Tough little dirtbucket with teeth!

[jimgerken]

Width? Yea, sorry, guess I should've mentioned that "detail". 48.5" overall width. Planning 6 teeth, spaced across cutting edge, one right tight into each corner, which makes the spacing to about 9 inches on center.
And, Thanks for the kind words!
Here's another pic, bucket upside down, showing the wear strips and cutting edge. Cutting edge is 3/4" x 4" material. Wear strips are 3/8" x 2, and are bent and curled right around trailing edge.

 

[Tig]

Nice job!

 

[BobG_in_VA]

I'm impressed! Nice piece of work. BobG in VA

 

[wushaw]

Very nice indeed

 

[Havoctec]

Very nice indeed!!
How did you come up with the 9" spacing on the teeth? Just curious because it seems that 6 teeth is not enough. I am not basing that on anything, but since it seems like to few to me I thought I would give you my thoughts before you weld them on.
However, the more I think about it, the teeth on my grapple are about 10" apart and it seems fine. So maybe six teeth is enough. Oh well, I still may have given you something to think about.

 

[jimgerken]

Tooth spacing is a good question, I am still contemplating. I was able to buy four of them last week, but that's all they had, so I am going back for a couple more. They stick out in front of the cutting edge by 5.5 inches. So, here's my best guess: If they are 5.5 inches "long" in front of the cutter, and they are 9.2 inches on center, there is only 7.7 inches inside between teeth (the teeth are 1.5 inches wide each). So I imagine that the teeth are pushed into the soil until the cutter bar hits, just that far. Now, to pull out the pyramid shape sections of soil that fill the spaces between teeth, the angles on the side of the dirt pyramids would be about 35 degrees. So, depending on soil moisture, you can relate the 35 degrees to what I think they call "angle of repose" , the angle materials lie if given a chance to flow due to gravity. So, that is as far as I have taken it. I hate to put on too many, I want to have enough force to actually push it in the ground, and more teeth makes that tougher. Staggering longer and shorter teeth has occurred to me too. I see commercial tooth bar sets have more teeth (six inch spacing?). Maybe someone who has used one can speak up and say why that makes more sense. I am open to suggestions for about one more day. Thanks for the feedback guys.

 

[schmism]

all i can speak to is what ive seeen on standard 60" bucket.

most stock bolt on tooth bars seem to have only 6 teeth (5 spaces 12" OC) usually holding in the outter teeth by 3" or so (so the first space is slightly smaller if you maintain the 12" OC)

i think this is 2 wide (and they do it to save ~$20 on material costs), and went with 7 weld on teeth (6 spaces 10" OC) I like this spaceing although i could see going even tighter on the small teeth i have. I like my weld on kind as the bottom of the tooth sits flush with the bottom of the bucket. Meaning backdraging can still be a relitivly flat procedure depending on how much you (do/dont) tilt the bucket

oh btw mmmmmmmmmm TIG!

1) how much does it weigh?
2) whats your material costs?

 

[jimgerken]

"mmmmmmmmmm TIG" That's funny, I like it.
You have me thinking about the flat bottom back-dragging capability.
Maybe I should cut the bottom half of the weld-on tooth off there (before welding it on), to make for a flat bottom bucket. That makes some sense I think. Thanks for the idea, and the spacing input. So far, my initial 9 inch on center guess is holding its ground.

Bucket itself cost about $125 in materials. Teeth adds $125. I spent a half day on the road getting everything and taking the sheet for bending. Two partial days' fabrication time for assembly and welding. (Could build another one faster 'cause now I have the gussets' and the sideplates' patterns in the computer for plasma cutting, so that's easily a half-day of design and programming time which could be saved). Misc bits and pcs of steel I am not counting, maybe another $20 worth at drop prices (15-20 cents a pound for small drop sheets and odd lengths at the local steel retailer). I don't know the total weight yet, but I can still stand it on end by lifting with my legs, to weld on the end. The teeth are going to add enough weight to probably make that tough. I used the same 10 gauge for the bottom and back, but then made sidewalls heavier at 3/16, compared to stock bucket. I think without teeth it weighs about what the 62 inch stocker weighs. I know it is tougher, since it has two torsional elements instead of one, and the sidewalls being thicker, and since it is narrower. I am pretty sure it will not get bent.

 

[schmism]

hear is the shank i used.

used the same tooth

you can see how it has a diffrent shape. even if you cut the bottom of yours off it still puts the centerline of the tooth below the bottom edge of the bucket.

I picked these up at my local bobcat dealer. ~$14 a piece

they just happen to fit my bucket. i just had to take about a 1/4 in out of the notch to make them fit perfectly.

my craptastic weld with a buddies 110v welder.

(no thats not the final weld, they are getting a second pass with a MM250)

 

[WayneB]

Really nice job............let us know how much you have it in once it is completed