The Craftmans Shop > PowerSports
A loader for the Ford 850 from bits and pieces
mattinker:
Steve,
The length is a hard one, difficult to know!
To weld the sleeves in place, I would drill 1/2" holes, staggered around the outer tubes and plug weld, that way you can weld them close to their ends where the weld can give most strength.
Regards, Matthew
Manxmodder:
Steve,it goes without saying that the plugs to fit inside the tubes will want to be as snug a fit as you can manage,this increases the strength and load capability of the joint immensely.
I buy in to Matt's idea of including some plug welds to prevent any fretting movement of the plugs inside the tubes.
Looking at you photo in reply #8 I would completely remove the short steel webbing ribs that are stitch welded to the top outer ends of the arms on the tractor and after the two sets of tube ends have been set up on the plugs and welded all the way round I would cut some new webbing ribs to extend right over the tube weld joints and stitch weld them similarly to the originals. These ribs are what will take a lot of the tension load when the bucket is full so really need to be as one piece rathe than trying to butt weld an extension onto the existing ones.
As far as judging the best length for the arms I would suggest maybe planning on tack welding the assembly together sufficiently to be strong enough to fire the tractor up and give the bucket a trial lift.
This way you should be able to judge if you need to grind the tack welds of and shorten the arms more or if they look ok from the initial trial then set about welding them up permanently.
My experience with making hybrid fork lift attachments and loaders for tractors in the past has always required the need for a little experimentation of this nature.
If the arms are a bit overly long to start with they can easily be shortened to a more suitable geometry,but if they're cut too short then :Doh: ......OZ.
vtsteam:
Thanks kindly, Matt and Oz.
I was wondering about plug welds. Didn't know if it would become a stress riser on top and bottom skins. Or at least if mine would! But if you think not, seems like a good idea.
Oz, I don't have a picture of it yet but I had already cut the upper arm tubes back a foot further than the older photo in post #8 to get rid of all the weirdness welded together at the bottom.
I had left about 6" of the upper webbing intact, past the cut. I just cut the tube away from it. I figured the webbing would extend over the new tube and be welded there -- so I think that's similar to what you were suggesting.
The 1" dia tie rod over the upper tube was left full length. It will weld into the gusset on the lower arms just like the thinner flat tie rods that they had originally. And I will locate them on the gussets in the same location that the originals were.
The tubes as best I can guess are 2-1/2" nominal std which I believe makes them 2.875" dia. OD actual, and .203" wall thickness. So lessee, that's 2.469" ID.
I think I actually measured less, but will have to double check tomorrow. This is early fifties pipe, and it's not easy to guess at actual dimensions from current pipe charts.
2" modern sch 40 pipe is supposed to be 2.375 OD, so I was thinking to use that as the sleeve inside the other -- I'll have to check the fit in reality. The fit might be actually a little tight depending on whether there is a seam in the larger stuff. I can file that back if there is -- or maybe there isn't one.
I guess all this stuff will depend on seeing what is actually there and trying it. If it's too loose I'll have to probably go to solid, turned plug -- but hope not to have to do that.
awemawson:
Steve, sorry to hear about the toes - you were of course wearing your Toetector safety boots :bugeye:
If you go solid for your inner joining pieces you will be adding a lot of weight. Can you not find a pipe that is marginally too large and slice it along it's length like a roll pin to make it fit. Tap it half an inch or so into one tube then weld the cut - making a tube that is exactly the right size.
mattinker:
--- Quote from: awemawson on June 11, 2014, 02:48:19 AM ---Steve, sorry to hear about the toes - you were of course wearing your Toetector safety boots :bugeye:
If you go solid for your inner joining pieces you will be adding a lot of weight. Can you not find a pipe that is marginally too large and slice it along it's length like a roll pin to make it fit. Tap it half an inch or so into one tube then weld the cut - making a tube that is exactly the right size.
--- End quote ---
Steve,
if you split the inner pipe, use a line of three or four holes in the outer to plug weld and weld the inner split tube at the same time!
Regards, Matthew
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version