Built my boom pole today

[Short Game]

Maybe someone with some Mechanical engineering experience could comment on my idea of instead of the top chord and king post of welding a continuous say 1 inch x 3/16 stiffener bar vertically on top of the 2 x 2 main beam? I am guessing that the 2 x 2 stiffened in this manner would also outperform the actual lifting force of the machine and be easy to do. Any thoughts?

James K0UA

I once gave an 85 year old man a ride who had missed his dial-a-ride home from town. I noticed a big auger leaning against a shed. I asked if it was for sale and he let me have it for $20. It was made from a manufactured 13" auger bit he'd mail-ordered. But the rest of it, he'd built himself. The gear case was a '47 or older Ford truck third member. The arch was bent from a Model 'A' front axle, the original king pins were the three-point pins. The boom was built up from two Ford truck drive shafts. There was a good bit of rust on the boom and I was concerned it may have been weakened. I did what you suggested, only I used a piece of 1X1 'T' section.

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As far as overtaxing the lifting force with the bucket, that can be a lot to overcome. The more weight on the front drive, the less there is on the rear wheels. I learned what was too much when I exploded the front ring gear, pinion, two bevel gears, a sun gear, two bearings, and bent both axle shafts in such a situation. The sound of this was much like a gunshot.

It was after a flood and I was trying to lift a silted in log with a chain from the bucket (no boom involved) and back it out. There were unseen limbs under it that had it anchored. When the weight came off the rear, the front axle tried to do it all. (I straightened the shafts, but the twelve pounds of Mitsubishi parts = $2,000.) I hate to think what paying for the labor would have added.

 

[bullbreaker]

Here's pic's of mine.
I did not build it.Its suppose to be an old International(Ohio)-World Agritech.
Cat 1 or 2 square tubing.I have combo 1 or 2 pins with it(not pictured).
Originally came painted red.I painted it JD green.
Paid $170 for it.

Boone

BTWics taken w/Cannon powershot A-495.
I highly reccommend this digital camera for $120.

 

[JB4310]

Built it from schtuff I had laying around. Got to use it to move my front blade into the shop so I can modify it to be a rear pull, six way road grader.

Looks great, I wish I got all this attention when I built mine.

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/...t-buddy-instead-weld-hooks-2.html#post1220377

But I should of started a separate thread.

Anyway, I braced mine a little differently, after reading all the science here, I'm sure it is not going to pass the test, but has worked just fine for my needs.

I ran a pc of T shaped stock up the length of the boom, I could of done the strut if I knew it would of been all that much stronger. I figured that T would stiffen it up enough???

Any thoughts on this design are welcome

I think some bracing at the bottom angle iron to the upright support would eliminate any fear of lateral movement??

It does come in very handy for moving/ loading implements.

JB

 

[Short Game]

I ran a pc of T shaped stock up the length of the boom, I could of done the strut if I knew it would of been all that much stronger. I figured that T would stiffen it up enough???

Any thoughts on this design are welcome

I think some bracing at the bottom angle iron to the upright support would eliminate any fear of lateral movement??

It does come in very handy for moving/ loading implements.

JB

When I added the 'T' section to the driveline auger boom I described above, I welded it on in the upright 'T' position because the top of the 'T' is the area in tension. That put the meat where the work is being done. That tubing in your pictures looks like 3/16" so I'm thinking that beefing it up was the right thing to do.

As far as the bracing of the support, it's an especially good idea if you are going to operate on other than level ground. Building for vertical force only applies if the force stays vertical. Getting away from a vertical lift brings a whole set of dangers. Leverage: it's either fur us, or aginst us.

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My five feet of 2X2X1/4, pinned in a 2 1/2" welded on socket, has served me well for any lift I've done. Even though I have a bigger tractor now (from Cub Cadet 7274 to an LS R4010), I don't see myself exceeding the 300# maximum I picked with the boom on the Cub. Heavier stuff, I'll put in the bucket. The boom lets me pluck stuff from tight spots, and that's a great option to have.

 

[JB4310]

When I added the 'T' section to the driveline auger boom I described above, I welded it on in the upright 'T' position because the top of the 'T' is the area in tension. That put the meat where the work is being done. That tubing in your pictures looks like 3/16" so I'm thinking that beefing it up was the right thing to do.

Thank's, I would of never thought of putting the T on the way you described.

At first look I would think it's odd, but it makes perfect sense that it would offer more support that way, be more difficult to get that 2x2 to fail.

I'm not sure what my loaders capacity would be 5 feet out front like that.
It's 1500# at the mid bucket I believe. So I'm not sure I could make the boom fail due to to the limited capacity of the loader?

If someone knows the formula to figure it out I would welcome it.

Yes it sure is handy to get at trapped items, the plow in my pic had to be recovered from behind other stored items, no problem.

JB.

 

[Short Game]

...I would of never thought of putting the T on the way you described.

You could still stick a flat bar on top with enough welds just to hold it there and then you'd have an 'I' beam (better yet).

Funny thing is, I just bought the piece of 2 1/2" square tube for the receiver socket on my new machine on my last biweekly town run. I don't want to be without that option for long. I like thinking about how much easier it will be to do this time with my fancy/shmancy removable bucket. It was sure nice to drop the bucket loose on a dolly to weld on my chain hooks.

The way I do it, the boom lines up in the plane with the upper back of the bucket and gives an adequate range of movement. It's unbraced, but I'm not out to move the world.

 

[Shield Arc]

I didn't read every post in this thread, but I can tell some of you guys are better at engineering than I. Here is a boom I built out of some scrap metal I had, the boom is made out of 2-inch sch 40 pipe, 7-feet long. How is my engineering?

 

[Short Game]

Can I have your shop?

Over-kill is better than under-kill. Just mind your front axle gears when you're carrying Abrams Tanks around on that boom.

 

[RonMar]

Nice fab work Shield Arc!. That there is a tractor killer I am fairly certain something on the tractor will fail before that structure buckles.... Top member in tension, bottom members in compression, and 2 of them to share the load with triangle struts to help them maintain their column integrity...

My best guess is your first sign of stress would probably be at the top rear crossbar box tube where the top member is attached in the middle. It will get forward pulling stress from the top member when it is in tension supporting a load... But it is so well built, the ammount of force required to make that crossbarr bend will probably be more than enough to pull the tractor over on it's nose

Watch the side loads, at that long of a moment arm, it won't take much side force to pull a tractor over sideways. Seen it done, and nearly have done it myself pulling logs out with the bucket(not the best idea)

 

[JB4310]

I didn't read every post in this thread, but I can tell some of you guys are better at engineering than I. Here is a boom I built out of some scrap metal I had, the boom is made out of 2-inch sch 40 pipe, 7-feet long. How is my engineering?

It's fine I doubt like RonMar said you could make it fail.
At 7 ft I would like to know what that tractor could lift? 400-500# ???

If it was subjected to destructive testing I would guess that it would fail at the the connection of the top pipe to the square tube.
Not doubting your welding but it looks like the weak link, or the point of most stress.

JB