Question about a grapple

[Junkman]

Guess that everyone now knows that my real name is Chesterfield Junkman...... as for the pivot mistake, someone forgot to take into consideration the elevation of the geometry, or as it is more commonly known... the angle of the dangle, is in direct proportion to the heat of the welder, and the beauty of the beast. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[ronjhall]

Mike
It looks like the interference is about center of cylinder. Trimming off enough to clear cylinder should not affect the strength of that arm. My grapple uses the same size cylinder. There will never be enough power to bend or break anything on your grapple.

 

[Deerlope]

PR, Your have done an excellent job on that project. It looks good and is well designed, one little error is nothing to be concerned about. Just a little more time in the barn and it will be as you want it.

 

[PineRidge]

Ron here is a close-up of the two places that the rear of the cylinder interferes. I ground all the material that I can give up and the problem is still there. I am thinking that if I cut the mount at the dotted line it would be very easy to add an extra 1-1/2 inches of stock to eliminate the problem altogether.

I'm going out this morning with a clear mind and see if I think offsetting the top might be to my advantage.

Any other thoughts here, guys?

This isn't a major problem, just a little speed bump in the middle of the road. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Junkman]

Possibly if you had used a <font color="blue">Blue</font> cylinder instead of a <font color="orange">Orange </font> cylinder, you wouldn't have this problem???? /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

 

[JASTN70D]

Rotate the bracket 180? I can't see the mount cut but just a thought.

 

[ronjhall]

Spread the cylinder mounting brackets farther apart. That should clear sides of cylinder. Will require longer pins and spacers to keep cylinder in center of brackets.

 

[rswyan]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Rotate the bracket 180? )</font>

This would result in decreased clearance between the top cylinder pin and the center grapple arm and might prevent the grapple from opening all the way or as far as it did with the bracket in it's original position.

 

[rswyan]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Spread the cylinder mounting brackets farther apart. That should clear sides of cylinder. Will require longer pins and spacers to keep cylinder in center of brackets. )</font>

There's still an unresolved problem of contact between the bottom of the cylinder and the top of the center grapple arm.

 

[rswyan]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Any other thoughts here, guys? )</font>

Cut it on the dotted line and add in the 1 1/2" of stock. If you are concerned about the welded joint holding up you could always 'fishplate' it will another piece of flat stock overlapping the two seams.

 

[dummy]

<font color="blue"> emergency purposes, (ordering pizza & beer)
</font> Man, I gotta move closer to civilization. Or get a better wife. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
BTW, the grapple looks fantastic.

 

[jmc]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Any other thoughts here, guys? )</font>

PineRidge,

Since you asked, you may have enough clearance if you turn the hydraulic cylinder end for end. You would lose a little force but it would also keep your precision shaft further from the fray.

Is that elbow in the hydraulic line shown in the closeup rated for several thousand PSI? (It looks like the garden variety cast elbows that often have porosity.)

Thanks for the great thread.

John

 

[PineRidge]

I think after looking at the cylinder mount from a new perspective that we are going to take the chop saw to it and do a slight modification. I'm headed over to Summit Equipment to pick up a couple of pieces of 3/8 inch stock.

Junk, Orange or blue once it's finished it's going to end up flat black anyway.

 

[PineRidge]

Top mounts after taking a sawzall to them.

 

[PineRidge]

John, TBN member (JASTN70D) dropped over this morning to give me a hand with the grapple project. He shot this picture of me with my face down in the puddle modifying the mounts. He swears that since I gave up smoking I must now get my fix inhaling the welding fumes instead of cigarette smoke. Maybe that's why I'm so fond of this old stick welder. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif


He promised me before he left that I would post the picture he shot at TBN. What John didn't know is that when he was grinding my welds I had a bit of fun with the camera also.

 

[PineRidge]

John doing his thing with the angle grinder.

I think he's also trying to test the flame resistance of the coveralls hanging on the wall. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[PineRidge]

This will give you an idea of what we are trying to accomplish with the modified brackets. John is using an angle grinder on the butt joints to cut a deep groove in the 3/8 inch steel prior to our weld.

 

[PineRidge]

You can see the added clearance that the modified supports provide on the backside of the cylinder.

 

[PineRidge]

Before we tack welded the front cylinder mounts we made minor adjustments so that we were satisfied with the grapple in the open position.

 

[ronjhall]

Now I remember why I made adjustable mounting blocks for my cylinder. I had to mill about 1/2 off bottom of the front block.
Should not be long before yours is being used. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif