Homemade add on grapple build

[Kwill]

I've needed one of these for a long time. So I looked through my bone pile and came up with some stuff to build one. Bought a cylinder at a auction 2 weeks ago for 5.00. Got the rest of the stuff on hand. I robbed the rippers from my box blade as I never use them anyway.  Here some pics of what I have so far. Hope to have it close to done today so I can use it tommorow 

 

 

 I wanna be able to move brush and pick up logs to put on the mill. Tired of using a chain and having to get on and off the tractor to hook and unhook.

[charles mann]

now that is a cat's meow. how will you attach it to the lift arms, bolt onto bucket or take bucket off and pin in place on the arms?

[Kwill]

Bolt to the bucket

[Magicman]

This will be an interesting build.    

[Ljohnsaw]

 :P

[Kwill]

Ran Into a bit of a snag with my bucket as you can see from the pic it's tweaked a bit.

 
 I got the claw part done 
 I'm going to just make a frame for this instead of using my tweaked bucket. Will work on it more tommorow.

[TimGA]

As the snowball grows.  Good luck

[BUGGUTZ]

Thats a great idea! I never thought of using rippers for that.

[thecfarm]

I betcha mine bucket looks like that too. Looking forward to more pictures.

[LeeB]

Five bucks for the cylinder is a steal. Interesting project. I have often wished for a grapple. Don't have the skills to weld one out like you are doing.

[mike_belben]

Thats a clever use of ripper shanks.  Agrisupply is the cheapest place to get replacements by far.

[Crusarius]

Definitely liking the ripper idea. My thought was to make the grapple connect to receiver tubes that connected to the quick attach plate on the bucket.

The first thing I need to do is convert to quick attach

[Kwill]

Got w little more done today. Didn't have a lot of time to work on it.

 

 

 

 
 gonna work on it more tomorrow 
 

[Kwill]

Back at it again this morning. 

 

[Kwill]

Five bucks for the cylinder is a steal. Interesting project. I have often wished for a grapple. Don't have the skills to weld one out like you are doing.

 at the same auction I bought this metal cutting bandsaw for 7.00. Hooked it up when I got home and it works good.

[Crusarius]

I have been using one like that for 15+ years. thats one of the good great tools from HF.

I have recently been toying with the idea of modifying it so I can cut 6" square on it. probably also make a nice miter gauge for it that is alot easier to adjust than the one that came on it.

[Kwill]

 

 Getting ready to weld it up

[Kwill]

 

 Test fitting

[Kwill]

 

 
 Got this much done today. Takes awhile to measure and test fit things. 
 

[Crusarius]

I have seen alot of ppl wish that they had made their grapples so the teeth went past the forks. That way they can clamp on smaller items. it may be worthwhile to outboard the teeth just enough to clear the forks on the bottom.

it may be to late but its definitely something worth thinking about.

[Kwill]

They go out past slightly

[mike_belben]

I will second that.  It is worth it to make the top jaw close all the way past the bottom jaw like a scissor.  Just offset the top clamp 2 inches either way so you dont always curse the times when you grab a few small but uncentered sticks that flop out and drag one on each side. I have to get a full pile or carry the stupid things one at a time because i cant chomp down small like a frostbite style clamp. 

[Crusarius]

you could even cut a groove in the fork to allow the fork to bypass. Or like Mike says scissor action.

[mike_belben]

I dont mean to criticize, only help.  Youre doing a fine job and its gonna be a great tool for you.  Youll wonder why you didnt build it sooner.

The one i cant do without now is this.  Its almost always on the machine and i never expected it to be so versatile.  Being on clumpy clay that is almost always moist, it has nesrly replaced my rotted out dirt bucket too.

[Kwill]

 

 

 

 More progress today. Got the cylinder installed and looks like it's going to work out really good.