FEL Grapple from Scratch W/ Lots-O-Pics

[MikesTractor]

I agree with tbluser, Harrygoodwrench, and kennyd. This is a great project. It is well documented, easy to follow, and very educational.....Its fun too.

When you put two people together with the knowledge and skills that these guys have, It has to be a first class build.

Great work guys, keep it up!

Mike

 

[GuglioLS]

After the jaws were complete, next was to clamp everything together. Pipe clamps were inserted through the 1-1/2" holes that Rob made me bore out for looks - they sure did come in real handy for clamping.



Another view:



It starting to take shape and it fits EXACTLY like Rob's plans
No really, that does not surprise me in the least. I have so much confidence in his design I just blindly put it together, all I had to do was to make sure and lay everything out according to the dimensions of his design. It went together like a kit.

Larry

 

[GuglioLS]

I agree with tbluser, Harrygoodwrench, and kennyd. This is a great project. It is well documented, easy to follow, and very educational.....Its fun too.

When you put two people together with the knowledge and skills that these guys have, It has to be a first class build.

Great work guys, keep it up!

Mike

Another satisfied customer, the list just keeps growing Thanks Mike,

OK here is what I did next:

I made sure there was no interference by manually moving the grapple jaws from open to closed. Also making sure the cylinder was making full travel completely open & hitting the stops at the pivot end of the jaws and completely closed where the jaw tips would contact the bucket lip. I kept making small adjustments until it all fit perfect, and the cylinder had full range of extend and retract.





Then I tack welded everything together.




Next is to connect the hydraulic lines to operate the jaws under their own power. That will be done to make sure it moves by itself and to verify all operates smoothly before welding complete beads all the way around.

I was messing around with house routing, hose length, fittings, brackets, and quick connects for quite a while. It took me a long time but I finally decided how all that was going to go together.

Larry

 

[GuglioLS]

After welding all the Jaw parts together I removed the Jaw assembly and primed it.

What a thing of beauty, Check it out -



Larry

 

[curly]

That's pretty harsh, especially considering that these guys are not getting claims to fame or fortune from their storyline. Who really gives a RA about the time frame? I truly appreciate all of the time and effort Rob and Larry spend creating these "way cool" projects and posting in great detail from inception to finalization.

Rob and Larry - These team projects of yours keep getting more refined. Your combined talents are indeed impressive! Instead of a book, how about a school for machining and tractor gadgets ??? Thanks for your efforts to share with us.

Amen to that

 

[GuglioLS]

While the paint was drying on the jaws, I finished welding on the bucket jaw brackets, cylinder brackets and reinforcement plates, after that cooled, it got primed & painted -




After the paint dried, the Jaw assembly was then mated & pinned to the bracket assembly. After all that welding, everything was still in alignment as the pins slid right in. Next was to install the cylinder and make sure it still has the proper travel, it does, so no adjustment was needed.




Side view -



I really wanted to test out those grease fittings I machined into the pins for the hydraulic cylinder clevis & the jaw pivots, so I did.

This is the Zerk on the jaw pivot.



This is the one I really wanted to test -




After greasing all the fittings and seeing it completely surrounding the pins & clevis, I was satisfied the machining in the pins was going to work as planned.

Larry

 

[VA Rebel]

Really cool project. Thats about 100 times better than the grapple Ive got in mind to weld up.

 

[GuglioLS]

So then it was on to hydraulic hose and fitting installation. I made up a couple brackets to mount the hose and fittings, one welded to the bucket the other to the FEL lift arm.




There are a couple of Live swivels in there to reduce hose flex & wear.



Thats it for right now - Many Thanks to all who gave me support and made positive comments, it is truly appreciated.

I await some constructive criticism, even though this is "finished" there is nothing that can't be removed and modified to improve it.
I have some video of it in operation and will post that a little later.

Chow for now,

Larry

 

[Willl]

So be it, I guess I'm wrong to feel this way. I'll be the 00.01%

But finding out it was a 'time frame' illusion did make me feel deceived.

I'll bow out.

 

[GuglioLS]

After purging out all the air from the lines & cylinder I got to exercise the jaws, checking out the range of motion from closed to full open, It moves smooth. Between my hand sketched bucket dimensions, Rob's CAD drawing, the plasma cutting, then putting it all together it fit's like a glove so I am super pleased it all came together like it did.

here are a couple of photos in various positions:




Larry