Druid's 'Drema's Druidfab Attachments !!

[v8druid]

some of you may remember this ........








I've had a couple of 'creations' in mind for it for a while and with the weather a bit more conducive to some bench work, it had to have it .....





A lot of thought has gone into some carefully planned and strategic 'lopping' to 'get the most' out of what would otherwise be scrap!





Hoping to get two 'projects' out of this, perhaps a third?

Those hanging brackets had to come off and I didn't want to just wreck 'em, as they could come in handy so a bit of grinding and effort to get 'em off



jeeez were they ever on there



but off they came



followed by some more lopping



and a hell of a lot of cleaning up!!!


lots more pix of the struggle with these lil' buggers here
http://s1275.photobucket.com/user/v8...deshow/buckets

eventually ended up with these





a few more bits an' pieces



to nail together and add to the previous bits



coming along

[v8druid]

set up on the bench for assembly



bit of a try on



Getting too heavy to man handle now so having to sling it.

well that's a fit






and back to the bench for a full 'firm up'






Any guesses yet?



A hell of a lot of thought gone into some inventive cutting here but the clean up is a bitch
Was only thinking Thursday, that 'in the day', I'd have dropped a new piece of steel into the band-saw, lopped off exactly what I wanted - at all the right angles, machined as required and stuck it together, all in a couple of hours, instead of the long winded process this has been


One issue has been that; as usual the box isn't perfect - rarely get it perfectly square and true, which causes all sorts of problems to be allowed for


A case of creative re-cycling though - with the current cost of materials, a half a tonne or so of steel to re-use is a gift horse not to be scoffed at!!
Got relieved of 160 quid Friday for some materials that weren't a lot to look at in the trailer, but available instantly and cut as I wanted 'em, so a premium had to be paid!!


Next time'll be a direct supply and wait - reckon I got 'hit' for 70-ish% OTT /above cost (unless steel's nearly doubled in price since October) ... was expecting +30-40% but!! ........ C'est la vie!!

[v8druid]

cleaned off the next bit with the 'axe' and ground it up clean



set it up



and stitched it ready for a trial fit



which worked out just fine



It's a.n.other set that'll pick off the floor with the blade.I first thought of doing it with the remnants of the grab frame some time ago.







getting it jus' right was paramount but also needed to get max lift too!


Back on't bench for a firm up, some more gussets



an' a coat of primer



Followed by a coat of 'Bitter Choccy' brown (as I've run out o' Druid Gold, 'til I get some more)!!



and here they are sat on't 'Drema's blade ready for action



I've also got a metre set of forks to fit this carriage, if I want some shorter ones



I've an idea to utilise the bracket, for a tray also.
Either using forks for a quick lift, in integral slots in the base, or I've got some spare top fork lugs that positioned right, on the back of a tray I could hang on the carriage rail and with two 1" bolts, through the two holes in the carriage, secure it to the brackets, so it'd be an easy up/down, for on / off.

It was a spare carriage I had sat and I wanted a set that'd be pick-able off the floor too. they're good for 3 ton so reckoned it'd be enough for the blade, although I dare say it'd pick a hell of a lot more.

Plus it's 'part 1' for a tray, as I say. Gonna have to 'trip over' some suitable materials for that though, first.

Would've been nice if they'd been on a 4ft carriage, but 3 ft'll do for now. If/when I trip over some more carriage rail, I'll 'add' a bit to each end. ...... 'Nother 3 ft carriage'd be handy, suitably lopped and 'adjusted' to suit to end up with a 6ft carriage


Then it was on to the next bits!!



This'll have you guessing for a while !!

[v8druid]

couple more to tease yer's all












"Waste not, want not" ......... would've been a bloody sight easier with some new stuff though













Answers on an e-postcard please

[v8druid]

Ok, so .............

Here's the latest little idea that's been ticking over in the Druid's grey matter for a while.
Need some extra height, on a reach, to get at the pine end of the barn, from the neighbour's yard, so .......














.......... I's been at the bench again.


The bracket's a bit of a lump, 'cos what's going on it is too!!


