Excavator communications bucket build.

[Fixastuff]

In the process if making my 4th bucket for the excavator. This one is for digging narrow trenches and digging/cleaning under other utility lines. This is for places the ride on trencher can't go because if space or possibility if getting stuck. Also useful for cleaning out any trench cave ins.

9" at couple tapering to 3.25 at cutting edge. Also angled outwards to ease in material release. 38" from coupler to edge so I can leave the 12" wide thumb on and still dig to required depth.

The taper will help with collapsing trenches and will remove much less dirt that 12" bucket saving time and making backfilling faster.

 

[bmaverick]

IS this going to house ham radio gear and antennas? How are you going to transmit communications out of that bucket? Would the lift and elevation help with signal propagation too?

CQ CQ DE man in da bucket.

 

[Fixastuff]

IS this going to house ham radio gear and antennas? How are you going to transmit communications out of that bucket? Would the lift and elevation help with signal propagation too?

CQ CQ DE man in da bucket.

Lol. I guess I should have said this buckets main purpose in life will be to aid with installing communications lines in the ground.

 

[Fixastuff]

Just gotta trace, plasma cut then skin the back of the bucket up.

 

[IrishLoader]

Looks like it would make a good "stumper" too! Any plans on making a "thumb" extention?

 

[jonsstihl]

is there a good reason why the nose is so long. Around here we have so many rocks you would probably bend it the first time you stick it into the ground.

I guess you need it pretty long to reach under other utility lines. It is nice to see people not afraid to try and make custom tooling that fits their needs. What are you using to roll the skin of the bucket. I could use a good roller for various projects.

 

[Fixastuff]

Looks like it would make a good "stumper" too! Any plans on making a "thumb" extention?

I'll give it a try but I'm afraid the extra length will hurt the cylinder leverage too much. Don't plan to make thumb extensions for this crazy long bucket but the other buckets i made have longer "toes" than the factory tag buckets so I might make an extension that matches up with the other buckets.

is there a good reason why the nose is so long. Around here we have so many rocks you would probably bend it the first time you stick it into the ground.

I guess you need it pretty long to reach under other utility lines. It is nice to see people not afraid to try and make custom tooling that fits their needs. What are you using to roll the skin of the bucket. I could use a good roller for various projects.

The bucket is so long so I can dig narrow trenches and clean up cave ins like the one in this picture. The long toe will also make it easy to dig under the Verizon main line and drops I have to cross many times during this project.

I rigged up a system that feeds the conduit as I trench if I hadn't done that this cave in would have been a pain to fix. We don't have any natural rocks around here just soil, sand, clay and roots. I'm making the bucket plenty strong so I think my machine will run out of hydraulic power long before this bucket bends.

I didn't come up with the idea of a bucket like this but made my own for a few reasons. It will be exactly like I want, no one makes one for my machine with the tag quick coupler options, saving money and l like making stuff.

Some companies call this type if bucket a trenching fang, some a cable bucket some a deep dig trenching bucket. The point is to dig a deep narrow trench without have to dig wide for the coupler or thumb.

If you zoom in the first picture you can see the cave in. When you trench in at anView attachment 748371View attachment 748372View attachment 748373View attachment 748374 angle because of the ditch it undercuts and promotes this but you have to go where you have to go because of other utilities, culverts, etc. The second pictures shows my conduit feeder. Simple but effective. I just took the one picture of a cave in but it happened in about 8 spots along the 700ft section I did today. If I hadn't been feeding the conduit as I went I would still be out there trying to clean up those sections to the required depth.

 

[Fixastuff]

Not sure why pics didn't load in last post.
Cave in.

Feed shovel lol.

Backfilled and measuring with my co worker.

 

[IrishLoader]

I marked some time a little to the NW of your area and where I was at the soil looked like it would hardly support anything during a good blow. Daily trips would have me crossing the Appomattox/James and one of the things I always noted was the lack of scrabble/rock with any excavation. I couldn't imagine the nightmare a larger dig must be for foundation/sewer etc. Stay safe!

 

[Fixastuff]

It's ready to dig. I guess I'll paint it first.