Wood Grapple Build

[Yooper]

Some pictures of working on the rotator.

 

[dpaulson]

Hi Yooper. Your grapple looks great. I was going to build one for myself. I found and purchased a small hydraulic rotator on ebay. What would it take to get you to send me your drawings? It's ok if you choose not to.

 

[AndyM]

Yooper, thanks for sharing this - your an artist (and I mean that in the nicest of ways).

 

[cleo101]

Wow Yooper, after checking your pics I'm jealous most my life I did woodworking and I have several tools for that but since I bought my B2620 I have try to make my own mods and so far all I got is a 4½" grinder and a canadian tire 120V welder if I had access to the tools you have my wife would probably divorce me cause I have so many little projects and ideas for mods, I just don't have the proper tools to do them. Again very nice and clean work.... hope to be as good with metal one day

 

[Cave Road]

Darn it, I thought it was a grapple made of wood. I could do that.

 

[rkidd]

Finished the linkages up today. Found some flange sleeve bearings that will work perfect with some shoulder bolts. Don't know where these came from, but I've had them forever. Real odd OD on them that make no sense in either imperial or metric, so had to do some machining for fit. Installed linkage and measured for what I'll need for hydraulic cylinder stroke. Going to shorten a cylinder from my stock. So far, this project has not cost me that much with all the stuff I'm managing to scrounge.

Hey Yooper. Just studying your pics some more, I am pretty sure that with the linkage you designed the 2 jaws will scissor together and stay centered over the log or whatever and you can grab it without having to move the machine to stay centered which is really slick. I have run alot of grapples in my day on loaders and excavators, and the back jaw is always stationary with the ram moving the front one to grab so you either have to run the stick out on an excavator, or move the machine for a loader to stay centered. Really great idea!!

 

[RCW]

Yooper - like I said before with the grinder build, WOW!!

I know it's been repeated many times but trust me, these threads are fascinating!!
The ingenuity and workmanship; holy smokes!

The stump grinder, shortening the cylinder, grapple...I look forward to following them very much. I'm now wondering what the Rube Goldberg will be for the grapple. The suspense is killing me....not really, but looking forward to your next innovation.

Odd thing, I didn't really want to see the grinder completed, because it meant an end to the thread and project!

Thanks so much for documenting your projects!

Now get your ass to work, but not too quickly!

 

[Yooper]

Hi Yooper. Your grapple looks great. I was going to build one for myself. I found and purchased a small hydraulic rotator on ebay. What would it take to get you to send me your drawings? It's ok if you choose not to.

I got the design for the grapple off of a file sharing site called Grabcad. If you have the software, you can download this one as a STEP or IGES file. If you don't, I can send you the dxf files for laser or water jet cutting. Just PM me.

https://grabcad.com/library/grapple-wood-1

 

[Yooper]

Yooper, thanks for sharing this - your an artist (and I mean that in the nicest of ways).

Thank you Andy!

Wow Yooper, after checking your pics I'm jealous most my life I did woodworking and I have several tools for that but since I bought my B2620 I have try to make my own mods and so far all I got is a 4½" grinder and a canadian tire 120V welder if I had access to the tools you have my wife would probably divorce me cause I have so many little projects and ideas for mods, I just don't have the proper tools to do them. Again very nice and clean work.... hope to be as good with metal one day

Thank you! I dabble in woodworking also. Built some furniture and a couple of electric bass guitars.

Hey Yooper. Just studying your pics some more, I am pretty sure that with the linkage you designed the 2 jaws will scissor together and stay centered over the log or whatever and you can grab it without having to move the machine to stay centered which is really slick. I have run alot of grapples in my day on loaders and excavators, and the back jaw is always stationary with the ram moving the front one to grab so you either have to run the stick out on an excavator, or move the machine for a loader to stay centered. Really great idea!!

Wish I could take credit for the design, but I got it off of a site called Grabcad. Interesting point that you make about the grapple operation. I grew up around logging, and for as many times as I've been around grapples loading trucks, I never paid any attention to how they worked.

Yooper - like I said before with the grinder build, WOW!!

I know it's been repeated many times but trust me, these threads are fascinating!!
The ingenuity and workmanship; holy smokes!

The stump grinder, shortening the cylinder, grapple...I look forward to following them very much. I'm now wondering what the Rube Goldberg will be for the grapple. The suspense is killing me....not really, but looking forward to your next innovation.

Odd thing, I didn't really want to see the grinder completed, because it meant an end to the thread and project!

Thanks so much for documenting your projects!

Now get your ass to work, but not too quickly!

Thanks! And you never have to worry about me getting to work too quickly!

 

[dpaulson]

Thanks for that great resource. I am an autocad guy, but I have downloaded FreeCad which I can export to .dxf myself and I can scale it in autocad. Thanks again

 

[sinisterbiker]

Very cool

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

 

[Yooper]

Thanks for that great resource. I am an autocad guy, but I have downloaded FreeCad which I can export to .dxf myself and I can scale it in autocad. Thanks again

That's a full grown grapple in the link. I scaled it 3/4 for reference. Please post your progress if you can.

 

[Yooper]

Spent the weekend working on mystery Rube Goldberg parts. Drilled, bored and honed a 3" x 3" x 10" square stock to a 2.005" bore, among other things. Hmmmm?

 

[Tooljunkie]

Those welds are magnificent!
(Showoff)
So im thoroughly impressed with this build. I will be forwarding it to my buddy that plans on building a grapple. He will be blown away.

 

[Lil Foot]

That honed hole is magnificent too! Keep it coming, love your projects!

 

[Yooper]

Those welds are magnificent!
(Showoff)
So im thoroughly impressed with this build. I will be forwarding it to my buddy that plans on building a grapple. He will be blown away.

Thanks much!

That honed hole is magnificent too! Keep it coming, love your projects!

I enjoy honing for some reason. Not sure I'd want a steady diet of it, though.

 

[Yooper]

Some more pictures of the rotator parts.

 

[Yooper]

Working on the rack portion of my rack and pinion rotator. I'm using some 2" TGP (turned, ground, polished) steel rod that has been laying around for a couple of years. Milled a pocket to accept the rack and fit in the TGP. Then checked for fit in the square stock that I bored and honed. Milled a 1/4" slot the entire length opposite of the rack so a hardened dowel pin can keep it from rotating.

 

[Yooper]

Spent the whole weekend machining the gearbox. Although it doesn't look like much progress was made, there is a pretty good size pile of chips on the mill. Add a grease fitting and attach the bellows to the rack shaft, and this will be done.

 

[rkidd]

Looking good Yoop. Ton of work there. I have some ideas, but will be interesting to see how it all hooks together and operates!!