I have come to realize that moving trees sideways through the woods is not working out to well. It takes too long to clear roads wide enough and I have been moving logs 20 or 24 long. I got hit by a hurricane and have a lot of timber down and interlocked. I was going to buy a skidder but was worried that it would be too big to move through areas where trees are ok. I might still get one because the timber is going to need to be moved away or clearings are going to need to be made in the deep woods to burn the trees. I came across a used grapple that opens up to about 4'. I paid $500 for it. I am repacking both cylinders, making new hoses and looking for a way to mount this up. I could probably find and install a rotation motor on it if would be worth it, not sure if a Takeuchi TL150 can run 2 functions - open/close and rotate. What would be the best way to set this up to drag out logs long ways. I am not sure that a TL150 can drag big logs backwards with a heavy clamp like this. I realize that it won't be more than one at a time. Any thoughts or suggestions on how to do this. Does this seem like a good idea? I could also drop a bucket on the 953 and mount it on front of it. I do not have the third value to control the clamp. So not sure whats the best thing to do.
You can make it a knock around grapple on a gooseneck style hanger only using one circuit. If you want to split the circuit you'd use a solenoid diverter valve on the attachment to switch from rotation to grapple... normally the grapple would be the normal function with rotation being the switched function (momentary switch is nice for that).
Thats a good video thanks
I decided to rebuild the cylinders. Once i started removing pins i found a lot of wear. I have some 1/2 thick wall bushing tubing that I cut down on the lathe to make new bushings. I could have cut the ends off and turned them on lathe. I decided to cut the holes out with a plasma torch.
The flanges are 1.25" thick so i had to cut it from both sides. Next step will be to weld up the worn areas on the pins and the cut them back down to size on the lathe.
I checked on new chrome rods 2.5". $225.00 ea x 14"s. So almost 500 for both and the end would still need to be threaded. Threading is currently above my pay grade. I have just figured out how to separate steel with hss parting tool. I broke 3 different things figuring out how to correctly set it up. One carbide cutter i was testing out by hand spinning the Chuck. I accidentally let it pull backwards do to pressure from the belt and it shattered my new cutter. Seals cost me $100.00 for both. My guess is they were about $25.00 wholesale. If anyone is curious on how I broke the cylinder nuts loose after I got the cylinders apart. I locked it down on the back of the fork lift.
I am learning how to use a lathe watching you tube. I love being able to make better parts now. It is a game changer for me
Interesting grapple and nice work. Thanks for sharing.
Is your 953 set up for a rear ripper? If so I could see a rear boom mounted on the back, make it like a tracked skidder. Wouldn't be hard to fab up the arms for a boom. I think it would be a lot nicer to drive dragging the logs out, as driving backwards.
No ripper or third valve. The state and fed are paying to help clean up the storm damage to the tune of about 1/3 of the cost with an acre cap also. They want to reduce the fire risks from Hurricane Helene. Pulp has dropped to $1 per ton if you can even sell it. All loggers are covered up and will be for probably several years. I have been working and dragging out what I can. The plan is to get in and snake out the big logs to a loading area then push the rest - limbs, small trees and tops into piles to burn as a clearing is made. Will have both machines on site. The going will be slow the distance from damage to clearing , thick woods, soft soils. No load areas. Fallen trees are stacked and inter stacked and laying on one another. I not sure if I could drop the front bucket on the loader and mount this up. I will probably settle for the skid steer since it is going to be faster and easier to get the grapple working. They don't require you to remove good standing timber. You are only required to get the damaged wood and debris up and burnt or ground up.
Its good you have a lathe and are learning to use it. But welding up the worn area on such a small pin and turning it round is a poor usage of your time and will result in a poor quality pin. Old hydraulic cylinder shafts make good pins if they are induction hardened and chrome plated (IHCP). Otherwise, buy some cold drawn heat treated (CDHT) 4140 from one of the online vendors. I usually use McMaster Carr, but there are others such as Speedy Metals, MetalsDepot, or others.
