What can $320 and about 10 hours of your time get you?

[bikerdib]

What can $320 and about 10 hours of your time get you? Now with pics.

I know, there are a lot of answers here (some could probably get you arrested).

But in my case, over the last weekend it got me an almost complete pallet fork set up for my B3300. I ordered the forks and slide rails from Skid Steer Express and then went to a nearby steel warehouse and purchased the other steel (3 X 5 X 1/4 inch angle, 3/16 X 2 inch flat, 2,1/4 X 2,1/4 X 1/4 inch square tubing, 1 inch, schedule 80 tubing and 2 X 2 X 3/16 angle). Included in that $320 cost are the 7018 welding rods and the paint.

I had recently added a Kubota Quick Coupler to my LA504 loader so I decided I could save lots of cash by building the fork carrier myself. Quotes for a carrier and forks set up to match the Kubota Quick Coupler ranged from $800 to over $1000 and that didn't even include the shipping cost.

I say it's almost complete because I sprayed it with primer on Sunday but I need to spray the Kubota orange (the forks are black) sometime in the next couple of days. I spray something this large under my carport so the wind is going to be the determining factor.

 

[Eric McCarthy]

Thats sounds pretty neat, take some pics and post them for us to see!

 

[cabu]

Eric is right. Please post some pictures

carl

 

[bikerdib]

Right now it's hanging on my shop hoist in my garage, painted primer red. The lighting in the garage is not that good and it's rainy and windy today. I hope the weather improves so I can paint the finish coat Wednesday or Thursday. I'll take some pics then.

 

[bikerdib]

The wind finally calmed down (well sort of) so I put some topcoat on. Sorry about the phone camera quality but I don't even have a good quality camera. Gave my SLR and about $2000 worth of lenses to my buddy to use. You'll notice the bottom slider rail had a wide notch for removing the forks. You could put both of them on or off at the same time. The disadvantage was you couldn't slide them all the way together and lock them in that position. Instead, I cut two extra lock notches in the top rail and a narrow notch in the bottom rail then welded the bottom rail on upside down to the way it was originally intended. Now I can slide the forks together until they almost touch and use them in that position. I also ordered an extra fork so I can have 3 on for brush hauling so I needed to be able to put one close to the middle. I also plan on making some fork extensions out of channel for hauling light brush and such, maybe 6 feet long.