Started my welding class am looking for a project

[J_J]

Here is another little project. A dedicated grapple to replace the bucket on the mini-hoe. I have built this one, and it is an easy project

 

[Sedgewood]

<font color="red"> You may want to take a look at Sedgewood's which is somewhere in the archives. You may want to ping him, as well, to see if there is something that was in his design which broke his mini hoe boom. </font>

Here's a link to my "extreme minihoe" page. my design was fine - what broke the boom was Power - Trac's poor choice of 1/8 wall tubing for the boom combined with the far higher forces you can generate when latched firmly onto an immovable object and the "grab it and growl" attitude that brings out in me /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

I had a new, heavier tube welded in and so far haven't bent it again - now the weak point is the bucket which is developing rather a lopsided grin /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

Sedgewood

 

[MossRoad]

HEY!

Maybe you should trade mark or copy right

"grab it and growl"

and license it back to Power Trac. Sounds like a good slogan to me.

Power Trac... Grab it and Growl!

/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[pequeajim]

Thanks Sledge... That's what i was looking for. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Sedgewood]

<font color="green">Maybe you should trade mark or copy right

"grab it and growl"

and license it back to Power Trac. Sounds like a good slogan to me.

Power Trac... Grab it and Growl! </font>

Sounds good to me, and they are welcome to it but I can't take credit for it. One of my guys from years ago used to apply it to those tough situations you just had to bull your way through.

It stuck! /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

Sedgewood

 

[smartguyz]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Here is another little project. A dedicated grapple to replace the bucket on the mini-hoe. I have built this one, and it is an easy project )</font>

Wow, JJ!

That's really cool! Can you share any details on how you did this? You definitely piqued my interest saying it was 'easy'.

Sincerely,

Rob /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[J_J]

I have built several things from CDP backhoe. They are a Canadian firm that laser cut their kits for the small stuff, and you buy the large pieces locally to save on shipping. I have built the small backhoe, some extra buckets, and the grapple. The laser cut pieces fit together very well. All you have to do, is clamp the pieces together and weld. You could cut the pieces your self, if you are good with a plasma or gas cutting torch. You can buy the plans from them also.

cdp-backhoe.com

 

[J_J]

Here is another example.

 

[pequeajim]

After playing around with several practice welds, I wanted to see if I could make a PT mounting plate for a trailer hitch.

Here is what I came up with, worked out pretty good. It's made of 3/8" steel for the top, 3/8" for the slots and 1/4" for the bar around the top with a 1/2" rod.

It took me about 4 hours for the first one, but now that I have the template and somewhat know what I am doing, I think I could do it in about an hour and a half.

The pic shows the original PT plate on the right and my home made version on the left. I had no way of bending the bottom locking plate, so I welded it on.

 

[pequeajim]

Here's a closer view of the plate. It fits perfect.

I did a micro fillet weld between the 1/2" rod and the 1/4" top flat bar. Then I did another weld over top of that.

Excuse the sloppyness as I have only been to five welding classes.