miscellaneous parts are 3/8" thick that I CNC plasma cut.




You might notice the skid steer plate will be setup similar to a receiver hitch. That was an after thought because I just found that 4" x 3/8" wall square tube laying in a scrap pile. It looked kinda cool so I thought it should be incorporated into this project. The boom pole is 3" od X 3/8" wall square tube so it should work just fine.




Kind of got rained out toward the end of the day, I did get some welding done. I'll need some more plasma cut parts before it's all said and done. Maybe it will be finished by next weekend?
The pole in the above pics has been used on several projects in the past. I used to bolt it to the old trip bucket that was on the Ford, but ever since I removed that old bucket and replaced it with the new skid steer QA bucket, I did not want to drill holes in the new bucket so I figured it would be better to just make a QA setup for the boom pole and make it easy to attach.

These are some old pictures I have using the boom pole bolted inside the old trip bucket, So I know the pole will not bend or break off under heavy load.....




Larry

 

[GuglioLS]

I made a little more progress on the Skid Steer Adapter plate with Boom Pole. First pic is the finished adapter plate all welded. It's been test fit to the tractor and lucky me it fits like a glove. The next step was to cut a 5/8" wide slot about 10" long through 3/8" thick plate. I did that with a 4-1/2" angle grinder with a metal cut off blade.






After the slot was finished, I welded the boom pole receiver to the plate. While that was cooling off, I wire wheeled off all the rust from the boom pole and primed it, let that dry, then applied the finish coat.



Well it's almost done, I may weld on some backing bars behind the receiver to reduce the chance of the plate bending, then paint the skid steer adapter plate and call it a wrap.


Larry

 

[mjncad]

Looks great Larry, I always enjoy seeing what you come up with.

 

[J_J]

Larry, did you consider this arrangement to allow you to bring the load back to the FEL. You can reach the boom out and grab something at say 10 ft, and tilt the boom back to the vertical position.

 

[Charlesaf3]

Markham makes a nice boom QA like JJs you might look at. I had them lenghten mine. Surprisingly cheap - I couldn't have built it much cheaper (even if I could build... )

 

[GuglioLS]

Hey thanks for the comments guys,

I finished it up today, slapped on a coat of flat black, slipped the boom into the receiver, slid in the locking pin and that's that. It won't get that much use but it sure will come in handy when I need it for construction of my metal building. The out of pocket was just right for this sort of thing, total cost was 4 cans of paint, all the plasma cut steel was in trade for a little of my time.





For heavy lifting a cable is attached to the FEL arms and connected to the clevis at the tip of the pole. Thats what I used to do when I had the pole bolted to the inside of the old bucket as seen in the last pics of the first post.


Hey J.J. that's a nice attachment you got there for your machine. Oh hey, did you ever use that metal bending anvil I sent you? I've made a couple of them since then. The first one I made was the prototype and needs an upgrade like yours. I'm finding I need to bend 90's and mine does not have the chamfered edges like yours has.

Larry

 

[tlbuser]

Hey thanks for the comments guys,

I finished it up today, slapped on a coat of flat black,
Larry

No powder coating this time ? Would've been interesting to see how well that held up on the adapter plate. Is the plasmacam working better for you now?

 

[MikesTractor]

Nice job!! I am curious to see the cables attached to the top.

Mike

 

[GuglioLS]

No powder coating this time ? Would've been interesting to see how well that held up on the adapter plate. Is the plasmacam working better for you now?

Hi TLB,
Yes proudly no "red neck" powder coating this time! what a PITB that was and not worth it for my tractor implements (IMHO).

The PlasmaCam is working much better ever since replacing the Z axis motor (it was stalling) and figuring out how the software works thank you very much. Drawing complex or oddball shapes are still better using autocad and importing them. For example drawing a true ellipse then stretching it to connect to two X-Y reference points in plasmacam is impossible (for me anyway). I had a guy who wanted a 1/4" plate cut in an elliptical shape 18" wide at the center 84" long at the ends, he was making a futuristic looking coffee table? The biggest challenge was cutting parts over 4 feet as the table is the 4' x 4' model. Learning to rotate the drawing (cut paths) and part to the other side of the table with reference and break points is key to getting "seamless" parts over 4' long. I joined "Plasmaspider" a plasma cutting forum to learn, get ideas and download DXF patterns. I've had the opportunity to cut out some cool looking stuff over the last several weeks, it's been a boat load of fun. Thanks for asking,

Larry

 

[J_J]

Hey thanks for the comments guys,

Hey J.J. that's a nice attachment you got there for your machine. Oh hey, did you ever use that metal bending anvil I sent you? I've made a couple of them since then. The first one I made was the prototype and needs an upgrade like yours. I'm finding I need to bend 90's and mine does not have the chamfered edges like yours has.

Larry

Hi Larry,

Yes I did, I tried it on some 1/2 in by 3 in wide stock, and it bent it 90 degree.

