Here are a couple of pics of the grading blades we built for our excavators. Works good for grading steep slopes and very wet areas where nothing else will go. Bolts on in one of the holes for the cutter blades, only takes 5 minutes to put on or take off.
I've never seen it done like that. I welded a cutting edge to the teeth on mine and just bang the pins out when i want to go from the edge to the teeth. I'll take a picture to show you what I mean. I do like your way though. Cost effective.
That is what we do also. We also have a 5ft grading bucket that we use.
i usually just grab a straight log with the thumb and go to work.
I did a job that had 15 feet of peat, then another 15 feet of clay. I got a 72 inch bucket for my PC400 put the cutting edge on and went to work. It was nice because when we got to the clay we didn't disturb it to much. It worked out great just didn't take full buckets of clay because I don't feel like doing the pumps on the 400.
Thats a great way to grade.What thickness is that beam?
Tyler, you really do belong in demo...use what's handy. Eric
Ive tried keeping around a steel I beam for spreading around muck but it seems like its never around when you need it.
There's a saying in the demo world, and it goes: "your scraper beam is like your ****, you don't go anywhere without it, and it's always within reach" keeping your beam handy is a very good habit to get into... most of the guys at Northwest have yet to catch onto this concept, i have no problem stopping a hoe traveling down the haul road and asking where his beam is. it especially sucks when someone barrows your hoe, and then leaves your beam somewhere on the 27 acre site... at the last company I worked for, they had loaders with grapple bucket that would save your butt and go grab the beam for you, but here, the only thing with a grapple bucket is a bobcat, barely able to move a good scraper beam. Eric
I got into the habit of using a beam last year, even with the mini. I had a small 5 footer for the mini and a big 7 footer for the 312. I just grab with the thumb and go.
I Beam is a about 1" thick and 9 feet long. What good about this setup is you can still dig into piles off loose dirt with it on, transport materal that has been scraped up and level at the same time.
great Idea I could use one of those:usa
how about the chuck blade?
The What ???????
The chuck blade,a grading blade for excavator http://www.arrowwest.com/parts/ATTA...orchuckblades/info/excavator_chuck_blades.htm
Ill take credit for saving Erics butt. Being the loader operator I was always grabbing beams for guys. I was also taking off with guys beams and hiding them away. Its nice to be the only guy on site with wheels. Eric, Does that 950 you guys have a set of teeth on the bucket or is it a boce. If its got teeth you should be able to pick a beam up with just those. Uncle D was carrying around a 30 ft beam with his 988 last time I was on site. Josh
I use rail road rail for a grade beam works good. minimax
Josh, Nope, my old 950B has no place on the demo job, it doesn't even have a BOCE, just a straight lip flush with the sides...I'm rapidly working on rolling up that front lip... yeah, try penetrating a pile of broken concrete without teeth hah! oh yeah, and we're not to disrupt the soil either... on top of air filled tires...I just found out that this 950B was acquired through a deal with the plywood plant that we tore down, they left it on site, and said we could have it...it's been Dupont overhauled, most of the hoses are yellow...it's getting old, but it's still younger than your 980G only 16,000 hours. How's crane training going? Eric
Eric, I havent been doing much crane training yet. Im still working with Brad on the grader. Also the new addition of a lab pup to my household is taking up a good bit of time. Since im not working it gives me time to housebreak, and teach the pup "kindergarten" Hopefully two years from now I should have a fully trained waterfowl dog. Im only 5 miles away from some of the best duck and goose hunting in Mi. That is if i dont have to boom out to find some work. Josh
My mini came with a seven foot piece of I beam that bolts to the blade. I like the idea of attaching it to the bucket, I think.
At my last job I was responsible for maintaining the roads in and out of the oil lease. Growing tired of putting dents and dings in my backhoe blade I started looking around the lease for something to use as a drag. Came across a demolished pumping unit that had the perfect i-beam. Grabbed a crane, had the welder cut it off and had me the perfect grading blade to drag around and "look busy"
i- beam grading blade what a neat idea dirtman ,but i usually have my smooth ditch bucket with my hyd knuckle for jobs like that expecially when ditching through somebodys yard !! formans last words are usually and make it mowable with a riding mower!!! :thumbsup
I once ran an 1100 with a d10n cutting edge welded over the teeth, it came from a sand job and put on our reclaimation job. Needless to say in the rock it lasted like 2 days. not a good idea for our job. I do like the chain idea, it seems more practicle for multiple jobs.
I just found these pictures on my portable harddrive and remembered this thread so I thought I would finally post them.
I operated a 300 Komatsu that had a quicktach we found a worn quick tach and while I was at the scrap yard i found a section of moldbord and cutting edge off a grader. About 4 hours of welding it made us a nice blade. also it was good for loading sticky mud as it had no sides to stick to. I have the back of what was to be a lawn tractor grader blade I made when I was 14 in the highschool Metal Trades shop. I backlogged the project and about 2 summers ago I had a job at the lake that had alot of raised flower beds that and some backfills on a septic system. I had several yards of mulc to spread in them and the people that did the septic sytem piled most of spoil behind the tank . I thought of the old grader blad and made a mount out of 5/8th plate that bolts into the cutter bit hole on the bucket sides. Its only 4 feet wide but that helps alot.
We have an old moldboard from a road grader that will eventually be made into a blade. Have the ears for it, just have to get around to assembling it. Warren
have you seen the Kenco "Slash Blade" http://www.kenco.com/SLASHBLADE.html
You have a great invention, way to go thanks. Dirtman that is the way to go for big areas of leveling looks like a 12 / 74 H beam? Easy to install easy to transport, which is a big deal. I will copy that with maybe 10 ft.? Can't wait to make one. I have a 5 ft smooth edge 3 yd that I like to use it a lot for loading and clean up. We have to use smooth edge on all footings unless it's rock, I have made up wide teeth for all the different buckets.
