Mini Excavator Bucket Build

[ieezitin]

Hello lads

I had a job come into the shop and he wanted a bucket made for his Mini Excavator, he supplied me with a working bucket so i could make plans for the new one from that, the original bucket was 12 inches wide and he wanted one that was 36 inches wide, this enables him to scrape more earth at one time as he is primarily in the landscaping business. So here is the story in pictures...

The sketch..



1/2'' thick side plates made first, i had to weld extra plate together as i did not have enough plate stock to make the side walls..



A full size template made from cardboard so i could chalk the profile on the plate.



With the skin cut in sheet form i was going to roll the profile through my roll-brake set up but the skin is 3/16'' thick and my rolls would not profile it so i had to come up with another idea for getting the plate rolled to the desired shape so brute force was chosen and the method of fabricating it.

 

1/2'' thick Side wall plates cut and prepped for welding..



Tacking the plates to the skin and getting square..






Now the brute force bit..... i am using the table as a strong back and by tacking the plate to the table to hold it i used a flat bar to keep the bend moment close the the plate...













I ran out of leverage so i had to put a couple of dogs on the side and use all-thread and the applied force to bring this into shape..













Now all i had to do was squeeze down the top profile, i had to score / slit the plate with a cutting wheel to make the brake as the steel plate was just to strong...







Time to make the cleats that acts as the receiver to the excavator arm, another cardboard template was made..



Plates cut ready for boring on the mill... i made two cleats and tacked them together so they would be exactly alike..






All marked up and ready for boring on the mill.....











I made a gage for the fit, the hole was .002 oversize because i am using two pins to align my fit and act as stay when i weld them and the bucket..




Both holes bored and the pins installed..





Now to install the cleats ... now you see the reason for the pins...











All done and dusted........ one bucket was created..






















it sorter kicked my arse but i beat the bastard in the end......  Now for the reward.... MILLER TIME! :beer:




Thanks for looking..

Anthony.

[Vinny]

errr Anthony!!!

[Mayhem]

Nice work.

[Pete O]

Nice problem-solving approach to getting that plate to shape. I have a similar size bucket, about 42" wide for the loader on my old tractor that I ripped apart trying to move a stump earlier this year, too much stump and too much rust so the making of a new bucket has been on the project list. The cleats on mine are in two pairs, about 36" apart so should be line-bored, you've given me some inspiration for the shaping of the plate though.

[f350ca]

Very nice work Anthony. Its pretty neat how hard it is to get a piece of plate to bend when we want it to, but one oops and you can bend just about anything.

[TomG]

Nice job Anthony! Fabrication is fun.

Tom