Grapple

[Dishpointer]

Man that's one good looking grapple. Good job.

 

[3RRL]

Excellent...great looking job. I like those pins too. What did you make the bushings out of? Was it pipe or something special?

 

[Moemoe]

I used 1 inch pipe as that was all I could come up with.

 

[dfkrug]

Ditto. Looks good!

I have a question re the fingers you had cut for you..... They
look like 1/2". Is that right? You said a friend cut them with
a plasma cutter. Was it a production under-water machine or?
Did you shop around for cutting services and get quotations?
I want to have 8 or 10 similar fingers cut and I am wondering
what the most economical way would be. I have a PC, but
cutting 1/2" is slow. There are lots of shops I could go to, but
I think it would only be economical if they have production
equipment (plasma, laser, water).

 

[Moemoe]

I didn't shop around for cutting cause my buddy offered to do it for nothing. As for plasma cutter I'd have to ask what kind it is, I do know it dosn't use water? The arms aren't 1/2, they are 3/8 as I was trying to keep weight down. The only things 1/2 are pin brackets and the 2 cross braces, everything else is 3/8. Like I said I have a tendency to overkill.

 

[RonMar]

Looks great. Gusseted like that you probably could have gotten away with 1/4" throughout. Look forward to seeing it installed with Hydraulics(I need to build one for my fork bucket

Dfkrug: As for cutting services, If you can find someplace that does water jet cutting you will probably be better off. In my experience, a large part of the cost is the setup time for a one-off job at a production shop. I have done a few projects that needed parts cut and if you can bring the cutter a .DXF file from a CAD program(another reason i started using CAD), you will be miles ahead on setup costs. Even better than that is a .DXF file with all the pieces already layed out on the smallest area. My setup times usually consisted of a few questions reguarding tollerances on the holes I specified on my parts. My .DXF file on a disk went into their computer for a a little automated conversion and they clamped the appropriate sized plate in the machine and pressed start. The last turbocharger manifold I built had a 1/2" plate flange where it bolted to the cylinder head and the waterjet process yielded a finished plate that needed no further work except to start welding on the rest of the structure parts(also water jet cut).

 

[KentT]

How did you bend the gussets? Or, do they only appear bent in the pics...

Great job!

 

[Moemoe]

I heated the gussets up with a torch and bent them in a vise

 

[New_Jersey01]

Wow great job. Did you finish this beast?

 

[New_Jersey01]

Wow great job. Did you finish this beast?