Super cool! Please post up a video at some point of it working.
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Mini bulldozer with mini backhoe: Broken bits and backyard recovery
- Thread starter dremu
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- tiny tractor
"Sharpie eXtreme", to be precise. Couldn't be "Extreme", has to be "eXtreme"
Will do. Even I, the techno-Luddite, am getting used to smartyphones. Though I'll have to train the kid to hold the phone still. That last video made me dizzy.
I'll also have to train myself to use the controls so I don't look like I'm having a seizure. I've seen pros do it, and it's amazing, like the machine is an extension of their body, just another hand.
This time around I opted for a single multi-spool valve, basically a six-control bank. Gonna do levers for the stabilizer legs, but then two joysticks for the boom and bucket. This should be intuitive, except the bucket in-out will be a left-right movement, which may confuse me.
However, it'll mean that the thing can be operated by two hands without having to leave the controls. I'm hoping this will be more efficient than having two hands operate four levers and you have to switch back and forth.
-- A
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An up/down movement using a side to side motion on a joystick isn't awkward at all. Front load garbage trucks are set up that way. Stick right is forks down, stick left is forks up.
All our trucks now use a single joystick (air over hydraulic) but the older ones used to use two levers side by side. Again air over hydraulic. Both are really easy and intuitive IMO. I think you'll get used to your set up really fast...
All our trucks now use a single joystick (air over hydraulic) but the older ones used to use two levers side by side. Again air over hydraulic. Both are really easy and intuitive IMO. I think you'll get used to your set up really fast...
Just makes my brain hurt, but maybe it'll be easier in practice. I'm also hoping it'll appeal to the PlayStation-generation teenager and he can do some work without knowing it's work
-- A
Sometimes reading the build threads here you think, "Eh, piece of cake. oh, I could do that faster/better/whatever." You see some of these long-term projects with insanely complicated fab work ( @Greg72 is a prime example), and you just think "Oh, yeah, that's nice, see how easy it is."
Ha. Just, ha. If I tried that, my "tuition pile" would be the size of a truck.
I'm (mostly) working off a set of plans and not inventing anything new, and doing a farm machine that doesn't need real precision and can't exceed 1.5MPH... and yet my work is never going to be as painstaking as some of you guys put out. I am shamed.
That said, I'm having fun, just slooow fun. Spent the last two afternoons working on the main knuckle, if you will, from the base of the 'hoe to the boom arm.
Apparently the guy who designed this liked 1/2" plate, quite a lot! I thought the dozer plans went nuts with the 1/4", but this truly is beef. I suppose it has to be crazy strong, to handle the force of the hydraulics pulling on it against digging in dirt. For scale, the pins are 1" round and the dark piece inbetween the clamp is 2" OD .250 wall DOM. The boom arm hinge points are sleeved with that DOM and then have a further .25 wall bronze bushing inside.
Hard to see in the photo, but the plans actually allow for parts to overlap, in order to get good welds on them. Also hard to see, but the edges are beveled and/or have gaps for good burn. (The gaps are entirely intentional and in no way indicative of poor cutting skills on my part.
I could plead that it's due to a lack of a plasma cutter, but the mark of a true craftsman is doing good work with any tool. I apparently can do mediocre work with any tool 
)
Being primered in the paint booth. Also of note is the flat bar welded to the pin on the right. On the dozer, the pins are sleeved with DOM and then a clevis pin run through them, like this (center, two more in back)
This is slick as snot, but requires a ton of fab work, including match-drilling perpendicularly through the DOM and the pin. I have a drill press slide vise, but it's still time-consuming.
The 'hoe plans suggest instead that you just zap a piece of flat bar across the top, and then drill and tap into the plate as seen above in the primer shot. The drill and tap takes a bit of time, but less than the cross-drill, so I'm gonna try that this time around.
Also in the primer booth, the base plate. The T in the middle will mount the control valve, stabilizers to the upper left and bottom right. Bottom left is another piece of .250 DOM with the bronze bushing, and the hitch on the back. You can just sort of see another pin tab at the back. There'll be a hydraulic cylinder along that edge of the main beam, to swing the boom left and right.
Ha. Just, ha. If I tried that, my "tuition pile" would be the size of a truck.
