Backhoe Skeleton Bucket

[Sfrankland]

Since I live in an area that is mostly rock I wanted a way to remove the larger rock from the gravel. Started out with a bending jig clamped in the vise and 1/2" square stock and started bending.



Made two pieces out of each bar so I could have some leverage.



All cut to size. There are 13 in total.



All 13 tack welded to the front edge of the bucket.



1/8" Side plates added.



Front edge of the side plates is 1/4".



All tacked together and squared as best I could. The 1/2 square had some twists from being bent by hand.



Front view.

 

[Sfrankland]

Started cutting out the mounting points.




Cleaned up and test fitted.




Centred and tack welded together and then drilled two 7/8" holes for the pins.




Once the holes have been drilled I used the 7/8" drill bit to centre the flanges used to secure the pins.




Once welded solid I drilled them out to 1" so that I would have clean perfectly aligned holes.




One done one more to go.




Clean hole with no ridges from the flanges being welded on.




Centred the mounting points and tacked them in place.




Lots of tacks and constant checking to ensure they are square.




Welded solid.




The finished skeleton bucket. Just needs a coat of paint and she's ready to screen dirt.

 

[Sfrankland]

Coat of paint on it tonight and tomorrow I will add the teeth and try it out.

 

[PossumHound]

Looks good! And you got 'er done quick too. Can't wait to see how it works.

PH

 

[Midniteoyl]

Cool! Love homemade stuff

 

[BelarusBulldog]

Very nice job! :thumbsup: Question, what are you using to cut your plate? Looking foreward to hearing how it works for you. :cool2:

 

[Sfrankland]

Very nice job! :thumbsup: Question, what are you using to cut your plate? Looking foreward to hearing how it works for you. :cool2:

I am using a Hypertherm 45 plasma torch it has to be my favourite tool for cutting metal. Hopefully I will get the teeth on it and make a test video tomorrow.

 

[Sfrankland]

Looks good! And you got 'er done quick too. Can't wait to see how it works.

PH

Started this morning and was pretty much done by lunch time. It helps that I have the patterns saved from my ditching bucket. This bucket is the same size at 24".

 

[BelarusBulldog]

Are you using bolt or weld on teeth and where do you buy them?

 

[Sfrankland]

Are you using bolt or weld on teeth and where do you buy them?

Bolt on teeth. I get them at Del Equipment on Pearl Town Rd off Brookfield Rd. in Mount Pearl. They are also the Mahindra dealer great bunch to deal with.

 

[BelarusBulldog]

Bolt on teeth. I get them at Del Equipment on Pearl Town Rd off Brookfield Rd. in Mount Pearl. They are also the Mahindra dealer great bunch to deal with.

Thanks, I'll have to check them out. Again, nice work. :thumbsup:

 

[Sfrankland]

Teeth were added and I tried it out in some old sods that my neighbour had in his backyard. It works good but I think a bigger deeper bucket would work better

 

[Scooby074]

Looks good. Dont know how I missed this thread:thumbsup:

 

[two_bit_score]

Dayam, that's nice work!

 

[BelarusBulldog]

Teeth were added and I tried it out in some old sods that my neighbour had in his backyard. It works good but I think a bigger deeper bucket would work better

How much bigger would you say it should be? Any pictures or video of it working? By adding a quick attach did you lose any digging power with the backhoe? Nice bucket, you do good work. :thumbsup:

 

[Sfrankland]

How much bigger would you say it should be? Any pictures or video of it working? By adding a quick attach did you lose any digging power with the backhoe? Nice bucket, you do good work. :thumbsup:

I would make it deeper and a little higher so you could have some extra room to shake the material, the width is fine. The quick coupler works great and I have not noticed any lose in digging power. The coupler only adds a couple of inches of reach.

No video yet. I had kidney stones removed on Friday, Saturday I had things to do and today I was out in Harbour Grace for work. Hopefully this week I can make a video of it in action.

 

[BelarusBulldog]

Thanks, I'll be watching for the video.

 

[JohninCT]

That is a really nice bucket you have built there. I'm curious though about your intended use. Wouldn't a loader mounted rock bucket have been better since it would be bigger with higher load capacity thereby allowing you to pick up and sift more rocks in less time? Is there a specific reason you made it to work on the backhoe?

 

[Sfrankland]

That is a really nice bucket you have built there. I'm curious though about your intended use. Wouldn't a loader mounted rock bucket have been better since it would be bigger with higher load capacity thereby allowing you to pick up and sift more rocks in less time? Is there a specific reason you made it to work on the backhoe?

The area I am working in is best suited for a backhoe bucket. I do agree that the loader bucket would be better and faster and I will build one down the road. For right now though I will get some good use out of this bucket.

 

[BelarusBulldog]

Any video yet?