Well, I'm finally at the at the end of the project. I started with old damaged 1963 Case 530CK and now have a nice useable piece of equipment! It took me about 3 years, but I figure an estimated, 3000 hrs. for me to restore it to this condition. Would I do it again if I knew what was in store and how worn out it was? NO WAY...... I really didn't know the degree of the wear and damage until I got so deep into the dismantling that it was either load it up and part it out or just repair and replace all of the components of this tractor. I must say though, I would never have learned as much as I did along the way (carbon steels, alloy steels, even welding techniques), and would never have acquired the machining skills that I have now! I had a mill and lathe way before I started this, but I had never done the complicated stuff that this project required. I sure have learned a lot and hope it has in some way helped some of you too.
OK, I've got most of the hoe parts back together, and if you'll note the two hoses attached to the boom and hooking to the dipper cylinder, that of course was the OEM configuration. But, when I fabricated the boom links that hold the boom in the stowed position, I found that I had not taken into consideration those hoses. As the arms swung down into position they hit both hoses. So I had to have the guys at Parker Hose bend me some rigid steel tube to the corrected dimension and change the angle 90 deg. and that fixed that.
If you look at the boom in the stowed position you can see the new hoses and the corrected piping. This was taken just before I mounted the wheels. I had painted the wheels, both front and rear 2 years prior. I had to clean up the shop before installing the wheels and I had crap all over the floor!
Took a picture from the rear with the stabilizers in the up position, it was so good to finally have it at this stage!!! If you look at the bucket you'll notice that their are wings welded on to make it 16 inches wide. Another interesting thing is in the stowed position I can drive out of the shop, the boom and dipper are just under 11' and that is the opening height of the shop door, it clears just fine.
Just about ready to start it and move it out of the shop.
First picture of the finished product. The rest are just different angles and different loader and hoe arrangements.
Hope you enjoyed!
