Building a BX cleanout bucket

[Scooby074]

As anybody who has done ditching with a BK knows, the bucket is tiny when it comes to ditching. I doubled the factory bucket to 24", hopefully it will cut ditching in half and stop clay from packing and sticking in the bucket. Major annoying!

First step is building the frame and cutting edges. Top piece is 1.5x1/4 sq tube. sides are 1/4x3" flat. cutting edge is 1/2x4".





New welder with lots of power = big fat juicy welds (and a side of undercut )

 

[Scooby074]

Laying out the sides. 1/8 plate. Getting the angle is important! The rear of the bucket must not drag when curling and the bottom of the bucket should taper up, also to prevent drag. Sharpie line on the right is the curve of the rear of the 12" bucket. Notice the size difference.



Taper template for the rear section of the bucket. More on this later.


Marked on the rear sheet. The high part of the arch is 1" from the edge of the sheet. This section was cut out of the rear sheet

 

[Scooby074]

Rear section tacked in place. First 6"-7" is parallel with the table and cutting edge(ie flat). Curve starts right in the area of the gloves. Notice the gap between the sides and the rear section. This will form the rear taper later. The bucket tapers in 1" per side. This is important to allow clearance and prevent mud from packing inside.


Pulling in the sides to create taper



Rolling the rear section, tacking along the way. Shows the value of a strong steel table. A chain link is welded to the top of the table to provide a place to pull from.


You can never have too many clamps


Sides welded


Went back and welded up remaining seams. Lots of short welds and working all over the bucket are the keys to prevent warping. Most welds were done in 6" lengths to keep the heat input as low as possible.

 

[Sfrankland]

It looks good. I built mine backwards starting with the top of the bucket and rolled it toward the cutting edge. With all the digging I have done with mine I found it hard to swap back to my 16" bucket. Looking at the specs of the BX tractors it should handle it with few to no problems. I did find with mine that if you had the stick fully extended and the boom down in a hole with the bucket heaped with material it was very hard to raise the boom. This is not a normal digging operation so it is not really an issue.

You will have to build a quick coupler next for it.

 

[murphy1244]

That really looks nice

 

[94BULLITT]

It looks good Jason.

 

[blakester]

Do you find it tough to flex the rear of the bucket up so you could tack it to the sides as you went? Any heating required?

 

[Scooby074]

Thanks guys. Its coming along. I dropped the mount brackets off at the machine shop to get bored. Will have them in a couple days. $30 to have it drilled.. I only had $90 in the new steel for the build! Thats a tick off! FYI, Kubota uses a weird size on their pins. 0.978". THe bores on the factory bucket were laser cut! and all over the place as far as size, from 0.988 to 0.985. 10 thousands over! And no bushings, so when they wear, your looking at a rebuild. So keep the grease to them! Im having the new bucket ears bored to 25mm (.984) Thats more clearance then Id like, but its a standard size, so it will only cost half as much as shooting for a custom size.

I really need to get a 25mm reamer to have. It would almost pay for itself on the first job.

 

[Scooby074]

Do you find it tough to flex the rear of the bucket up so you could tack it to the sides as you went? Any heating required?

No heat required other then to put the bend in where the flat is. You could probably do it without heat.

No problems bending the sides in for the taper, just used the clamps. THe key is to get the right taper cut into the back plate before assembly.. Then you just have to push the sides in to line up with the rear plate using the clamps. Tack on the inside.

 

[Scooby074]

Bucket is finished. Sorry, no in progress pics because I forgot the camera.

Mounting brackets. Before welding, i built a spacer out of a couple pieces of scrap to hold the ears the proper distance apart.



Finished


Side by side with the original


Much larger than the stock bucket


If it ever stops raining, ill get it installed and update this thread with some in use pics and reviews

 

[94BULLITT]

I think it turned out nice. I bet it will look mean on your BX. Are the buckets hard to change on a BX?

 

[Scooby074]

I think it turned out nice. I bet it will look mean on your BX. Are the buckets hard to change on a BX?

No theyre very easy to change, they dont weigh anything , lol. I just pick it up and hold it there while I stick the pins in. Once the stick pin is in, the cylinder pin is easy.

The part that takes the longest is removing and installing the locking bolts that hold the pins in place. It takes 5 minutes at most.

 

[Sfrankland]

After using mine to do some work around I am thinking about adding teeth to it and building a 32" bucket. It is so much faster then digging with the stock 16" bucket.

 

[swick1]

After using mine to do some work around I am thinking about adding teeth to it and building a 32" bucket. It is so much faster then digging with the stock 16" bucket.

I think 24" is plenty for a bx. Most minis I rent have a 24-30" bucket and they are waay more powerful.

 

[Scooby074]

I got to play with the bucket for a few minutes and so far its working great! Much, much faster. No sticking clay either! Id say its at least 2x as fast, maybe 3x because the end result is so much better due to the wider bucket. One of the issues with the small bucket is keeping grade, with the wide one, it keeps grade much easier.

I think this will be my go to bucket Ill keep the small one for trenching and when the ground is really hard. The BX has no issues handling a heaped 24 bucket of wet clay over its full range of motion. Would it handle a 32? Im not sure yet.

 

[swick1]

Are you using it for cleaning out ditches or digging in dry ground? Have you tried spreading material with it yet?

 

[Scooby074]

 

[Scooby074]

Are you using it for cleaning out ditches or digging in dry ground? Have you tried spreading material with it yet?

Yes to all the above.

I tried it in "moist" ground and it had no issues penetrating. In the middle of summer, in my hard red clay? I dont know what it will do.

I spread a bit of soil that was dug up a couple weeks ago and semi dry. It spread and smoothed it fine. A wider bucket may be slightly better but no complaints so far for a "universal" bucket.

First big job for it will likely be digging out the foundation for my new paver patio. That will be a good test.

 

[swick1]

Sweet! I've got material to build mine so I guess I should get started

 

[Scooby074]

Sweet! I've got material to build mine so I guess I should get started

I think its a worthwhile upgrade.

Only question is size. I dont know how strong the 1026 is. Could it handle a 30-32? I imagine it would handle the 24 ok. I guess that will depend on what you plan on doing with it. If smoothing and spreading is mostly what you want to do, 30 is likely fine.