Author Topic: New Pin Hauler, er... pin lift, er... OK it's OT, but it WILL lift or haul a pin  (Read 3897 times)

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Offline vinito

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Hey kids.
I've been busy spending money and trying to find a free minute.
The latest toy is something I'll be using a LOT around here. I'll probably use it as a forklift half the time. I'm sick of back pain at my age !!

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Ain't it cute for such an ugly hunk o' junk??

I played with it a little today. It picked up a couple 400lb. (so whassat... 180 kilos) tree stumps and even this small, it handled it with zero effort and it's fairly zippy.
It's supposed to lift around 900lb (400kg) or at least that's what the specifications say. I believe it.
I straightened out some humps in the yard and erased a rut in my gravel driveway. Too easy.

This thing is gonna be VERY handy.
I feel more like I do now than I did when I first got here.

Offline pinball god

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What I would have given for one of these to do my landscaping at home
Still loving my Metallica Premium

Offline McKie1

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It works out cheaper to grab one of those, than get a landscaper in these days :(

Offline vinito

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What I would have given for one of these to do my landscaping at home

And the answer is.... $2,000 USD. Yea, you should have forked it over. Sure saves a lot of wear and tear on the human.
Actually the answer should be less for this one - I overpaid for its condition. But I've never had one and it was close by so I figure it's cheap tuition. And if I ever feel finished with it (which isn't likely unless something else takes it place) then I get some of it back from the next owner. For now, it works OK. I have grand ideas about going through it and making it work like new - that's my line of occupation, though with a different type of equipment. We'll see how that goes.

Not sure how things are down under these days, but here in the states it seems to me that the difficult - and expensive - thing about hiring anything out is that nobody knows what doing a good job is anymore. I gave up long ago and just try to do everything myself because I end up doing it myself to fix the hired help's work anyway. Much less gets done, but at least it's to my liking. Kind of sad. Maybe it's just me.

Wow sorry. That was depressing.
Hey, getta load of that cute Tonka toy I just bought!
Ahh... that's better.
I feel more like I do now than I did when I first got here.

Offline pinnies4me

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Great toy, would love one of those!
“If you wanna escape, go up to a pinball machine. There’s a magic button on the front that takes you to a world under the glass and makes the the rest of the universe disappear.”

Offline vinito

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I'm all excited about this loader.
It's been freezing rain around here the past couple days so I've been staying indoors trying to empty out the garage a bit so I can bring it in and store/work on it. The cleaning thing is something that has been badly needed for a looong time now. I'm about halfway there on that front.

This machine just has bucket controls and I've decided to blow more money on it and add auxiliary hydraulics so I can add powered attachments like a grapple or post hole auger or hoe (oh yea). So I've been researching hydraulics, which I know very little about. Now I know a little bit and I've picked out an appropriate valve stack. We have a holiday right now - stores are closed - so I'll probably order the thing Monday and get things moving on that. Also, a friend of mine operates this kind of stuff for a living (his own company) and he is pretty sure he has a pair of forks I can have to make my own forklift attachment for it. That will be nice - I can probably use a forklift more than anything else.
I also decided I need to make a cage to keep the insane operator from having a bad day. That's more of a housekeeping chore since it doesn't make it more coolerer, but it will be good to get that done.

So two main projects for this baby and I'll be tearing up the landscape in no time. Probably a month I think. But it works OK as it sits too, so I'll be doing things now and then anyway. By the looks of it, I may put it to use moving snow out  of the way pretty soon  !!! At least I can do that now if I need to. The hand shovels can take a rest (and me too).
I feel more like I do now than I did when I first got here.

Offline vinito

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IT WORKS !
Big Yaaaaay !

Of course I have several other plans going in my head, but most of them are additional attachments and a couple upgrades so I'll let you know how those go in their own threads.

The new controls are great! The bucket controls are not only easier to work now, but it also solved my dropping bucket problem! With the old valve the bucket would drop probably 6 inches in one minute (“yow!“). I didn't know whether it was cylinder seals or a valve problem, so now I guess I know. It's been out there with the bucket and auger hanging off it for over 10 minutes and it hasn't dropped even 1/8”. That's better than I hoped.

