MetalworkingFun Forum

The more I collect the more storage I need. With the sawmill finished I now need a drying shed. I have two 20 foot storage containers for inventory as we call it, other peoples junk. When I moved them onto the property I was thinking ahead and placed them 24 feet apart, square to each other and level. The time has come to put a roof over them, multi function project. With a roof over the containers I'll be able to vent them and control moisture, have 24 x 20 open storage between them and an 8 foot extension on one end to put the saw mill. With the eaves I'll end up with a 22x52 foot steel roof.
Every good project starts out with a machine or at least repairs. Had to cut a few trees and dig out the stumps to make room for the saw mill extension. A couple of elm stumps did the back hoe swing in AGAIN. I built this backhoe some time ago, never did get it painted. Its weak link so to speak is the swing chain I used. A double acting cylinder pulls on two #60 double roller chains for the swing. The tensile strength of the chain far exceeds the hydraulic force but shock loads and leverage when the swing control is in neutral snap the chain. Its broken the connector link enough that it stretched the hole for the pins. Drilled the hole out over size to 1/2 welded it closed and redrilled.


The cylinder I made from two tie rod cylinders. Joined the rods on the piston and used two rod caps.



And here's Greg's Hoe Not pretty built it with a relatively short boom and dipper to get more breakout strength. Sacrificed reach for power.



And the culprit that did it in this time.



Building to follow if anyones interested.

Oh the fun I could have with one of those! I'd like to see the build.

Its like having a sandbox to play in all over again. I'd never ran a backhoe till I built this one. As for a build log I'm afraid not. Built it probably 9 or 10 years ago and lost all the photo's somewhere. There was a build log on the old Machine Builders Network site but don't think its accessible anymore.

(06-23-2012, 11:03 PM)f350ca Wrote: [ -> ]Its like having a sandbox to play in all over again. I'd never ran a backhoe till I built this one. As for a build log I'm afraid not. Built it probably 9 or 10 years ago and lost all the photo's somewhere. There was a build log on the old Machine Builders Network site but don't think its accessible anymore.

Do you remember the URL of the Machine Builders Network, have it bookmarked, or something? It's possible that the information can be mined with the - Way Back Machine You just type in the url and hit the "Take Me Back" button.

-Ron

Greg, I was thinking you had changed that chain system to a rack and pinion but maybe that was Tom, the Alaskan machine magician,
from the old MBN site.
My backhoe is still a bunch of collected parts and a fading dream (sigh).

Greg,

"Building to follow if anyones interested". what a question - course we are interested
Post away Greg

DaveH

i wot to play well dun

Ron
Sorry I had my laptop go down and lost all my old bookmarks along with the original pictures of the build. Know enough to backup data but never get to it, where I worked it was automatic, maybe I nee to go back to work, NO>
Steve
Yah that was Tom's backhoe on his Bobcat. I should convert to a conventional arrangement with two swing cylinders, but I don't need it as much now, and its quicker to patch this than fix it right.

Greg, expediency is oftimes the letter of the day. I was thinking that if I had advanced further on mine I could add a thumb and use it to load logs onto my buzzsaw (but then, I'd prolly want a proper grapple with a swivel..sigh).

I've often thought of making a manual thumb for this, would be great handling rocks, but hope to get a hydraulic grapple made for the forks to handle logs. So many projects so little time.
Speaking of which I beter get over to the girl friends, promised to help (ya right) put new decking on her dock.