Making pallet forks

Big Barn · Nov 14, 2019

fatjay said:
That's what I figured. I"m estimating 3/4", i haven't picked up the forks yet. When I pick them up I'll measure and get proper sized round steel.

Aha.

sodamo · Nov 15, 2019

aamyotte said:
I made mine adjustable for the reasons noted above. I made myself a wood box out of a skid with plywood side and castors on the bottom. The box is 32" wide to fit through the door of the shop where I keep the fire wood. I needed the forks to be narrow for that use.

One thing I did was to make the forks removable by sliding off the frame and installing upside down. The forks in this setup are 16" off the ground when the loader is lowered. This allows me a higher reach (16" higher) to store winter tires on a high shelf in the garage, I have 9' ceilings.

I use mine a lot upside down. And adjustable either direction.

mikester · Nov 15, 2019

Im not sure what kind of fork mounts you have but you can get used fork racks from forklift dealers pretty cheap. That will give you the ability to slide and lock the forks with existing hardware. The only thing you have to fabricate is the loader attachment or SSQA.

fatjay · Nov 15, 2019

Making my own fork mounts. I have a blank plate for my bobcat, I'll make some mounts for the forks and weld them on. I'll take some pictures as I do it.

fatjay · Nov 15, 2019

Finally got started on it. Made good progress tonight, should be finished tomorrow, paint on sunday. $80 for the plate, $50 for the fork, $90 for angle iron, flat iron, and 1ｼ" steel bar.

Big Barn · Nov 15, 2019

Looking pretty freakin’ awesome.

. Nice work.

Planning on adding a backrest?

fatjay · Nov 16, 2019

Seat's off at the moment, melted the battery terminal. Battery is in a real annoying place, and the seat isn't hinged, it's bolted on. So i have the negative terminal held on with a pair of vice grips at the moment.

Drilling through those 3 pieces of 3/8" steel was a real pain. 1.25" hole, only thing i could find was a metal hole saw, my biggest bit was 1-1/8". My drill press kept getting bound up. I used my harbor freight double gear reduction drill and was kneeling on it and it was still slow going.

https://i.imgur.com/pQRDLoy.mp4