Thats good advice Terex, You are most definitely correct. But I am learning and checking my abilities as I go, so figuring out how to cut 7018 welds back down to size is a good learning project for me. Believe it or not I like welding and using this lathe. It is fun to have something to do other than run machines. I have spent so much of my time building things for other people. I have invested about 20k in 2 different lathes, and 2 different mills. Bought a small to medium sized set-up for 7k with lots of tooling. No digital readouts. Felt like i got a great deal and was set to learn the basic skills. Then about 6 months later a machiest near our shop retired and had some really niced sized medium machines and i decided to buy those. Unfortunately for me I have been so busy at work out of town that I have not even seen them since I bought them. I was planning to build a nice shop and have a full setup to work on my own equipment but that has not happened either. that being said I have a 40 acre cleanup contract, a 60 acre burn and replant, a water well rig that needs finished with a well to drill, 300k sq ft of building pad left to grade with a potential 5 million square foot job coming up. Even if I could put out 50k a day Do the math on that. Sometimes I feel like I will never get to my work and my dreams are becoming foggy. It's like you killed yourself to get it but it is eating you at the same time. So the thought of Welding a worn pin back to good pin seems like that might be something I can actually do.
I've got a 13x48 i need to sort out. I've never even untarped it from the auction like 2 years ago.
I'm not doubting your ability to repair the pin, but the utility is very poor. I'm guessing you used a standard carbon steel tube to make the repair bushings for your rod eyes. Then you use a 7018 rod to repair the pin. When you put two very similar materials together, both clean, and then apply a load troubles often happen. The two pieces will start to gaul. If the load is sufficiently large, all the grease in the world can't prevent gauling. For a metal to metal sliding joint such as you have, ideally there would be at least a 5 number difference in Rockwell hardness number. The mild steel bushings with a pin made from pre heat treated round shaft will give you plenty of difference in hardness to minimize gauling. Gauling isn't a problem on rusty pins in wallowed out holes. PS Pics of the lathes and mills are also good.
Gauling is a big problem if you're Roman
Wh Where do you guys get this stuff. Lol
I will get some pics. If I am understanding what your saying is i could heat the pin till it glows red drop it in some old motor oil and it will be hard enough to stop the gauling.
No. It takes carbon to allow steel to be hardened. The presence of sufficient carbon to allow hardening greatly complicates welding. There are special welding rods that would allow heat treating, but 7018 is not in that category. Spend some money and buy the pin material you need (if you don't have suitable used cylinder shaft). I have experience in heat treating, have done shop heat treating, and have industrial heat treating equipment. But I wouldn't attempt to do a shop heat treatment on anything as critical as a cylinder pin. Anytime a part is hardened by quenching there must be a tempering performed soon after. The quenching makes the material hard, the tempering softens and toughens the material to prepare it for usage. There are (always) exceptions, but they are few.
Well I decided to just weld up the pins and turn them back down. I will probably be dead by the time it wears out.
I have a made a little progress with the grapple. I went back in forth on if it needed a pivot or not. I decided to try it with out it. I mainly want this for pulling logs straight back with out carrying them sideways. The over all weight and design might be flawed, it might be to heavy to work without wheels or a cart. I won't know till I test it out. I have been burning some 3/16 rods. I am planning on using this on my tracked tl150. The wheeled machine will not have enough traction.
I made everything from stuff i had laying around. What's the fastest way to clean up rust....use a welding rod. Haha. This attachment plate and mount weighs about 150 lbs, and the grapple is probably 750 once I cut the swivel head out of the top of it. Overall weight 900ish... Most welding had been done in position, so it has good beads. I intend to put 45* angled corners for pushing logs with out using the claw. I have tried to set this up so that it is safe standing up right not attached to the tractor. I want the claw open to protect the chrome when not in use. I am going to brace it a little bit more. Hopefully I can grab a long heavy log and pull it backwards. I have a hydraulic hose crimper going to be attempting to make my first set of lines. It has taken 3 full days of welding and cutting so far. Really more work than I was expecting. Always is. I can roll it over on the front to transport it flat ways. I could also add some spikes that the grapple could sink into the logs, which would give it some up and down pivot, not sure what it really needs or if the rigid mount is going to be a flop.
Looking dang good there @Georgia Iron ! Giving me ideas! Now you need some home built OTT.
Hey Marcus Thanks. What is home built OTT? Look at this world record stump and tree i removed today. Took me 2 hours to get this one over, of course the wind decided to blow as I was 1/2 way done digging. This sob had so many tap roots. Worst stump ever. Over 6' down on this mother.... Seriously thought this one was going to beat me.
Over Tire Track. Those are fun! Dig.... nope..... dig.... nope....
Exactly right