I'm (mostly) working off a set of plans and not inventing anything new, and doing a farm machine that doesn't need real precision and can't exceed 1.5MPH... and yet my work is never going to be as painstaking as some of you guys put out. I am shamed.That said, I'm having fun, just slooow fun. Spent the last two afternoons working on the main knuckle, if you will, from the base of the 'hoe to the boom arm.
Apparently the guy who designed this liked 1/2" plate, quite a lot! I thought the dozer plans went nuts with the 1/4", but this truly is beef. I suppose it has to be crazy strong, to handle the force of the hydraulics pulling on it against digging in dirt. For scale, the pins are 1" round and the dark piece inbetween the clamp is 2" OD .250 wall DOM. The boom arm hinge points are sleeved with that DOM and then have a further .25 wall bronze bushing inside.
Hard to see in the photo, but the plans actually allow for parts to overlap, in order to get good welds on them. Also hard to see, but the edges are beveled and/or have gaps for good burn. (The gaps are entirely intentional and in no way indicative of poor cutting skills on my part.
I could plead that it's due to a lack of a plasma cutter, but the mark of a true craftsman is doing good work with any tool. I apparently can do mediocre work with any tool )
Being primered in the paint booth. Also of note is the flat bar welded to the pin on the right. On the dozer, the pins are sleeved with DOM and then a clevis pin run through them, like this (center, two more in back)
This is slick as snot, but requires a ton of fab work, including match-drilling perpendicularly through the DOM and the pin. I have a drill press slide vise, but it's still time-consuming.
The 'hoe plans suggest instead that you just zap a piece of flat bar across the top, and then drill and tap into the plate as seen above in the primer shot. The drill and tap takes a bit of time, but less than the cross-drill, so I'm gonna try that this time around.
Also in the primer booth, the base plate. The T in the middle will mount the control valve, stabilizers to the upper left and bottom right. Bottom left is another piece of .250 DOM with the bronze bushing, and the hitch on the back. You can just sort of see another pin tab at the back. There'll be a hydraulic cylinder along that edge of the main beam, to swing the boom left and right.
Both are very common ways to secure a pin on ag equipment.
Martin
Martin
Yeah, I get the feeling that the designers of both plans know their way around "real" equipment. The trick is how to simplify (dumb down
) manufacturing processes so they can be done by a guy in his shed with a welder and a bandsaw.The flat bar is simpler, and it's also lower-profile, so it fits inside that knuckle much better. No way I could get the sleeve-clevis deal in there.
-- A
Today the blue Sharpie suffered an ignominious defeat at the hands of a large chunk of tube:
No actual pix of the carnage, sorry, was caught up in the welding. Plus there wasn't much left but the felt, the plastic was crushed all to hell
Had to switch to the green, sigh.Did get the base painted and mounted to the back of the dozer.
The seat flips around, as previously discussed, with tons of leg room to the rear controls. I may end up shifting the seat sliders back a few inches further.
Cutting 1"+ holes in plate sucks with holesaws. I sprung for a couple more carbide cutters (needed more sizes); they cut through 1/4" or 1/2" plate like it's butter:
That one's a 1.5", I do believe, but you can get them up to at least 2". As Greg mentioned, you oil it, go down a bit, pull it up to clean out the shavings, lather, rinse, repeat. And the end result is a hinge point with some oomph:
Right side is two pieces of 1/2" plate with 2" hole cut through, and then a DOM sleeve through. Rounded off the plate ends with the big grinder, not pretty, but it'll work.
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Some of the pieces are simple, if brutal. The main boom is basically just 2.5 square tube with 1/2" plates on the middle and ends. You gotta fixture it so the holes stay parallel when welded, but that's easy, you just stick the pins in and clamp.
Then you have pieces which have to be assembled in a specific order, and have different sizes one end to the other, and ... well, let's just say jigging this one up was time-consuming. I spent a certain amount of time just comparing it to the plans from every possible angle before even tacking it. Would NOT want to toss any of this into my tuition pile. It isn't stainless unobtanium, but 1/2" plate ain't exactly cheap at those sizes either.
Gotta love those F-clamps. Thankfully it all ended up square and, as far as I know, in the shape intended. (We'll find out if I flubbed anything, I'm sure!)
And the boom and bucket arms are in the paint booth:
I don't know why it amuses me to say "paint booth" so often, when I patently don't have one, and just rattle-can on whatever flat surface is available. If I'm lucky I even toss down some paper first.
