gemini5362
Veteran Member
I just bought a set of forks off of ebay. I thought I would write a bit about the fun I had making the Forks fit my tractor.
The forks did not have a quick attach so I am building one. The first thing I found out was that backing plate was narrower than the arms of my loader. I went to the local metal sales and they had a small piece of 1 inch that they sold me for ten bucks. The back plate on the forks is 3/4 thich by 12 inches tall. I cut the 1 inch piece to 12 inches tall and it was 7 inches wide. I had a friend at work help me and we machined the top and bottom of the 1 inch plate down to 3/4 of an inch at the top and bottom for an inch and a half on each so the forks would slide on it. I cut a 4 inch wide gap at the bottom to be able to get the forks out (the orignal backing plate had no way to take the forks off without taking the mounting bracket off and sliding them off the end) I then cut the backing plate in half and welded the machined 1 inch piece in the middle of the backing platte. I am very excited this is the first time that I have made welds that I am not ashamed to show my friends at work. Due to the thickness of the metals involved and the stress on the backplate I followed advice from some of the welding threads on here. I beveled all the edges of the metal I was welding then I made several passes grinding between passes to bring the weld up to the level of the surrounding metal. I have not finished making the rest of the mounting bracket but I have some 3 x 2 1/4 inch square tubing I am going to be making a bracket out of. I have 3 inch x 1/2 inch strap to make the top section of the quick attach out of and probably cut holes in another piece of the strap for the locking lever pins and then weld that to the bottom.
While I was at the metal sales shop on another date I saw a piece of 3/4 plate. I could have had them cut me a chunk of that 12 inches by 48 inches for 100.00 and used that for my back plate but I decided there would be no learning experience and not as much fun doing it that was as there was in cutting my original back plate and making it the right size. From what I am seeing if you can get forklift forks you should be able to make the rest of the assembly for 200.00 or less. I will write more about what I ran into making the mounting bracket and take some pictures when I am done
The forks did not have a quick attach so I am building one. The first thing I found out was that backing plate was narrower than the arms of my loader. I went to the local metal sales and they had a small piece of 1 inch that they sold me for ten bucks. The back plate on the forks is 3/4 thich by 12 inches tall. I cut the 1 inch piece to 12 inches tall and it was 7 inches wide. I had a friend at work help me and we machined the top and bottom of the 1 inch plate down to 3/4 of an inch at the top and bottom for an inch and a half on each so the forks would slide on it. I cut a 4 inch wide gap at the bottom to be able to get the forks out (the orignal backing plate had no way to take the forks off without taking the mounting bracket off and sliding them off the end) I then cut the backing plate in half and welded the machined 1 inch piece in the middle of the backing platte. I am very excited this is the first time that I have made welds that I am not ashamed to show my friends at work. Due to the thickness of the metals involved and the stress on the backplate I followed advice from some of the welding threads on here. I beveled all the edges of the metal I was welding then I made several passes grinding between passes to bring the weld up to the level of the surrounding metal. I have not finished making the rest of the mounting bracket but I have some 3 x 2 1/4 inch square tubing I am going to be making a bracket out of. I have 3 inch x 1/2 inch strap to make the top section of the quick attach out of and probably cut holes in another piece of the strap for the locking lever pins and then weld that to the bottom.
While I was at the metal sales shop on another date I saw a piece of 3/4 plate. I could have had them cut me a chunk of that 12 inches by 48 inches for 100.00 and used that for my back plate but I decided there would be no learning experience and not as much fun doing it that was as there was in cutting my original back plate and making it the right size. From what I am seeing if you can get forklift forks you should be able to make the rest of the assembly for 200.00 or less. I will write more about what I ran into making the mounting bracket and take some pictures when I am done
