Backhoe update. I'm making progress (Video included)

[Speedfreak]

I just read through the whole thread for the first time. And I only have one suggestion. The welds won't hold with 1/8 inch steel. It'll just rip apart. Use some beefy stuff and keep going. You'll have it diging long before you get to $8000 or so for a mini excavator.

 

[NormL]

The welds won't hold with 1/8 inch steel. It'll just rip apart. Use some beefy stuff and keep going.

Good point, I will keep that in mind for my build.

 

[chad22]

I just read through the whole thread for the first time. And I only have one suggestion. The welds won't hold with 1/8 inch steel. It'll just rip apart. Use some beefy stuff and keep going. You'll have it diging long before you get to $8000 or so for a mini excavator.

I'm confused. Why won't welds hold with 1/8 inch steel? So far the welds I did yesterday with my new lincoln "well new to me. Found on craigslist" set at 115 amps have held on the 1/8 inch steel.

The reason my welds didn't hold, was because of my other welder was only putting out 50 amps when it was supposed to be putting out 70 amps.

Sometimes it was putting out the 70 amps and other times it wasn't. It fused the metal together in some parts but other parts it didn't.


Oh well, this lincoln welder does a lot better Job. It makes me look like a pro welder.

Easy to strike an arc and keep the arc going. On my other welder it would take me at least a minute to get the arc started.

Then after all that trouble getting the arc started. I couldn't keep the arc going.

On the lincoln, the arc starts on the first strike, and doesn't go out until I want it to. Hadn't had a stuck rod either.

Anyway. I'm gonna keep working on my backhoe and will hopefully by June post a video of it digging up the old water line.

I just hope the old galvanized pipe holds up until then. Last summer I had to cap off a piece of the broken water line with a water hose. So far it's holding.

Chad

 

[chad22]

I took some pics of my lincoln welder I got off a guy from craigslist for $100.00

I even attached a picture of a couple welds I did with it today.

I used 6013 rods at 115 amps.

And that's the helmet that he included with the welder.

What do ya think of the weld? You think it'll hold? :laughing:


Chad

 

[chad22]

Well I was driving to a spot with the backhoe to clean up some debris from the old house were tearing down. And was gonna video it in action. And what do ya know? All forward gears went out in the Trans axle.

I had a feeling it was gonna happen sometime in the future.

First I changed motors because the Twin Briggs was sucking gas. I mean it started going through 1 gallon in 4 minutes.

The other engine "single cylinder doesn't use as much gas.

After changing motors everything went well. Well that is until I lost the forward gears. The welds all held up and everything. I was able to use the boom and stick to crawl my way back to the house.

It was a bit slow and a challenge at first. But I manged.
I'm not even gonna hunt another trans axle down for it.

It's just not worth putting the money into the old mower.

I'm just gonna use my axle from my broken trailer and make a tow able backhoe. I'm not gonna make it drivable right now. I'll just use the boom and stick to move around for the time being. "Costs savings"

Heck I might just decide to leave it that way.

But don't worry. I'm not giving up.

Chad

 

[Iplayfarmer]

You now have a towable backhoe.

 

[chad22]

You now have a towable backhoe.

Yep. It's now a towable backhoe. Well almost. I transplanted the battery cables and solenoid to the towable backhoe. I took the engine mount off the old dixon ztr frame and welded it to the back of the towable unit. I then mounted the engine that I had put on the lawn tractor backhoe.

I got the pump mounted, and the hoses almost hooked up.

Bout all I will have to do to get her going is mount the gas tank, throttle cable, mount the boom get all those hoses hooked up and then weld some pipes for stabilizers.

I did almost all this work today. I started around 9:00 AM CT.

This does seem like it's gonna work a lot better. And another good thing, if I need to move it somewhere I won't have to put it on a trailer. I can just hitch up to the truck and go.

Oh and I also redid the pivot for the boom. I used some big pipe and another pipe inside of it. Looks like it's gonna be stronger.

Anyway if it's not raining tomorrow, I'm gonna try to get her done.

Then we can fire her up and go digging.

Chad

 

[evo803]

I like your towable design alot better ,with the addition of some hydraulic stabilizers you will have a nice solid base to work off.

One thing I noticed is the connection point of the boom pivot to the frame could use alot more reinforcement. That entire length of tube should be welded to the frame with gusset plates and the frame in that area should be built up as well. Keep up the good work and keep us posted.

 

[chad22]

I'm liking my new design already as well. I think it's gonna work out much better.


I was trying to mount the boom, and stick back on using the hydraulics and the hydraulic pump blew a seal at the bottom.

It was a used pump, and I only gave $25.00 for it with shipping on ebay. so I didn't expect it to last to long.

I'm gonna see if I can find a seal kit for it, but if not I'll just get a new pump.

Chad

 

[chad22]

Well it's been awhile since my last update. I ordered a new pump for it and got it back on. I got my stabilizers mounted but still need to do some bracing.

The other day when I tried moving it back towards the welder with the tow truck. "The belt that was powering the pump broke" I got the boom and stick in a bind and bent 2 cylinder mounts.

Both bottom ones. One for the stick and one for the boom. I had some other pieces of metal that were perfect replacements for the stick cylinder mount. That's those triangle like pieces in the video. I burned a hole in both of those and welded them up.

Those pieces were given to us in some junk metal.

Here's the video. I was only able to operate the stick at the moment until I fix boom cylinder mount.

YouTube - ‪My home made towable backhoe. With engine running and hydraulics moving.‬‏

Hopefully I can get a video of it digging soon. Should be picking up the bucket cylinder hoses by August.

I used an old chain sprocket from a Junk Bicycle for the ignition switch mount. I burned a hole through it with the welder.

Chad