Not like it needs to be nice, as the machine will instantly get dirty in use. Paint is more for safety reasons than aesthetic. Easier to clean hydraulic fluid, dirt, or whatever off gloss paint than bare metal, less slip hazard and such.
-- A
Then you have pieces which have to be assembled in a specific order, and have different sizes one end to the other, and ... well, let's just say jigging this one up was time-consuming. I spent a certain amount of time just comparing it to the plans from every possible angle before even tacking it. Would NOT want to toss any of this into my tuition pile. It isn't stainless unobtanium, but 1/2" plate ain't exactly cheap at those sizes either.
Gotta love those F-clamps. Thankfully it all ended up square and, as far as I know, in the shape intended. (We'll find out if I flubbed anything, I'm sure!)
And the boom and bucket arms are in the paint booth:
I don't know why it amuses me to say "paint booth" so often, when I patently don't have one, and just rattle-can on whatever flat surface is available. If I'm lucky I even toss down some paper first.
Not like it needs to be nice, as the machine will instantly get dirty in use. Paint is more for safety reasons than aesthetic. Easier to clean hydraulic fluid, dirt, or whatever off gloss paint than bare metal, less slip hazard and such.
-- A
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Aaron, you are completely nuts. I like you.
-G
-G
I've been told I'm a complete idiot. This just isn't true. Some parts are missing.
-- A
I have the same paint booth, I just rarely use it.
Martin
Martin
Along with the base, the boom arm also has bronze bushings in it, which are pressed into place:
And the control valve is mounted to the base:
Had to reassemble the joysticks repeatedly to get them Just So, one being a mirror image of the other so that the knobs don't bang on each other in use. The outer handles control the stabilizer legs, which are in place and have enough force to lift the machine off the ground (video below.) The blade up front does the same thing, so I can actually lift the machine up enough to run the tracks around in place, at least on flat ground. Will make service easier if, god forbid, anything happens to the tracks.
And the control valve is mounted to the base:
Had to reassemble the joysticks repeatedly to get them Just So, one being a mirror image of the other so that the knobs don't bang on each other in use. The outer handles control the stabilizer legs, which are in place and have enough force to lift the machine off the ground (video below.) The blade up front does the same thing, so I can actually lift the machine up enough to run the tracks around in place, at least on flat ground. Will make service easier if, god forbid, anything happens to the tracks.
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Here on CK5 we like our buckets. Some guys measure their trucks' ground clearance by them. I should put one under my truck to collect the leaking fluids. For this project, though, the bucket is the most important part of the machine, the end result, if you will I'm doing two buckets, one wide for basic dirt work, and one narrow trenching unit.
The plans call for a diamond-shaped bucket, i.e. something you can cut without specialized tools, just a torch or grinder. In the interest of something nicer-looking, I asked the guy at the local steel shop if he'd roll me a coupla pieces. He laughed and said 1/4" plate that skinny is way too SMALL for his roller machines However, he says it's easy to do repeated partial bends in his press brake, and from the outside you'd never know it's not rolled.
I'd agree with him. The outside looks rolled, and the inside ... well, who cares. Left is the wide piece, and right the narrow. You can sorta see in the plans what the basic bucket looked like:
The side plates are 1/4", which I'm starting to think of as "Oh, easy" The curved edges were done via a series of straight cuts and then rounded with the grinder. It'll be a welded edge anyway, so they don't have to be perfect.
Did the trencher bucket first, figured it would be easiest to learn on as it's lighter. There are some nasty booger welds on the inside as it's a pain to get the gun in there, but everything's welded inside and out, so I figger it'll hold. The wide bucket should be easier to weld inside, thankfully.
Found an Ebay place that sells hardened cutting edges, cut that into appropriate lengths for the sides and bottom. The teeth are actually the tips (just the tip, baby!) off a set of bucket teeth, because I couldn't find real ones small enough.
I'm doing two buckets, one wide for basic dirt work, and one narrow trenching unit.The plans call for a diamond-shaped bucket, i.e. something you can cut without specialized tools, just a torch or grinder. In the interest of something nicer-looking, I asked the guy at the local steel shop if he'd roll me a coupla pieces. He laughed and said 1/4" plate that skinny is way too SMALL for his roller machines
However, he says it's easy to do repeated partial bends in his press brake, and from the outside you'd never know it's not rolled.
