Tractor backhoe - homemade

[BFreaky]

Could you imagine having to dig that with a shovel and bucket on a rope?

Glad it is working out for you. Do you get many jobs for money?

It would be great to dig this with shovel...but it would take a month or so .
For now I'm using it for my purposes and helping friends, later who knows...

 

[JKR]

I see you back hoe is working just fine. I still can't believe you made it. It looks and works more like you bought it and change the decals.
There are craftsman and there are craftsman but you are one **** of a craftsman for sure.

 

[rScotty]

Old gravel pit clean up. After that I'll fill it with good soil and plant something on the spot.
Digging depth about 15 ft

That's some good-looking gravel....wish we had a pit like that here. We do have a pit of mixed hard-washed sand & river rock.
rScotty

 

[scaredychicken]

I'm going to need to look for that brand name "Prototype" ???

great job BFreaky - I remember when this thread started.

ck

 

[BFreaky]

Thanks for the compliments. The gravel is top quality. We are standing on an ancient river bed so the soil levels are thin and after 0.5 meters starts the layer of gravel and goes to more than 50 meters deep. That's verified in the local gravel mine not far from here. The only little problem is the water which shows up at 5 meters, but they have floating excavators so they can do it.
Well maybe this name will be my brand name in the future...who knows

 

[rScotty]

Thanks, I did my best. Regarding the welding; it's all about steady movements. Most of welds were done in one single move, without stoping, thats why they look like this.

OK, but doing such long continuous welds in that kind of material it seems like weld distortion and warping would be a big hassle. I'm curious about your thoughts on how to deal with that warp and distortion. Also, a backhoe has a lot of large diameter pins with close-fitting hardened bushings that need to line up exactly. What's a good way to get them to line up? I tend to weld first and drill afterwards when I can, but your parts are kinda large for that.
thanks,
rScotty

 

[BFreaky]

Line up isn't a problem. You take 2 bushings and a pin, put them in place, tack weld opposite points and then weld all around. Works fine but precision is highly important. If you want to aviod tilting of parts simply make a distance holding assembly and fix it on to something and then weld. There's an example on the page where I was welding the main boom. Dowels always help in this situation

 

[rScotty]

Line up isn't a problem. You take 2 bushings and a pin, put them in place, tack weld opposite points and then weld all around. Works fine but precision is highly important. If you want to aviod tilting of parts simply make a distance holding assembly and fix it on to something and then weld. There's an example on the page where I was welding the main boom. Dowels always help in this situation

I suspect that you are instinctively doing something exactly right - it might even be something that you think is just "common sense" or unimportant. Might be worth looking into. I've not worked specifically as a manufacturing engineer, but friends who do seem to think that the distortion and warpage from heavy welding are a bigger problem than you've had. And if you had controlled those things by clamping, that tends to build up locked-in welding stresses that would have shown up by now as cracking at the root of the weld.

Ever considered writing on welding technique?
rScotty

 

[BFreaky]

I believe there are many books talking about techniques so...no

Did some digging...alot actually. Foundations for my garage and a driveway

 

[BFreaky]

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