Metal from a place that's "Hot and rhymes with swell"

[orezok]

I decided to build a set of clamp on forks for my B7800. I went out to the boneyard to see what might work. I found this nice 15' piece of 3x1x1/4 channel that would be perfect for the forks. Plenty strong for the limited capacity of my loader. I cut it to length and note that it's hot dip galvanized. I cut the first pieces and leery of the galvnized, grind it down to shiny metal with my Makita. I fit up the pieces and hit it with the mig.

Snap, crackle pop! Spatter going everywhere. Craters that look like the moon. First thing I do is check to make sure the gas is on. Check, no problem there. Lay down a bead on a piece of mild steel and perfect beads.

I go back to the first piece and grind it some more. Then I notice that the wheel is loaded up with zinc. Ah ha! The zinc is soft and I'm not getting through it. I grab a flap wheel and try again. The flap wheel loads up also!

OK, I get out the silver monster. I have a 9" Milwaukee grinder that is at least 50 years old. I rarely use it cause it weight about 25 lbs. This thing could rip the hide off a rino. I hit the galv again and it rips right through without much buildup on the wheel.

OK, a little upper body workout today. I go to hit the metal again and the grinder is dead. I spend 20 minutes determining that the switch is bad. Oh sugar

Back to the Makita. I get out the wheel dresser and clean up the wheel. I hit it again and it loads up again. Clean the wheel again and it loads up again.

I finally figure out that while the wheel keeps grinding, the soft zinc from the wheel smears back over the steel. Grind, clean... grind, clean... grind clean. I finally get enough of the zinc off that I can weld it with only an occasional pop

I learned a lesson today, NEVER USE HOT DIP MATERIAL! Anyway, here's the final product before paint.

 

[gwdixon]

Looks functional. When did you discover that you needed that shim on the rear of the bottom fork? Mine were all made and not discovered until fit-up time.

A thing you'll find is that the clamp is going to allow the forks to swing side-to-side and become misaligned. My solution was to use large grade 8 nuts and bolts. An impact wrench helps keep them tight but still there is a bit of movement if something is hit at the slightest angle.

Here are a couple of examples. One set was made from old discarded skidsteer forks.

Edit: Hope you didn't do this welding this past week in your location!! What a nightmare is was in CA.:thumbdown: And Mojave is almost as miserable as Death Valley.

Oh, one more thing: Isn't it possible to burn off zinc coating with a torch?

 

[yomax4]

Nice work guys ( love that Galvanised ) Because I never use my forks for pallets, I ran 2 channels between the forks to join them and make 1 piece. They never move. I mainly use them for hauling wood and scooping up logs.

 

[medic0648]

Heat+zink= bad stuff. It's possible but has the same issue as welding the zink coating. Best to grind off. Preferably with a dust mask at the minimum.

 

[weldermike]

Look great man! I hope the screw isnt too far back tho and misses the cutting edge. If so when you tighten it the screw will rip a hole through the loader. Esp withe the shim in the back. The shim will hit first and alow the screw to punch right through if its not on the cutting edge itself. I found out the hard way and had to fix and re plate the underside of the loader. Otherwise great job bud!

 

[orezok]

I already noticed the offset on the screw/shim. I plan to add a second shim so that the screw will clamp against it. I moved the screw as far back as possible to minimize twisting. A longer "arm" should provide more resistance.

 

[gwdixon]

weldermike has a point with the bolt (screw) causing bucket damage.

My solution was to use a 4" long piece of 4" wide channel for the bolt to screw down on. The legs of the channel were upward so sort of clamped onto the bracket. A short piece of light weight chain was tacked to the bracket and to the piece of channel so it wouldn't get lost or separated. Worked great for distributing the load.

Wish I had a photo but sold the tractor that it was designed to fit on. The forks went with the tractor.

Now my forks are skid-steer configured.

 

[weldermike]

weldermike has a point with the bolt (screw) causing bucket damage.

My solution was to use a 4" long piece of 4" wide channel for the bolt to screw down on. The legs of the channel were upward so sort of clamped onto the bracket. A short piece of light weight chain was tacked to the bracket and to the piece of channel so it wouldn't get lost or separated. Worked great for distributing the load.

Wish I had a photo but sold the tractor that it was designed to fit on. The forks went with the tractor.

Now my forks are skid-steer configured.

Yes thats the way to go with the skid steer set up! Nice! I added a piece of 65×4×3/8 c.r. behind the cutting edge



on mine after fixing the original problem. And pads on the screws are a must soon. Should be good after that.

 

[Todd727]

I learned a lesson today, NEVER USE HOT DIP MATERIAL! Anyway, here's the final product before paint.

Muriatic acid in a bucket. Next time put a few inches in the bottom of the bucket and stand up the piece to be cleaned.

Alternatively, you can burn it off in a well ventilated area. Outside in a breeze would be ideal. Stay upwind.

 

[orezok]

I put the forks to their first real test today. Picked up a half pallet of brick for a yard project. Weight was 1,020 lbs. My little B7800 strained to lift the load centered about 16" beyond the lip of the bucket, but the forks held up!