Bending plate for loader bucket

[89GLH]

In the planning stages for my 1990 john Deere 420 loader, basically copying the 44 loader (for those familiar). How might one bend 1/8" plate round? Is this something typically a metal supplier can accomplish? Or is my best bet to have a geometric bucket, with angular proportions?

 

[csp]

If your metal supplier has a press brake with the right tooling they can make it round.

 

[Ruger_556]

Best to have someone do it for you. It is however possible to do with some creativity... I rolled a piece of 5/32 plate for a Ford Industrial loader bucket. The back of the bucket had rusted out. I used an oxy torch to cut out the back and then had a piece of plate cut to the right dimensions. I used a 6011 rod to weld across the front of plate where I had cut the old steel out (Plate is still flat at this point). Then took a piece heavy wall 5" pipe and cut a slot out so that I could fit it on the bucket points of a CAT E70 excavator. Used the excavator to push/roll the plate into place and tack welded it in as I went.

 

[BD1]

Maybe check local scrap yard for a chunk of large diameter pipe, 30'' ? 36''
What radius is it ?

 

[garboui]

Best to have someone do it for you. It is however possible to do with some creativity... I rolled a piece of 5/32 plate for a Ford Industrial loader bucket. The back of the bucket had rusted out. I used an oxy torch to cut out the back and then had a piece of plate cut to the right dimensions. I used a 6011 rod to weld across the front of plate where I had cut the old steel out (Plate is still flat at this point). Then took a piece heavy wall 5" pipe and cut a slot out so that I could fit it on the bucket points of a CAT E70 excavator. Used the excavator to push/roll the plate into place and tack welded it in as I went.

sounds like something I would do. lol. Just make sure that it never gets torched apart at the end of its life or else someone might get a bit of a surprise from all that stored energy.

 

[56FordGuy]

If you're building the loader from scratch, instead of pinning on the attachment and having to build a bucket consider putting on JDQA plates and being able to use a wide variety of commercially available implements.

 

[mark18mwm]

You might ask a local machinist / welding shop. I doubt they could do it, but I'm sure they would know where to have it done locally. Around my ares, a very small northern Wi. community, the place to get it done is a manufacturer of huge (often bigger than 10 foot in diameter) commercial fans. They make "squirrel cage" type fans that need to be round have all the tooling for it, and they will do out side customer work. Maybe you might try to find a company that does similar work by you.

 

[BLUE72CAMARO]

Any big sheet metal shop should have a roller setup. I work in a foundry and I deal with 2 different sheet metal/fab shops that could do this off the top of my head.

 

[dr_clyde]

Angular bucket would be much cheaper and easier. But, if you need the rounded back...

You could have a piece rolled, then **** weld the seams, but that prone to pretty bad warp on 1/8" plate. I'd brake bump it all out of one piece. If your sheetmetal shop has a NC back gage on their press brake, it's easy work to do the math and figure the amount of bumps and angle per bump to arrive at the finished shape.

Then just cut out the ends with the plasma torch and weld it up.

Or just go buy a bucket off a tractor at the boneyard.

 

[that-guy]

vice rolling it out, i would just use 5 flat pieces of 1/8" and weld them together. i could very easily in about 5 minutes design all 5 pieces, print out templates, and have them ready to transfer to the plate. trying to roll it isnt worth all that hassel

 

[Mud]

Make a cardboard template of the curve you want and get it rolled. You can dog it in as you build the bucket.

 

[gte718p]

I vote for a geometric design. 1/8 plate is not that thick. If you have a loader already, you could make a wood buck and bend the plate around it. A little pressure and a little heat and it should not be a problem.

Other then just being cool, I'm not sure that it justifies the time or effort over a geometric bucket. You would need to be careful in welding it up as the heat required to weld up a bucket does create a powerful pull. Uneven heating and cooling is an amazing force. When I did the truss for my axle, it was cheaper to buy the metal from a machine shop and have them water jet it then it would have been to buy stock form my normal supplier and plasma cut it to size.

My metal supplier in California would not have batted an eye at rolling it or breaking it to shape. Here in Virginia my metal supplier cann't cut stock to size. It is definately worth asking your supplier and calling around.

 

[mo2872]

Contact CTC....he'll sell you a "U Weld It" bucket kit, prebent. I bought one from him for my 455 mini-loader build.

http://www.compacttractorandcomponents.com/

 

[89GLH]

mo, I have the P.F. Engineering plans, might have to just source a bucket and fab the rest. I liked the idea of a curved bucket (less welding for me) but haven't checked with the local steel shop here in Westminster. Need to find a scrap yard around me that might have one laying around.

 

[dtt454]

for curved bucket liners, we take a piece of cardboard and cut it out to the right shape, the supplier we use does tons of these so its no big deal. i guess the biggest object is finding a supplier with the right equipment.

 

[mixerfixer]

Clark Machine in Baltimore can do what you need