360 rotation on mini excavators

gmwest80 · Dec 14, 2017

CincyFlyer said:
It would be safe to say that if the unit had true continuous rotation. I saw a tiny fabricated unit that could only do about 300ｰ, and it just had a little extra hose to allow that. If push came to shove, and you have a lathe, you could make a four-port rotary union, but I'd look for something like this first, if it wasn't too pricy: Vektek: Products: Hydraulic: Rotating Unions.

I really appreciate everyone who replied so for, nice to have a place to discuss ideas, I actually just source a dual port rotary today for about $500 buck, so I do believe I am getting there, baby steps and all.

4570Man · Dec 14, 2017

Have you priced the other parts? I had all the hydraulics from a scrapped skid steer when I was playing with the idea. Otherwise building one is an unattractive option.

kthompson · Dec 14, 2017

I worked for a company who made mobile hyd cranes and it may be the same by another name but we used "hydraulic swivel" is what we called them. Allowed continuous rotation. Many gallons of high pressure oil through them.

gmwest80 · Dec 15, 2017

4570Man said:
Have you priced the other parts? I had all the hydraulics from a scrapped skid steer when I was playing with the idea. Otherwise building one is an unattractive option.

so for I have priced the rotary unions in to $500 to $1000 range, and the swing motors are about the same range, joy sticks, around a grand also, seems like every component is around a grand:/ So it is pretty safe to say you will have 3 to 5 grand in the hydraulics alone, its a toss up, you might could shop around for something used, but I may have something to prove to myself that I can do it. Just not sure, it will of course most likely come back to money, that makes my decision, always does

Thanks for replying sir