Ditching Bucket

[jwentz]

Very nice! I'm just curious to know the cost of the materials involved. Here in Florida, I could purchase a good used 24" bucket for US$200 (no teeth) to $400 (welded teeth).
Of course, the satisfaction of building it is priceless...

 

[downsizingnow48]

Nice piece of work!

 

[Renze]

I made one of these small buckets few days ago. It's for a JCB mini excavator. Width is 22 cm and they will use it for trenching. I was worried that the wet clay could stick inside so I added a chain ejector, but it doesn't, it could work without it.

Because i now have a ditching bucket, which will be used for scooping loose dirt, i cut the sides out of my standard bucket to make a so-called banana bucket, its the standard trenching bucket in Holland. When the dirt is pulled out of a trench and the bucket is enclosed in the sides of the trench, you can scoop just as much on it as if it still had sides, but it empties a lot easier. (only when digging a big hole, the dirt boils around the bucket, but thats where the wide ditching bucket comes in) It also makes it easier to wedge it under tree stumps or concrete slabs, so you can use it as a prybar.
I brought back some meat by welding a strip of 40x5mm over the edge of the bucket. Still have to bevel it with the angle grinder to make it cut roots better, but i dont have any stump digging to do yet

 

[Agent Blue]

I bought a 24" bucket. So new the shipping tag was still present with replaceable teeth. The only draw back is the attachment is too narrow for my Bradco. A little cutting and welding will solve this mystery. I was going to build one from scratch but this was only $150 dropped five miles from my door. I believe it is 3/16 shell with 3/8 plated sides. I know I will never wear it out.

 

[Gofast]

Made a quick attach for the backhoe bucket. It should be ready tomorrow once the paint is dried. Need to pick up a few extra 1" pins so I can leave them in the buckets.

How thick was the steel you used on the quick attach? I would like to make one of these.

 

[Sfrankland]

I used 1/2 plate for couplers and 1/4 plate to weld the couplers to. I went 1/2 to make the the couplers as strong as possible to ensure they didn稚 get beat up hitting off the bucket when trying to connect. Been using it for 6 years now and everything still works perfect. I have since bought an excavator so I don稚 use the backhoe nearly as much but it does see use.

 

[Gofast]

Thanks for answering an older post. I have a 10” bucket and I want to make a 16” bucket and maybe a ripper.
But I will have to make a quick attach like yours to make easy to change stuff out.
Yours turned out great.

 

[Renze]

But I will have to make a quick attach like yours to make easy to change stuff out.

For a small bucket thats lifted by one hand, quick attach is hardly worth the loss of breakout force and cost of converting all your buckets.

 

[Gofast]

For a small bucket thats lifted by one hand, quick attach is hardly worth the loss of breakout force and cost of converting all your buckets.

I already made one and I love it.
https://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/build-yourself/408685-i-started-my-backhoe-root-3.html
I can switch between my new root ripper and my bucket in less than one min.
Once you have a thumb it is a pain to switch buckets not anymore.