My Home built Loader

[zimcocomp]

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.

 

[rhamer]

Ok I matched the bucket up against the lift arms today to see how it all looks.

Some more photos with the top attachment points tacked in place.

Cheers

Rohan

 

[irvingj]

rhamer-- what are those "extra" pistons on the bucket for? Some sort of grasping mechanism? Really nice work!

 

[MJPetersen]

rhamer-- what are those "extra" pistons on the bucket for? Some sort of grasping mechanism? Really nice work!

Those are the cylinders that actuate the 4-in1 bucket. The bucket looks like a dozer blade with a swinging bottom and sides added. Look at this picture and this one, which he posted earlier and maybe it will explain things well. It really is quite a project and is being well executed.

Yes the 4-in-1 can be used to "grasp" things, like small stumps, rocks, brush, logs, etc.

Mike

 

[JoelD]

Really nice project, thanks for taking the time to post along the way.

As I compare your welds to mine, I can see that you are clearly doing something wrong as your welds do not exhibit the spatter, globs and burn throughs that mine do.

With time, I'm sure you'll figure out how to get it right.



Thanks again for posting.

Joel

 

[rhamer]

Thanks again for the encouragement chaps.

JoelD, most of this is still just tacked together, so the long booring welding is still to come

It is actually reasonably easy to weld this sort of stuff, because the metal is thick. You would have to work pretty hard to blow a hole through it.

I knocked it all down into it's individual parts last night, so I can start welding it up properly, now that I know how all the major bits fit together.

Cheers

Rohan

 

[2manyrocks]

Too bad you don't have a web cam in your shop so we could all watch in real time. Looks like a great project.

 

[rhamer]

Too bad you don't have a web cam in your shop so we could all watch in real time. Looks like a great project.

I could take the one out of the bedroom and............. oops, too much information

With the help of my dad today, we laid the 2 lift arms out and tacked them to a temporary frame to square them up in relation to each other. I also then tacked in the torque bar accross the front.

Unfortunately my holidays are over today, so it will be back to weekends only for a while

Anyway I have slogged away this far, so I'm keen to get it finished and actually use it.

Cheers

Rohan

 

[trrjohn]

Rohan,
Could you take a couple more pictrues of your bucket quick hitch? Looks like a great method.
Thanks,
John

 

[sandman2234]

Don't you just hate it when a project gets well under way, and the guy has to go back to work!!! Maybe we need to start a collection so he can stay home and finish the loader???
Looking GREAT!!!
David from jax