Welding Tips and Tricks

I had 4 chain-on debris tines for my tractor's bucket. Then I converted the FEL and bucket to quick-attach, and that meant I could no longer attach the tines.

They were very useful, but they were impossible to anchor down, so they moved around. They were also slowly bending the bucket. They were way out in front of the loader, killing the leverage. I decided to cut them up and make a single fork with quick-attach plates. The result is in the photo.

The tines and the upright parts are old. Everything else has been added by me. The tubing is 3/16" wall.

The tines have heavy plate welded to their sides for the first 18" or so. That came from the factory. They are welded to 3/8"-plate rectangles which are welded to the frame. The uprights are just held in by gravity now, but they are made to be bolted to the tines.

I took this thing out and tried it, and nothing moved. I stood on a tine and jumped up and down, and it was very stiff. I still have a couple of welds to finish, and I am considering putting short tubes between the tines close to the rear to add rigidity.

I used 0.035" wire, and I did my best to make big, loopy, deep welds. I did a number of additional passes. Hope that's the right idea.

The tractor will limit me to maybe 1200 pounds net load, and I don't think I've ever lifted that much. I mainly move downed trees and brush.

Think this thing will hold up? The original tines ran under the bucket at the rear, so part of the force on them went up into the bucket.

I don't know anything about welding, but it seems like a lot of things are way overbuilt. The original bucket had to support the tines and whatever I lifted, and it had maybe 20" of smallish beads holding it onto its mounts.

After I made it, I found out I could have gotten something similar for about $1500.

Here is what I used to have.

Bars at the back end of the tines welded to each other won’t really provide much value. Your issue is load at the end of the tine, and whether the 90* bend is strong enough (your welded outside plates should handle that). Can’t imagine for the weight load that you’ll have any issues.

Unless you try to spear a standing tree at ramming speed…

Just to be clear, I'm not worried about the tines bending. I think the FEL would bend before I pulled that off. I thought adding some crossmembers might take some strain off the welds holding the tines on the frame. I have confidence in the tubing. It's my welds that concern me. But maybe you understood that. Hard to tell what people are talking about when no one can wave their hands.

It doesn't seem to be a problem. I lifted one end of an oak log about 15 feet long and 18" thick today, put the tractor in low 4WD, and moved it without hearing anything snap. I think this tractor is too small to break the fork without real creativity on my part.

I feel pretty good about this project. Projects that really need strong, dependable welds are somewhat intimidating, but I believe I pulled this one off.

Unless you try to spear a standing tree at ramming speed…

I have a special helmet for that.