04-14-2021, 08:54 PM
I finally got the grapple finished yesterday. Had a major interruption to the job as I had a car in the shed for a few weeks with the engine out and supercharger etc off so I couldn't be throwing grinding sparks around. Got that job out of the way and concentrated my days off on the grapple for a while.
There was a lot of welding in it. I've been out of practice with the MIG for quite a while and was getting very frustrated with the quality of my welding until it occurred to me to put my reading glasses on under my welding helmet. Suddenly I could see what I was doing! it looks like two different people have done the welding on this thing now. I guess I've done so little welding over the last few years whilst my eyes have been ageing rapidly. I now have to remind myself every time I put the welding helmet on, to put the glasses on too.
Anyway a few pics:
The tips of all the tines are laminated both sides with 6mm plate
That was the last of the welding other than the infill plates (2mm) at the ends to protect the hydraulics.
Got a coat of crappy paint on it yesterday and this morning gave it a bit of a workout.
Moved this pile of debris from where it's been sitting too close to other trees to burn. So nice to move all this stuff from the tractor seat instead of throwing it on and off a trailer by hand.
Had a play with some logs just for the heck of it. I'll need to replace the worn-out pump in my PTO hydraulic power pack, it struggled to lift these. The (new) pump in the tractor provides better power but lower flow, so it's either work slowly with good lifting power (on the tractor hydraulics) or quickly but run out of oomph (on the auxilliary unit).
Nice to get this project finished. The hooks that I forged for the quick-attach are not great, I'm no blacksmith, but I have plans to convert the tractor to a euro-hitch so will leave them as they are until then.
There was a lot of welding in it. I've been out of practice with the MIG for quite a while and was getting very frustrated with the quality of my welding until it occurred to me to put my reading glasses on under my welding helmet. Suddenly I could see what I was doing! it looks like two different people have done the welding on this thing now. I guess I've done so little welding over the last few years whilst my eyes have been ageing rapidly. I now have to remind myself every time I put the welding helmet on, to put the glasses on too.
Anyway a few pics:
The tips of all the tines are laminated both sides with 6mm plate
That was the last of the welding other than the infill plates (2mm) at the ends to protect the hydraulics.
Got a coat of crappy paint on it yesterday and this morning gave it a bit of a workout.
Moved this pile of debris from where it's been sitting too close to other trees to burn. So nice to move all this stuff from the tractor seat instead of throwing it on and off a trailer by hand.
Had a play with some logs just for the heck of it. I'll need to replace the worn-out pump in my PTO hydraulic power pack, it struggled to lift these. The (new) pump in the tractor provides better power but lower flow, so it's either work slowly with good lifting power (on the tractor hydraulics) or quickly but run out of oomph (on the auxilliary unit).
Nice to get this project finished. The hooks that I forged for the quick-attach are not great, I'm no blacksmith, but I have plans to convert the tractor to a euro-hitch so will leave them as they are until then.
Lathe (n); a machine tool used in the production of milling machine components.
Milling Machine (n); a machine tool used in the production of lathe components.
Milling Machine (n); a machine tool used in the production of lathe components.
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Geoffm.