I have a '95 case backhoe for personal use. For my 12" bucket, I want to add a tooth plate so when I am cutting a footing I get a smooth surface without having to roll the bucket. My 12" bucket has three teeth and the outer two teeth point outward. My intent was to weld plates between the three teeth, sacrificing the teeth, and only put the rubberized pins on the outer two tooth supports. I think it would be difficult to remove a plate being supported by the outer tooth supports because they are not parallel. I want something that is fairly easy to remove in case I need to remove a stump or rock. I currently fabricated a roller and a knife blade that both lock into the three teeth and are held in place by a chain binder over the outside of the bucket. Any ideas on a dental plate?
I think what you want is a crumbing blade. Check out this thread: I ended up welding two pieces of cutting edge into a wedge shape and slip it over the teeth probably similar to the way you attach your roller. It works well for what I needed it for. I'll try to get some pics if needed. Oh yeah, welcome to HEF!
Used to run a JD 410E with wain roy buckets on a finish grade crew. We could do anything from grading sidewalks to digging underdrains. Our biggest bucket, and smallest bucket always had a set of sacraficed teeth. All we would do is weld an old cutting edge on that extra set of teeth. This way, all we had to was pop the keeper out when we needed to dig with regular teeth.
teeth/plate i have welded plate on my teeth and also have a set of teeth too as you say just knock the pins out and put the teeth on cheers graham
This is what I made. The chain goes to a binder over the back of the bucket. It's on or off in a minute or so.
Now that is good, so very simple but effective :notworthy :drinkup
I can't take credit for the design, just the cheap fabrication. Never toss out scrap metal
Screed bar This is what we call our screed bar. It fits on the quick hitch of our CAT 301.8 mini digger. We just got an old worn out bucket, cut the yokes off it and made it into a head unit to which we bolted the 8 foot section of 4 x 6 box section. It is awesome for levelling soil and stone and changes to the bucket with the manual miller quick hitch in under 30 secs. Just got to be carefull with side loads on it for twisting, but had no problems in 5 years.
I think the pictures are wonderful and they have to be very helpful for anyone who doesnt already have the knowledge. The people posting the pictures with explanations are doing a REAL service to guys like me. THANKS
Lot of the guys down here on the Gulf Coast use a piece of pipe in soft dirt (normally more available than I-Beams on pipeline jobs) but I like your approach better.
I grabbed an old mold board off of an old grader, welded pockets on the back of it, chain it with a screwbinder to the back of the bucket and away I go. I will take pics of it tomorrow.
I noticed awhile back someone had mentioned a chuck blade and I'm guessing that since nobody knows what they are it hasnt caught on down south yet ( USA) We have been using them for years here in Alberta . They are a 6- 7 foot wide blade ( can be bigger depending on machine size ) that have 2 hydraulic cylinders so you can tilt them . They are about4-5 feet high with a replaceable cutting edge . They work awsome for finishing and cutting slopes but a big clean up will outload them if you are loading trucks . Down side is they arent that good in super hard material and they make the end of your stick heavy , so to finish grade properly I have found that if you run your stick straight ( not stretched out too far ) you avoid getting dips in your work . They were origanilly designed by a guy from Grande Prairie (here were I live) and a few years ago Weldco/Beals picked up they idea and started manufacturing them . I would imagine if you google "weldco chuck blade " you can find pics .
You do see some of the blades down south here but not many. I actually thought they were home made. Never had the opportunity to look at one up close. I did google weldo chuch blades and found a picture of one on Ebay. Looks pretty slick.
Same as that, I can see how it got its name and with an oscillating facility one hell of an attachment for trimming batters, stone etc. I cant say I have ever seen one before, thanks for the heads up :thumbsup
That picture is a good example of one.. the only difference between that and the chuck blades we use is it's missing the hydralic rams to tilt it .
Here is another with the hydraulic option. It is at the April RB auction in Grande Prairie.
Thats a brilliant idea, especially in soft ground like topsoil it would naturally float rather than digging in. :notworthy
I used a 4ft. piece of pipe with slots to slip over the teeth and a ratchet binder to hold it on. Best way I found to clean up sewer installs without scalping up a bunch of sod. Any dirt left in grass is so thin it is easily raked up.
If you use an aggresive angle on the blade they REALLY dig in . I found it best if you tip it all they way back ( like dumping the bucket) then you are using the face of the cutting edge
:Banghead this dumbass was thinking about how to fab a bracket for the quick hitch, so easy, :notworthy Makes perfect sense, I shall have to add one to the shopping list behind a thumb or grapple, or sorting grab, Oh! and quick hitch now :Banghead
Funny AtlasRob, I'm not sure if you are complementing or not, but you sure made me laugh and put a smile on my face. I enjoy your posts keep up the good work.
It was definetly a compliment. I was the dumbass,....... as I read what was posted I pictured a piece of pipe and was trying to work out an easy way in my mind to attach it to my machine. Then bill posted about fixing over the teeth and holding with a ratchet binder, just like Orchard does his plate and I thought DOH! :Banghead so obvious,........ why do I have to make things so complicated.
AtlasRob I wasn't the one that posted the solution just a reader....
:beatsme, old school report says, "Must pay more attention" Like being at home when the postman comes.................too many Bills :tong on edit, realised I could still edit the previous post so altered a few words, now I'm not quite so stupid that is not up for debate.
Dirtman: you get my vote for best for less,thats brilliant:notworthy.I am going to make 1 for my excavator, hope you haven't got a patent on it :beatsme, 2 bad im going ahead with the build anyway. see you in court.:drinkup