Follow-up on Grapple

[Skeptic]

It has been a while since I posted about the grapple I am building.
I have been taking a welding class at the local technical college. At home I have a Millermatic 210.
Most of the structural welding was done in class with dual shield. I did the rest of the welding at home.
We got it plumbed for the tractor this last weekend, so I got to try it out today. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
The pieces for the grapple were plasma cut from T-1 plate. I had the hinge pieces cut at the same place.
I will be hardfacing the bottom of the grapple before I use it much.
So, here are a few pictures.
You will notice that it isn't painted. I just got the POR-15 paint yesterday, so it should be green next week.
Ask any questions, I will try to answer them as best I can.

 

[sassafraspete]

WOW.... I want one of those. Great job. I want to see more pictures. Going to print off pictures and put into my project dream folder. You can be proud of that.

sassafras

 

[Skeptic]

Next photo. Open - Tilted Flat.

 

[Skeptic]

Here is the grapple closing. (note, it isn't closed all the way)

 

[Skeptic]

Here is the grapple picking up an old rusty 55 gallon drum.

 

[Larry_Van_Horn]

Shari,
Real nice job, I have been wanting to do the same thing from the moment I got my tractor. How many hours do you figure it took you?
Larry

 

[Skeptic]

Here is it open and tilted.

The grapple is quick attach compatible. I did find a reason to buy a Harbor Freight mini lathe, I used that to make the "pins" that look like the one on my bucket. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif I then hardened them, so that I wouldn't ding them too much taking it on and off.

I have some pictures of different stages of constuction if anyone is interested.
I will come up a parts/price list shortly. If anyone wants the .dxf file that I used to have these cut, I can give that to people too.

 

[Skeptic]

Actual hours of setup and welding weren't that many, they were just stretched out over a few months and a couple of holidays. My guess is that this would have gone much faster had we worked on it in any season other than winter /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
It got worked on when I got time and when my dad was in town. The design is his.
Once the materials were available (cut and picked up), it took about 2 hours to jig and tack the top and bottom rakes together. I then took them to class and spent about 3 hours welding all the joints (actually more time was spent trying to get someone to help me lift them into position).
Jigging and welding the hinge pieces probably took 3-5 hours or so. Depends on if you count my trying to figure the best way to weld around a part of the hinge.
Making the quick attach hooks took a couple of hours (had to heat the metal and bend it in a jig I made).
Trueing everything up and then when we got into the putting the pieces together to make sure everything worked right took a few hours. Found that we needed to take a 1/2 inch off the side of the casing for the ram.
If you don't count the thinking time, I would guess it took maybe 15-20 hours.
Here is a picture of the hinge setup, next one will be how I welded it.

 

[Skeptic]

I wanted to get a nice bead around the round area of each hinge. So I tacked a rod onto the leftover plate and was able to spin the piece and keep the MIG gun in one place.

 

[beenthere]

The grapple looks great, real mean, and heavy. What does it weigh?

I am also curious (not being critical because I am impressed) why so many heavy grapple fingers? Seems two or three would be adequate to grip from above. Is it comparable in weight to the heavy duty bucket for the 430 FEL?

Looks like a fun project, and more fun to go out and tear things up.