Thanks

 

[GuglioLS]

Nice job!! I am curious to see the cables attached to the top.
Mike

Hey thanks Mike,
If you look closely at the last three pics in the first post you might be able to see the cable? It's actually a come-along. First I string a short chain between the two FEL lift arms, attach the come-along to the center of that short chain, then string the cable of the come-along to the end of the pole. It's a quick and simple way of supporting the end of the pole for heavy loads.

Larry

 

[tlbuser]

Hi TLB,

Drawing complex or oddball shapes are still better using autocad and importing them. I joined "Plasmaspider" a plasma cutting forum to learn, get ideas and download DXF patterns. I've had the opportunity to cut out some cool looking stuff over the last several weeks, it's been a boat load of fun. Thanks for asking,

Larry

Yes, their drawing software and sizing leaves alot to be desired. Hadn't seen plasmaspider, thanks for the tip.

 

[jimgerken]

Larry, your clevis is on there sideways. The pin or bolt holding the clevis to the square tube should go thru the tube side to side. that way the clevis can pivot on the bolt as the load is raised. The bolt is then being used in double shear, instead of cantilevered out the front. As built, the bolt will bend first. Otherwise its real pretty.

 

[GuglioLS]

Dur - your right! That makes perfect sense - why didn't I think of that . Oh swell now I've got to take it off, haul it down the basement to my drill press and drill a 1" hole to mount it correctly And I thought it was done, Thanks allot Jim, (for real)

Larry

 

[J_J]

Larry,

Thanks my friend for posting that plasma web site." Plasmaspider" a plasma cutting forum .
I am sure I will learn something from them. Are you using Auto Cad, or Corel Draw, or both?

 

[GuglioLS]

Larry,

Thanks my friend for posting that plasma web site." Plasmaspider" a plasma cutting forum .
I am sure I will learn something from them. Are you using Auto Cad, or Corel Draw, or both?

Your very welcome comrade J.J.
I always find it amazing what you can pick up on some seemingly little remark like that off these forums. Point being I guess it pays to pay attention and "read between the lines". For the most part I use the plasmacam software for basic parts. When it comes to complicated (compound) curves or needing specific angles or length without all the reference points to work from I use Auto Cad (I don't have Corel Draw). Plasma Cam uses an X-Y coordinate system to draw lines which is very cumbersome as opposed to absolute length, starting point and angle which is easily executed in Auto Cad.

The next beef I have with plasma cam is text There are no good fonts for burning out letters for signs. Aa, Bb, Pp, R, Oo, e, Qq and so on. Nor can you easily curve letters around the edge of a round sign. Very tedious and lots of patients required. End of rant...

I've kind of been absent for a while, Did you get a place to set up your table? I bet your chomping at the bit to get it going, all groaning aside, those things are truly amazing. What version of Plasma Cam software do you have? The version is 3.02 on the one I get to use.

Larry

 

[J_J]

Larry,

The software that came with my setup is called ShopData. That program is at least 3 years old. I have tons of images. I wished there was a class at say a junior college around here. I may have to get a tutor in graphics design.

When I logged in to the site, they are offering a new font download, that is supposed to be easy.

 

[mjncad]

Larry,

Thanks my friend for posting that plasma web site." Plasmaspider" a plasma cutting forum .
I am sure I will learn something from them. Are you using Auto Cad, or Corel Draw, or both?

J.J.

If you plan on doing serious parts for equipment, I suggest you use AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT as CorelDraw is an illustration tool meant for the graphic arts industry. If you are planning on doing artistic iron work, then CorelDraw will suffice; but you can do the same kind of stuff in AutoCAD.

Granted, CorelDraw is significantly cheaper than AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT (LighT); but ACAD is far more accurate.

From what it sounds like, the PlasmaCam software is essentially a print driver with a user interface glommed onto it.

I'm basing my comments on 30-years of CADD use with the first 24-years being heavy day-in, day-out key slapping.

 

[tommu56]

Nor can you easily curve letters around the edge of a round sign. Very tedious and lots of patients required.

Larry

Larry in my wife's embroidery software arching the lettering is called bridging
Maybe it is just a "name of the function" that is unuaual.
I would hope it is in software.

tom

 

[GuglioLS]

Larry in my wife's embroidery software arching the lettering is called bridging
Maybe it is just a "name of the function" that is unuaual.
I would hope it is in software.

tom

Hi Tom,
Sounds like your wife's embroidery S/W is one up on the plasmacam S/W for sure. The PC S/W is rudimentary. However those functions and features (those that are present) do work quite well for basic design work. Bending or curving objects around or in an arc especially text is the real issue for me. Perhaps I should pick up embroidery instead? Or convert my wife's embroiderer machine to a plasma cutter, yea that's it, I'm sure that would go over like a lead balloon.

Larry