DIY Mini Digger

Colcreate · Aug 19, 2015

farm boy00 said:
Rose jointed?? You mean like the "eyes"

Yes the eyes in the joints are spherical (sometimes called spherical joints) and are free to revolve in any direction allowing quite a few degrees of movement.
I used two of these on the ends of the steering ram.

farm boy00 · Aug 19, 2015

Colcreate said:
Yes the eyes in the joints are spherical (sometimes called spherical joints) and are free to revolve in any direction allowing quite a few degrees of movement.
I used two of these on the ends of the steering ram.
<img src="http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/files/build-yourself/438251-diy-mini-digger-image-jpg"/>

Yup i catch what you mean

Colcreate · Sep 7, 2015

Backhoe

I hadn't managed to do anything on the backhoe over the last couple of weeks, but I did find a few hours over the weekend to figure out the bucket ram.
The hydraulic ram used on the main boom was the best one of a matched pair that I bought, the other which I'm now using for the bucket has a few pits in the chrome at the eye end. It still has 400mm 16" of clean travel though which is just enough to give me the bucket curl. I thought about shortening the cylinder to suit the stroke but it seemed better to use its full length as it adds strength to the beam.
I've welded the top ram mounts on to the beam and bored them out ready to have bushes welded in place.
The bucket was a rusty Ebay bargain and has cleaned up well using electrolysis. I chucked it in a plastic barrel full of water & washing soda and left it connected to a battery charger for 24hrs. The worn out bushes were cut off and new ones tacked in place. They will be fully welded and reinforced once all the linkages are made.

The backhoe folds up quite well and at full lock the bucket sits just clear of the curve of the tyre without sticking out at the side.
Height is a bit of a problem and I have to remember to lower the boom when driving it in and out of the doorway.

farm boy00 · Sep 26, 2015

Anything new? ?

mickeyw · Sep 30, 2015

Just found this, and will certainly be following your progress. I like what I see.
You have struck two big areas of interest for me - diggers and Landrovers

arkydog · Sep 30, 2015

nice build! the blade idea would be good but the bad point of the is the is too much surface area of blade to really dig in as opposed to an stabilizer arm each side to not only have a smaller surface on the ground to bite in better but so you can level the machine. also you will be able to tilt machine at an uphill or down hill and have machine level.

years ago i built a small digger an wished i had that ability. now i have a kubota b3200 with loader and bh77 backhoe and also an old alis chalmers backhoe 816 that will dig 17' deep and wouldn't be without the independent stabilizers.

Colonel Monk · Oct 1, 2015

Cool Project. Nice work!

Colcreate · Oct 2, 2015

It's been a while since I have worked on this but here's what I managed to do the other day.

The bucket linkage here is a bit too long and ideally needs shortening by about 2 inches but it works ok for now.
I picked up a couple of ram seal kits recently so had a go at stripping the bucket ram down. What a Job! The cylinder has a locking wire which needs to be wound out but the piston rod housing was stuck solid. I had to cut out a wrench from 3/8" plate to fit the housing then heat up the cylinder end with oxy/acet while battering the wrench with a sledge hammer to get it to shift.

Once it started to move and I found the end of the locking wire it all wound out quite easily. The new seals are fitted and the outside of the ram has been paint stripped. It works well and just needs painting up.
The other matching ram was even more stubborn and took over half a day to strip, it just didn't want to move! It's still in bits now as I want to shorten it before reassembly. It will replace the stick ram when finished.
The main boom ram is also being replaced for one with a slightly larger diameter cylinder to give more lift capacity and to smooth out the jerky action that was becoming apparent.
The whole boom, stick and bucket assembly has ended up a lot bigger and heavier than I ever intended.
This was meant to be a small backhoe project but has somehow grown in size.