Commenting on another post, I got thinking about the first thing I ever fabricated for my Case tractor, an improvised clamshell attachment, a way to turn my front blade into sort of Johnny bucket.
I cut out a piece of thin plate steel, the same width as the blade, and about 18" deep, to form the bucket bottom. Then I welded a couple steel triangles on its ends, to form bucket ends.
Then I bolted a piece of 1" pipe to the top edge of the blade, extending an inch past the blade edges, and then drilled the top corners of the triangles to be able to slip over the protruding pipes. So that creates a hinge point. The whole assembly hangs by gravity with the bucket bottom touching the original blade's cutting edge, but the whole assembly can rotate, pushing the bucket bottom forward, thus opening up the clamshell bucket.
The orange part is the original blade, the blue part is the attachment/bucket.
I added a vertical piece of pipe over on the left side, and attached a cord to the top of that pipe. From the driver's seat, you can pull that cord to open the clamshell and dump the bucket.
Lastly I welded an extra thickness of steel plate on the front to act as a cutting edge.
The overall idea worked just as I hoped, with a key caveat: I couldn't help myself but to overload it. When you drive into a a pile of moist dirt, the weight of the whole assembly is right at the very limits of the mid-lift's capacity. Within about an hour's use, the vertical link that lifts the blade up began to bend. I set my mind to re-engineering the blade lifting mechanism, but I ended up giving up on using the blade this way. I diverted my attention first to building a 3-pt hitch and attachments, and ultimately to a full-on loader build.
But it's not useless as it is, if only I could manage my own expectations, and only fill it about half full. It cuts a nice, flat path, and it's sure a lot faster than a shovel and wheelbarrow.
Bob