As usual, whenever I'm trying to do something, there's at least one of the cats who wants to see what's going on !!

before I could get on with it there were the remnants of the two brackets it was originally attached to the Toyota FLT with, to attend to .....











They took some persuading off, but they gave up eventually .


This is the triple stage 18' 6" lift mast that I might've mentioned before.


The bracket's set at the 45 deg angle to avoid it making contact with the bucket crowd ram on the dipper on full crowd. It's also this sort of size to give me something/a decent size 'footprint' to sit it on, when it's off.
I'll make up some sort of lock mechanism to make sure the forks stay at the bottom of the mast, when it's parked.
I could lay it down, but would ideally need to take the forks off, each time, to get it sitting flat, to do that!


Hopefully if it continues to be dry I might get the bracket finished off and perhaps even mounted soon.


Gonna need to have an 'in depth conversation' with Mog then, to pick his brains again on his 'magic' single acting on dual circuit plumbing idea, 'cos I can't recall the finer nuances of what gets plumbed where - least I want to check I've got it/remember it right


As usual and as some may have already discovered, there's a load more pix of this here, for anyone who cares for a gander ......... http://s1275.photobucket.com/user/v8...deshow/buckets


having got it all assembled and nailed together ......





'Twas time to see if it'd fit on't hitch ....



before dropping it into place to see if it'd fit on the mast



and clamping it up ready for some serious welding to attach it.





got it reasonably consolidated ....





then quality control took a look over it to make sure it was OK ....



before it got picked up for a bit of a trial fit ......



before it got turned over for yet more welding up.



then turned again .....




for ...... you guessed it ......... yet more hot stick !



'til I was happy it was solid enough to chuck it about a bit ...






'Drema handles it well and I'll be weighing it shortly to see just what's sitting there to give me an idea of capacities.
Ultimately this is more about gaining height, for access use, rather than lifting capacity. hence the great care in ensuring it is well and truly stuck together.

[v8druid]

several tedious hours of cutting and fettling later and I'd 'ended' 6 new pins;





two for the fork mast, which are much longer than all t'others





two for the 3 ft Geith bucket which need to be shorter than the rest,





and two more 'standard' ones for the grab.





Having returned the 'std.' pins out of the Geith to the B20 adapter, everything now has pins and can just be 'grabbed' at will, without faffing about swapping pins around.


As you can see the mast got the best part of a first coat of shiny tish, but I still had a few more bits I wanted to add, hence the 'shiny' bits, missing paint!!


added a few more extra bits and rolled it yet again to get at 'em to weld the undersides



removed the extraneous lugs that originally held the tilt rams



flipped it back over and finished off all the additional welding



to finally end up with this,





......... ready for some plumbing, after a conversation is had with 'the Mog', 'bout his trick one way plumbing circuit, to make it yet another Druidfab 'Drema attachment (which I have need to use shortly)
Better find it its forks tomorrow!


As per usual, there're loads more of the various bits of this, sat here for anyone who cares to take a gander - http://s1275.photobucket.com/user/v8...deshow/buckets

as this is such a lump I thought I'd better have a suss of just what it weighs












I wasn't far out with my guesstimate of about a tonne!

while I had the load cell out I thought I'd get some weights on t'other bits 'n bobs too






Surprised at this, a little




But not at this one - 'bout where I expected it to be





then the batteries decided they'd had enough - that, or the cell didn't like being awoken from its slumbers - couldn't get any further sense out of it, so went and got a smaller analogue out of hiding.











checked it against this one and pretty smack on ........








'collection corner' LOL!

[ianoz]

Great work there mate .Not going to be much that you won't be able to do with that machine .

[v8druid]

Great work there mate .Not going to be much that you won't be able to do with that machine .

Cheers Ian, much appreciated.
Could really do with a grapple/grab for rock handling - almost had one last week off ebay, but just missed the damned thing by a couple of hours - would've been ideal!!

[AndrewMawson]

Why do you not use a snipe service Graham? Takes the hassle out of remembering when to bid, and stops you getting carried away in the heat of the moment !

[v8druid]

Why do you not use a snipe service Graham? Takes the hassle out of remembering when to bid, and stops you getting carried away in the heat of the moment !

