I want a grapple, NOW

tatra805 · Feb 17, 2009

With the hydraulic remotes working i figured that a grapple was a must be. NOW.

So i quickly made up something that seems to work. Surely not the nicest or the best.

Not having plate material, nor the equipment to do something nice with it I went with my trusted 40x40x3 (mm that is) profiles and some tubing.

Cut some holes in the profile for the tube to fit and then welded the parts together.

The main bar is a 60x60x3 which will / can be used for other attachments and will be a permanent mount to the bucket.

Still need to fab some spikes as last parts of the teeth and weld on some grabbing teeth on the inner side of the arms.

Was loading manure yesterday using the manure forks and the grapple and it can now definitely bite more than i can swallow.
Great aid.

RedMahindra · Feb 17, 2009

Looks like a nice addition to the bucket! Good work!

john_bud · Feb 17, 2009

looks good. Not a heavy duty unit, so you may have to be careful. Have you thought about adding some pieces to the inside corners to beef it up? That wouldn't take long and will help make it last a long time.

jb

tatra805 · Feb 17, 2009

John Bud,

OH YES. I bent the middle tube yesterday so it now is nicely set to the max lenght of the cylinder

By doing that it also rotated the main beam which was supported by the vertical edge of the bucket. Just cut through the wall of the beam

Stay tuned as have to tame this beast.

I was in a hurry to make something to connect to the remotes...

and as usual ended up playing around with a semi finished part and destructively re-engineering it.

It was also a play with the hole saws i bought recently to get some nice radius connections in the square profile. Might play around with that a bit to make some reinforcement pieces.

jinman · Feb 17, 2009

Tatra, that's sure using your head for a quick job to build a very useful thumb. You don't normally need crushing pressure to stabilize brush or limbs in your bucket.

I was thinking the same as John Bud. Some triangular gussets welded in those corners would sure add strength and keep twisting stresses off your welds. I also think the crosspiece where the cylinder attaches would be better if it were square tubing instead of round. You could cut out a square hole in your attaching bracket to weld onto the square tubing. I believe that would make a stronger joint than welding to the round tubing. Even if the weld starts to fail, the square joint would be less likely to twist.

JohnDeere4300 · Feb 17, 2009

That is a good job.

Thanks for the pics.

john_bud · Feb 17, 2009

tatra805 said:
John Bud,

OH YES. I bent the middle tube yesterday so it now is nicely set to the max lenght of the cylinder

By doing that it also rotated the main beam which was supported by the vertical edge of the bucket. Just cut through the wall of the beam

Stay tuned as have to tame this beast.

I was in a hurry to make something to connect to the remotes... and as usual ended up playing around with a semi finished part and destructively re-engineering it.

It was also a play with the hole saws i bought recently to get some nice radius connections in the square profile. Might play around with that a bit to make some reinforcement pieces.

"destructively re-engineer" That's a good one and it so nicely explains my normal mode of operations!

As you may have guessed, the ones with quick reply's have had a long and storied past of "destructive re-engineering" !!

jb

pwh@sprynet.com · Feb 18, 2009

Might want to add gussets...........

tatra805 · Feb 18, 2009

Gussets hey, and gussets, and then some more... lets say, reinforce the inside corners etc

well ok, just give me a couple of days, say a week.

have some customer visits to do, we expect 1 foot of snow in the coming days, need to haul a load of hay before sunday and i have friends over for the weekend....

Get the picture? hands not following the mind at the moment....

But hey, after that.....

Gussets, reinforcements, round tubes and square profiles all you want .... and even more..

I promise!

jinman · Feb 19, 2009

tatra805 said:
Gussets hey, and gussets, and then some more... lets say, reinforce the inside corners etc

well ok, just give me a couple of days, say a week.

have some customer visits to do, we expect 1 foot of snow in the coming days, need to haul a load of hay before sunday and i have friends over for the weekend....

Get the picture? hands not following the mind at the moment....

But hey, after that.....

Gussets, reinforcements, round tubes and square profiles all you want .... and even more..

I promise!