I have bend the h3ll out of my bucket with the style (the last one) shown in xfaxman's post. Also had the bottom pad snap off the screw-down on one fork. I had two large chain links welded onto the broken fork and just use them with a chain and a screw-type chain tightener.
The forks are the 3rd most used item I have (bucket, grapple, forks), but really need to bite the bullet and get a set of QA forks.