Building an FEL quick attach for an L3400 Kubota

[Chilly807]

Another morning of iron work

I finished welding one set of rear side plates, there is some distortion, but so far it's manageable with a bit of pipe wrench and vise correction.. keeping all 4 plates tacked together seems to help quite a bit

The front set of plates is going together now, I have one set almost finished, another hour or so of on-again off-again welding should see that done. Once I have the sides attached, I think I'll tack the whole thing together except for the cross-bar before I start welding in stiffening pieces. The cross bar will be the last piece.

I have an expansion reamer on hand for the final fitting, anything that's too tight will either get reamed or filed out as the case may be.

Sean

 

[Midniteoyl]

Looking good!

looks like you have the same workshop as I do.. The Driveway . Except mines all sand... beach type sand. Drop a screw and its gone forever

 

[LD1]

Drop a screw and its gone forever

I am sure those screws you drop are very easy to find. All you need to do is run a tire over the area and you'll find it for sure. :laughing:

Subscribed as well.

Looking good.

 

[Chilly807]

It's starting to take shape now, I got the front half of the right side welded together with minimal distortion. Well, it still fits anyway.. actually the pins slip in with very little effort, so I must have got something right.

I found a mistake, but I think I can work around it. The front half extends back alongside the loader arms at the very bottom with the cylinders fully retracted, and there isn't room for it on each side of the loader arm. So, I think I have enough material to cut the bottom of the adapter plates away in the interference area without weakening the structure at all. I'll know more tomorrow if I get a chance to work on it. If I can make it fit I'll show the modified pieces.

Building this thing has really driven home to me how weak the loader assembly is if you submit it to any side loading. It's meant to accept forward digging pressure and lifting load, nothing from the sides. I occasionally used the edge of the bucket and steering to shove a log or a rock into place. Not a good idea. I've been looking at ways to make this adapter as strong as possible to resist side loads, but it's really not a good idea to introduce them at all.

I also noticed I need to relieve the upper back edge of the front plates slightly where the cylinder rod end touches them when it's fully curled.

Sean

 

[Steve in MT]

Sean, Looking pretty good so far and I like the design of the upper ears. I also had interference problems at the bottom of the adaptor, but mine was when the cylinder was fully extended. You are going to love having the reamer for final fitting. I bought one off of ebay and it was well worth the $30.00 that i paid for it. This one is fixed at .004" over one inch (1.004) and was very happy how it worked. Keep us posted on how yours works, if needed anyways.
Steve

 

[Chilly807]

It's so stinking hot here today it's not fit to do much work at all. We've gone from cold and wet to hot and dry over night it seems. The weatherman is calling for rain later this week and more moderate temperatures for June. Getting under a welding helmet with a jacket on to protect my arms is not my definition of fun in 30+ C temperatures.

I did weld a bit this morning, and made some relief cuts in the front half of the adapter to accommodate the tips of the loader arms. I'll tack it all together loosely and do a dry run with no bucket to see if I have clearance where I need it or if more trimming is needed. I will need a thin spacer plate on each side to give enough clearance for everything to move freely, I'm thinking 1/16 should do it. I thought about using washers, but I'm afraid of it sucking in and warping in the space between them.

Steve mentioned the upper ears of the adapter.. I allowed an extra half inch or so of vertical run above the center line of the pins before it tapers forward on to the "loading ramp", and I plan to weld a small piece of plate in that area for a flat bearing surface, same thing on the back side. The ears are a bit too long in the front I think.. I'm going to try it before I shorten them, but I think they might tend to bind against the back of the bucket channels if I have too much dump angle when loading the bucket in place.

The tractor got pressed into service today to plow our vegetable garden, and tomorrow is a fence repair day. I'm hoping to get back at it in the evenings if the weather holds.

Sean

 

[600rider]

Great looking QA Chilly, I see you referenced my QA build and one thing I fight with on mine is the lynch pin holes. I didn't do such a good job lining them up and would recommend that you make the slide in pins longer than the bushings and not have to put the lynch pin through both the bushing and pin. If I wasn't so cheap I would go to TSC and buy longer pins and not have the hassle!! I used mine for tornado clean up last week and switched from the bucket to the forks a bunch of times and am so glad I made my QA!! Don't know what I would have done with out it!

 

[Chilly807]

I have longer pins, they will extend all the way through so it shouldn't be a problem. I'm going to try to put grease fittings in the lower pins, the rear set will be the stock Kubota pins so it's no problem to grease them.

The material I used to make the pins seems to be pretty tough, it'll be a treat trying to drill them..

I found these collars today at Princess Auto, 1" ID and fairly thick wall, they're meant to be used as a retaining collar on shafting. I think they'd work just fine as the short bushings for the QA. The price is right too, I thing if I'd found them first I would have used them for the 8 small bushings instead of parting and reaming the DOM tubing.

Sean

 

[Scooby074]

Sean, are those bushings 1" exactly or are they clearance (ie:1.005"). Im thinking about making a bucket and those bushings could save me a bit of work (and money at the machine shop) if they are clearanced for a 1" pin.

 

[600rider]

Another thing I did after the fact was to make 2 "L" brackets to hold the pins while switching implements. I drilled and tapped the end of the top pins for a 5/16 24 bolt and a hole in the leg of the bracket the size of your pin, when you remove the pin put it in the bracket so you don't have to carry it and run the curl with your hands full.