I've heard about those things Andrew, but never tried one - I prefer the 3 second approach with yer max value bid - if you get it you get it!

This one was a BIN item and I didn't see it 'til late one night ..... emailed the guy for additional info. on the size of it, which was difficult to gauge from the pix, which I got/saw eventually the next day and by the time I'd rung him to say "sold", I'd been beaten to it with someone hitting the BIN button.
Bloody pity as it was ideal and a very good price too.

[v8druid]

well the conversation with Mog was had today and he's given me a real easy way to get me FLT mast plumbed up, so it's a shopping trip to hydraulic heaven tomorrow for a few weird fitting converters ..... bloody Jap fittings .... and hopefully a bit of a try out thereafter!!

[v8druid]

Shopping trip was had and wallet lightened by 'enough' - didn't have two fittings I wanted so we had to 'improvise', otherwise I'd have had to go back again today - 30+ mile round trip for two fittings didn't appeal



the fittings I wanted (and they didn't have) were to enable me to swap the weird screw together QCs, on't drema dipper, for some 1/2" FFs so had to make up an adapter for now and I'll pick up said fittings again, but it did mean the hoses ended up a foot longer than planned ....... for now anyway !!







Bit late last night to crank up the 'Drema to 'wrap her up', so left her sat 'til this morning.





then picked up the FLT mast to turn my attentions to, after parking up the VA-r .


Have to say these FFs don't drop a lot of oil when you pull 'em, do they?!



The piddling rain that we started the morning with didn't help me get on one bit, so knocked out a new bonnet stay for the 'Drema's engine cover, which is bloody heavy.
Been meaning to do this for a while and was something I could do during/between the pee downs !!










I've been trying to source some new gas struts for her bonnet for ages - found the manufacturer but like pulling teeth trying to get a price and availability!!

Eventually got a figure of $61 each - ex works!! Quite reasonable thought I, then I asked for a shipping cost!!

Pull up a chair - "$171.23 USD " FFS - they're less than a kilo each, in fact I doubt they're a kilo the pair.

May be asking Hydrema for a cost for a pair, before going any further with Aegis, who make the damned things! .......... However we are talking Hydrema here!


The day eventually settled down, weather wise and I got to the mast ......

[AndrewMawson]

If you measure the movement of the gas strut and it's diameter, then search for a similar one it 'should' do as (as I understand them) they are almost all charged with the same pressure.

I struck lucky using this method with the engine cover stays on my 803 and picked up a pair for £12.50 posted from an ebay seller - they work a treat !!!!!

[v8druid]

If you measure the movement of the gas strut and it's diameter, then search for a similar one it 'should' do as (as I understand them) they are almost all charged with the same pressure.

I struck lucky using this method with the engine cover stays on my 803 and picked up a pair for £12.50 posted from an ebay seller - they work a treat !!!!!

cheers Andrew - you were real lucky
These are the struts and they're 1100N lift each (112kg force each - 102 kg = 1KN or 1000N)











Originally made by Hahn, now Aegis in the States.
Even though I'd sussed them and found them in their catalogue online, I had to send 'em these pix to match their product code - think they thought I couldn't handle the task of ID-ing their product from a set of dimensions - incidentally - a very comprehensive product list and the way it's laid out is excellent. Mine's a -
G 14 28 0250 1 0607 GZ12 GZ12 01100N
- I don't need the mounts, as I've already got the ball ends!!


http://www.hahn-gassprings.com/gs0615.htm



Have searched high and low for a match elsewhere and all I can find is the original spec. ones - it's taken weeks to get them to price 'em up (and a lot of chasing)!!
I'd have thought someone, somewhere'd be able to match the spec.s ??


The 'Drema's bonnet gets heavier by the day !!

[AndrewMawson]

There are companies that will re-gas your old struts if they're not physically broken. Even quite small bore struts take huge forces as they tend to mount them near to the hinge giving the weight lots of mechanical advantage.

this has reminded me that I need to replace the struts on my diesel bowser lid


http://www.sgs-engineering.com/gas-s...assing-service