I'd agree with him. The outside looks rolled, and the inside ... well, who cares. Left is the wide piece, and right the narrow. You can sorta see in the plans what the basic bucket looked like:
The side plates are 1/4", which I'm starting to think of as "Oh, easy"
The curved edges were done via a series of straight cuts and then rounded with the grinder. It'll be a welded edge anyway, so they don't have to be perfect.
Did the trencher bucket first, figured it would be easiest to learn on as it's lighter. There are some nasty booger welds on the inside as it's a pain to get the gun in there, but everything's welded inside and out, so I figger it'll hold. The wide bucket should be easier to weld inside, thankfully.
Found an Ebay place that sells hardened cutting edges, cut that into appropriate lengths for the sides and bottom. The teeth are actually the tips (just the tip, baby!) off a set of bucket teeth, because I couldn't find real ones small enough.
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Came here for the bucket.........
Left feeling sad.
Wrong color, wrong shape, wrong location on vehicle.
(I hope you will at least paint "LET'S DO THIS" on the side when you're done)
-G
Left feeling sad.
Wrong color, wrong shape, wrong location on vehicle.
(I hope you will at least paint "LET'S DO THIS" on the side when you're done)
-G
Of your concerns, I can address two, namely color and location. Shape, obviously, is set in stone (well, set in steel) at this point.
If I understand the rules properly, a bucket must (1) be orange, with white stencils of "Let's DO This", and (2) be set underneath the vehicle to demonstrate its ground clearance.
Like so? It is now (digitally) painted orange and stenciled, and located under the vehicle. Due to the joy of portals, said vehicle has the clearance, Clarence...
-- A
If I understand the rules properly, a bucket must (1) be orange, with white stencils of "Let's DO This", and (2) be set underneath the vehicle to demonstrate its ground clearance.
Like so? It is now (digitally) painted orange and stenciled, and located under the vehicle. Due to the joy of portals, said vehicle has the clearance, Clarence...
-- A
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A demo of the stabilizers:
I figure once the boom is in place, it won't lift quite so much, but it's still fun.
-- A
I figure once the boom is in place, it won't lift quite so much, but it's still fun.
-- A
FONT should be in ALL CAPS..... otherwise, completely awesome!!!
-G
-G
Super cool.
Thanks guys!
Put a coupla chain hooks on the back of the little bucket, for lifting and pulling, and painted and mounted it.
A bit of playing later, I wonder again why I bother painting.
I had this artichoke in the back 40, inherited with the house, was growing into a bush large enough to be seen from space. I cut off the above-ground part a year back, but the root structure was still there and threatening to return, dug in like a Japanese holdout I tell ya. Ended up switching to the big bucket to rip that mess out, not so much for the size, but for its more aggressive teeth. Here it is pre-paint booth:
Didn't have a Coke can handy for scale, sorry, 16floz water will hafta do. It's 15" wide, which again, for real equipment is tiny. For removing stubborn fibrous artichoke root systems, however, it's the shiznit
The machine comes back to its nest victorious:
No video yet. There will be once I'm more comfortable with the controls, and maybe slow down the lower boom cylinder. Right now it's twitchy, and if I'm not reallllly careful with the joystick, the arm bounces all over the place. This in turn dislodges the contents of the bucket somewhere entirely other than where I wanted them, and in turn rocks the machine back and forth. Thoroughly unsettling for the operator.
-- A
Put a coupla chain hooks on the back of the little bucket, for lifting and pulling, and painted and mounted it.
A bit of playing later, I wonder again why I bother painting.
I had this artichoke in the back 40, inherited with the house, was growing into a bush large enough to be seen from space. I cut off the above-ground part a year back, but the root structure was still there and threatening to return, dug in like a Japanese holdout I tell ya. Ended up switching to the big bucket to rip that mess out, not so much for the size, but for its more aggressive teeth. Here it is pre-paint booth:
Didn't have a Coke can handy for scale, sorry, 16floz water will hafta do. It's 15" wide, which again, for real equipment is tiny. For removing stubborn fibrous artichoke root systems, however, it's the shiznit
The machine comes back to its nest victorious:
No video yet. There will be once I'm more comfortable with the controls, and maybe slow down the lower boom cylinder. Right now it's twitchy, and if I'm not reallllly careful with the joystick, the arm bounces all over the place. This in turn dislodges the contents of the bucket somewhere entirely other than where I wanted them, and in turn rocks the machine back and forth. Thoroughly unsettling for the operator.
-- A
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