And I tested the auger out. I'm happy to report that it worked fantastic for the little test I gave it. The soil I tested is not dry, not packed tight, and not heavy clay so it certainly wasn't any kind of extreme test. There weren't any roots or rocks that I could see either and of course encountering those will be inevitable and a better test as well. But I got it spinning, lowered it into the dirt and it just drove right in and didn't show any signs of straining while lifting the dirt up. I know that doing the same with a  human-powered post hole digger would have taken me 20 minutes minimum and this auger just took seconds to go 4 feet deep. Most excellent in my opinion.
It does spin somewhere close to 2 times per second, which is probably a little bit fast. If a harder test shows that it's a little weaker than I'd like then there's a post hole digger gear reducer I saw, which give about a 3:1 reduction, which ought to tweak that down just about perfect to get me more torque. I won't count on needing that though until and unless it actually falls short in practice. It might just turn out to be fine. After all, in my case I probably won't be augering any larger than the 8“ one that is on it already so it doesn't need as much torque as some.

The valve is properly mounted but the aux lines are just bubble-gummed in place right now. I'll do a proper job of it soon.





The ball ends on the old linkages were worn pretty bad and they are cheap from McMaster, so I bought all new ones to replace them. It ought to be nice with the ends all tight.
I got to test the machine before I dug into the new valve and it was plenty adequate to lift the back of the machine right up as I tried to lift a big tree trunk onto a trailer. Two men standing on the back on the second attempt was enough to keep it down and I got the trunk loaded. So I guess since it's strong enough to still lift a load with the auxiliary weight plates attached plus two dudes, at least the hydraulics aren't weak. Good test. Yaaay!

I know I shooda painted the valve before installing it, but I didn't want to contaminate the innards. I'll paint the machine someday anyway, so I'll get a coat on it at that time. Seems to be enough oil all over the thing to keep rust at bay anyway, at least until I fix that (which I will).

I should be able to test the auger in the next couple days.
This thing is definitely a money pit, but it sure is fun. Still cheaper than Vegas, hehe.

Here's a couple snapshots as of a couple minutes ago. Nothing all that illuminating, but at least it's evidence that I got it re-assembled. You can see my temporary auxiliary hydraulics control lever sticking out under the right side of the seat if you look close. I'm going to make it a foot control eventually.



Here it is after poking a 4-foot-deep hole into the dirt. Sorry I drove it back into the driveway after, but I'm sure I'll snap some more interesting pics when the opportunity arises.



One down, dozen to go.
« Last Edit: January 10, 2016, 06:30:23 AM by vinito »
I feel more like I do now than I did when I first got here.

Offline vinito

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Forgot to follow up on this "pin lift" project.
Without further ado (and believe me, there was ado-o'-plenty on this damn thing) here's a video link.





(the smoke near the end is just from me putting a little too much oil in the sump. It burned away later that day and it's been clean ever since.)


It works great. Finished it up in October I think. Only took 9 long months !!
Every pivot and hole was wallered out, and although it meant a ton of work to fix it all, I took the time to fix it all. Holy crap what a project !!
Painting every little piece became a thing. I got pretty good at getting it over with, but every time I turned around there was 20 more things to paint.
And I thought pinball machines were a lot of work to restore!





Fabricated tons of brackets and such along the way. Changed the engine with a new cheapie and of course that led to a few new bits to make things fit. That just scratches the surface.





Was starting to look like a vehicle again in late September.
I added several upgrades to make it easier to deal with, i.e. the fuel filler was deep inside and you can see the new location on the left side. Ad infinitum.





Anyway, just thought I'd post a finale before I go back to my hibernatin' hole.
I feel more like I do now than I did when I first got here.

Offline Boots

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Very nice work, looks brand new

Offline Strangeways

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Very nice work, looks brand new

Better than brand new - Looks awesome !
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Offline ktm450

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Very cool mate, I need one of those at my house  ^^^


it also solved my dropping bucket problem! With the old valve the bucket would drop probably 6 inches in one minute (“yow!“). I didn't know whether it was cylinder seals or a valve problem, so now I guess I know. It's been out there with the bucket and auger hanging off it for over 10 minutes and it hasn't dropped even 1/8"


The quickest way to diagnose if it is the cylinder is passing is to extend the cylinder then undo the retract hose and try to extend with it disconnected if oil is passing the seal you will get a big mess  *)*
I used to work as a hydraulic/pneumatic tech a long time ago. Pretty basic, but it is easy to over complicate things with hydraulics when problems arise and overlook the obvious. Might help if you run into any other problems  ^^^