I love this forum and especially enjoy reading about peoples projects. I don't post much but I thought I'd share some fun I had this summer making a ripper tooth for my mini. I really liked the Manca design, but I decided to try to make one myself. I cad'ed the rough outline of the Manca and sent it to my local machine shop to cut the ripper out of 1" AR400. Then I got to work making the base plate and adding a lot of gussets. Shortly after taking this picture, the assembly fell to the ground and almost took out my toe. Note to self, don't wear crocks in the workshop. Next, I made up some 45mm pins on the lathe to fit my Cat quick coupler. I decided to buy a set of ears for the attachment, since the profile/radii are a little complex, I didn't want there to be any fitment issues. Before I tacked the ears to the ripper, I made cardboard templates of the ears, so I can have those cut at the machine shop next time! Before I welded everything, I carefully fitted the ripper to the mini to make sure there was no fitment issues, to my surprise, it actually fit! Also, you can see in the picture above I welded a rock tooth to the ripper to really give it a sharp cutting point. Of course, I had to add some paint, even though it was bound for the dirt and a lifetime of wear and tear! You know the saying.... "A grinder and paint , makes me the welder I ain't!"
The only downside to the attachment is it was very awkward to store and reattached. I had to prop it against some other piece of equipment or break my back trying to have it stand up on it's own while I attached it to the mini. So after a few stump removals, I made a carrier for it. This thing works great, and easily loads onto a trailer with a skid steer/pallet forks. The angle the ripper sits in the carrier works out well to attach it to the mini. Both are worth considering when making one of these carriers.
My thoughts.... this thing is great! The saw teeth really work well for mini excavators that don't have the shear weight to rip larger stumps out. You can use the ripper teeth just like a hand saw to cut at the roots underground. Here in northern Minnesota, we have a lot of birch stumps that are 4 feet in diameter, and this ripper/mini-ex combo has been able to remove anything I ask it to. Love it! Total cost was about $400 for the AR400 plate steal and about $300 for the ears. The rest of the material, pins, gusset stock and welding rod was stuff I had laying around. I'd approximate about $800 in total cost. For the price of the Manca unit and the time it took me to build this, I think their price is very fare. I wouldn't hesitate buying one of theirs for my mini-ex. But I enjoyed the challenge of building this and learning some things in the process. My biggest complaint is I'm out of stumps, so I'm scoping out the neighbors property ;-)
Very impressive! I'd love to have one !
Super! how about having teeth on both sides? would that help?