Boxing In The FEL Bucket

[MikePA]

Since my dealer had to come out for other work (replacing the mmm support rods under warrenty), I asked him to do some more welding. He had welded 3 hooks on the upper lip of the FEL, but there was no support underneath the lip. I asked him to do this and boy did he do it (see attached). I thought he would weld support just underneath where the hooks are. Not only did he box in the lip and thereby probably making it stronger than the HD bucket, he painted the whole thing. /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif Now, if he had only fixed the flashers, I would have been happier. /w3tcompact/icons/sad.gif He placed one of the lights that got ripped of by a tree limb, but the flashers still don't work, guess I will have to trouble shoot that myself.

 

[Thomas]

Yikes..now thats beefing it up for some heavy duty work. /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

It looks like he did a really nice job for you. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[MikePA]

Yes, he did. I think he did more welding than was originally on the entire bucket from the factory! /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif I was expecting bracing under each hook, not a plate across the entire width of the bucket. I certainly was not expecting it to be painted.

 

[Rowski]

Mike

My lip is like yours. I did the samething, put a plate all the way accross. I only have one grab hook in the middle. The only problem... yours looks better than mine!

 

[BigDave]

Mike,

I got only two hooks on the edges of my bucket, since it didn't look like the center was a strong enough to support lifting heavy objects. Boy, I sure was wrong. A welder is a wonderful thing. /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif

 

[jhburke]

I welded a piece a channel iron across the top of my fel. I have a grab hook at each end and a slip hook in the middle. The channel iron really stiffen up my fel. I just moved a yard barn for a friend this morning. Couldn't even lift up a side of it with either the fel or 3 point. I turned it 90 degrees and moved it about 50 feet in 2 shots. I didn't even tear up the yards.

 

[2thdoc]

Here's my first welding project. I welded an inverted u-shaped piece of metal to the rounded edge of the bucket of my 33D. Welded 3/8" grab hooks onto that. Used a Hobart 135 welder and flux core wire.

 

[bobsedor]

How thick was the piece you welded on? The 130 welder worked fine for this?

 

[2thdoc]

It's somewhere in the neighborhood of 3/16 - 1/4" thick. I had the welder on the highest setting and the wire speed cranked up pretty high too. Didn't weld for too long at a time though. These little welders seem to weld pretty good, just got to go slow.