zimcocomp
Member
- Joined
- Dec 31, 2008
- Messages
- 41
- Location
- West Newfield, Southern Maine
- Tractor
- Kubota L2550 4wd, & Bolens QT 16, w/ Diy FEL
A few people here have been very helpful with answering various questions about my FEL project, so I thought I would post a few pictures of the work so far.
Normally I like to complete the project, then show it to the world, that way if it is a complete disaster, I can toss it in the corner with all the other disasters and know one has to know
However I thought I would be a bit different this time and post as I go. Of course it could still be a disaster, but I hope not.
When deciding to build my own loader, the main reason was because I wanted to. I also thought it would be cheaper, but that is yet to be proven.
I built the loader arms out of 75mm x 125mm x 6mm tube. I cut a wedge out of each side and welded them back up to taper them (because all the pro built ones have tapered arms so I'd better do it also). They are currently still in 4 pieces, as I needed to build the bucket to work out the spacing and angles and so fourth.
The bucket is primarily made out of 6mm plate, but will be appropriately reinforced as needed. It has been quite a challenge to work out the geometry of the 4 in 1 as I've only got pictures from the internet of various other buckets to get ideas from. At first I thought they would all be much the same, but every manufacturer does it differently. So I just made it up. It looks so far like it will work ok, but time will tell. I had previously built a 900mm wide bucket and a quick hitch for my backhoe, which was a walk in the park compared to this one, even though it was curved.
Anyway, here are some pictures of the work so far.... Be gentle, it's my first time
Cheers
Rohan
I admire your project. It appears to be going well.
I thought I would share my experience with a similar project. More than 20 years ago I built my front end loader and installed it on a Bolens garden tractor. I needed a pooper - scooper badly. It worked so well I began to use for more than I originally intended. The one problem was going back and forth piling material. It was a big stress on the gear box, thus I blew the ring gear twice before I gave up on that model Bolens. I found a good deal on a newer Bolens with hydrostatic transmission and adapted the loader to it. This combination has worked very well for so many years that I had to restore the entire piece of equipment this year.
There were some questions about alignment. My solution, to be sure of proper alignment was to leave this step almost last and I welded pipe for bushings while a shaft was installed. This kept everything in perfect alignment.
I will try to attach a photo of it after restoration.