10" backhoe bucket for Ford 755

[Frank S]

For a year now I have been threatening to build a small hoe bucket for my 755 ford. Recently the wife and I had to dig a 100 ft of 3 ft deep trench for our water line to the house from the water tower. I didn't want to use my back hoe for a couple of reasons but most importantly I didn't want a 3 ft wide trench I know I have about 300 ft of trench coming up and the idea of more shoveling causes blisters just to think about it.
Time to make time and build a bucket.
I started off with a 3 ft by 5 ft piece of 1/4" plate from my bone yard. and a piece of scrap 1/8" tread plate also from the bone yard.
I made a card board template of the current bucket then chalked out the sides for my new one.

After cutting out the sides I clamped them together to make the pin holes I drilled a 1/4" pilot hole then was going to use a hole saw but after dulling 2 new hole saws and only making small indentations in the plates I decided to torch them and clean them up with a cob stone on my grinder.

Torching through multiple plates of steel is not all that hard if they are new bright shiny plates with no rust or mill scale but when have I ever let that bother me I just apply a little pre heat to the bottom sheet and cut away.

Cobed then separated and ready

The tread plate was for the back of the bucket I turned the treads out to serve as wear bumps and because the inside of a bucket needs to be smooth.

One of these little pocket com a longs are a must for small projects like this

One other piece of the bucket is the spine under the pin holes I decided to use the 1/4" here but had to splice 2 pieces of drop together in order to have enough plate without visiting the bone yard again

I always bevel both sides even on plates as thin as this The only thing was I did not gap the plates this time since it was only 1/4"
You can barely see the penetration Probably ran a little on the cold side.

A quick grind of the vee to expose the weld of the other side

Finished weld on both sides

Finished bucket
the cutting edge is ASTM 514 (T1) steel


The only thing left is to weld in the 1 3/4" rods after I make sure it fits my quick disconnect
http://www.homemadetools.net/forum/b...0424#post72458