Procrastination? Who? Me?

I've got to rebuild this old grapple fork and the wife keeps telling me that I'm procrastinating.

Gee, can't imagine why. Groan….. :>(

Allan

That one looks good compared to the one my father still uses

They are something of a combination head which starts out as a simple old materials handling fork.

Add that pan across the lower teeth and it can be used to move dirt. Then, add the grapple fork and it is used for hay, straw, bales or whatever.

The head is very common out here because of the cattle. With the dirt pan off, they work real slick at feeding silage and hay at the same time.

Anything hauled into the lot in the form of feed over winter has to be of course, hauled out in the spring in the form of manure, so the darned things pretty much stay on the loader all the time except for snow removal and stacking hay which would use either a bucket or a hay head (Sweep).

Allan

casey in SD

Something else I was thinking about trying with the grapple. Could a guy rig a wedge on the middle "prong" and use it as a wood splitter? You could remove the three teeth, then put the wedge in place of the middle tooth. What are the pitfalls versus the rewards? Think it would work?

Dug

Since I've got ear, I might ask how are you going to brace those teeth? Looks like you've got some bracing on it now. I was thinking about running a piece of angle across the three teeth in three different places (about 18 inches from each other.) I'm afraid, though, it may cause me to hang up when unloading brush. Any good suggestions to beef it up and keep it from grabbing brush when unloading?

Dug

The problem with these earlier ones was that the forks were only what? Only 3/8" thick and made of steel, I think. They would bend. The replacements are 1/2" cast iron teeth; they don"t bend, they just snap off if overloaded.

So anyway, what happens with these old ones is that they would bend and the first tool that some old farmer grabbed was the darned welder, tryin" to "brace" the teeth. That just doesn"t work and is what I"m faced with; getting all that old badly welded crap off of the head.

The best way to strengthen the things is to use the factory Farmhand reinforcement, which is nothing more than an angle iron laid crosswise across the top of the forks out where they start the bend downward. Then two smaller angle irons were welded perpendicular to the first iron and straddled each fork tooth with a bolt thru the two irons under the fork.

That way, nothing is actually welded to the fork itself.

Allan

Aw, the pictures don't really show how bad this thing is. Welds and "farmer fixes" all over the place. She's a tired one.

Allan

Don't think it is worth saving; needs one fork, one outter tooth & clamp, the pivot shaft assembly and one pillow block.

Might be able make a big bale fork outta it though. Dunno. :>(

Allan

Too many rains here. farmers cant get their onions,cabbage and lettuce planted yet.

steveormary