I have just bought a 215 Cat to use on our farm for ditch cleaning and tree removal. A previous owner put an electric valve with foot control and plumbing to end of stick. I would like to put on a hydraulic thumb. Anyone use an electric valve for a thumb? I suppose you would not be able to feather it like a manual valve so would that be a problem? Also any good sources for used thumbs? .:beatsme We have our own shop and can weld/modify as necessary. They seem to size obviously the thumb for machine size. We would not be working with much rock but would be handling trees, building demolition, loading scrap steel. Any imput would be appreciated.
I think almost everyone uses an electric valve for a thumb. Most are operated by a switch on the tip of the joystick.
I think if you get a Cat excavator from the factory with auxiliary hydraulics at least on the C-series machines the foot pedal option was pilot controlled so you could feather it nicely. Now many of the new machines that have the control on the joysticks have something called proportional machine control or something like that where it will have a different button or toggle and you can feather it. Now with an older machine like that your more likely to not have that much "feathering" ability with the thumb so you'll have to watch how you clamp against things with the bucket instead, you could probably get a special valve to put on the line that puts a restriction so it doesn't "clamp" down so fast. Just remember to have your relief valves set up so you don't damage the cylinders or some other hydraulic or mechanical items.