Searching for DIY Hydraulic Machine Plans

other then a shovel, I do not know what soil type you have, but if its price sensitive, and low use, look here? check this out. both a trailer operated under $3,000.0 and a smaller for $900.00

and you can get a 20% discount with this

Pneumatic wood splitter?

p911

I built my own front end loader for a 65Hp tractor.As a person who hated algerbra I discovered why they tried to get me to do it, but I sat down and made my own drawings to scale and then went and built it.

Has the unit strong mounting points and will it handle what you have in mind, you will need a hydraulic pump, a tank and filter to hold and clean oil, a hydraulic valve two spool and then hydraulic rams and hoses, all this will cost quite a bit of money.

So is the expense to do the job worth the effort.

Why not sell it and look for a second hand light tractor they make them about the size of a lawn mower , repo sales etc are a good place to look or trading posts.

I am in Australia, but I would think that in the U.S. you should be able to find any amount all set up at a cheaper price than what it would cost to play around and finding the thing will not handle the work intended.

remember these units are meant to carry a light weight cutting deck and are only pressed steel, putting a bucket on it and using it as a bull dozer will soon test how good it was built.

I completly agree with You. This is excelent advice! I had a similar lawn tractor and it wasn't even suggested to use for plowing snow, not large enough.

If He is looking for a compact crawler/loader/backhoe, a company in wisconsin called "struck corp" makes a very nice one. I owned one for about 8 years and it worked beautifly.

oilcan13

On our farm, we had what I call a bone yard that had old machinery, located on our back lane for parts, we would salvage bearing, shafts, structural, sheet metal and the like. Then and what we didn't have we would go to the locale savage yard. one time they had (2) Massey Harris Combines, and they had all isolated hydraulics that was easily unbolted.

At times we would need to buy new components, but if we could keep the money in our pockets, we did. And the labor my dad had was cheap....something keep the boys busy.

We built wood splitters, implement trailers, dump wagons, rebuilt 3-4 sawmills. Our farm shop was pretty well equipped. But at 16 yo I signed up at the locate Technical college were they offered a course called Machine Shop Practice, it started out for $9.75 you would get 10 night courses that lasted 3 hours. I did all our heavy machining with this. for the next 4-5 years I signed up for it all the each time the course was offered.

On the farm it taught me a very valuable lesson, and that is improvised.

p911

How about this? Red Green, eat your heat out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"The Beast homemade digger. Gary says "it just goes to show the mad things people will do to get out of using a spade"! I like the comfy seat and the use of baler cord."

"This unique backhoe was built by Hoss in Canada. He uses it for landscaping. Good to have a cab to keep the rain (or snow) off and protect you if the digger did tip over."

I just searched "excavator plans". There's probably even a forum, somewhere.

Homemade diggers, homebuilt excavators, towable diggers, backhoe plans

Ha, I'm surprise he didn't use a lazy boy for a chair. or if you have a friend.

but on the serious side, for thinking about a pneumatic I would question the safety with the compressibility even for a small unit,

p911

You are right. This is no place for air power. Air cylinders are springs.

I hope the poster has a lot to chose from as one is better than the other.

In short, hydraulics is liquids and pneumatics is gases, under the umbrella of fluid mechanics that covers both. For this you will need hydraulics. As the previous pix show, some pretty sophisticated rigs are within home-building range. Enjoy!

There are several Yahoo groups that discuss devices such as you are proposing to build. You should give them a search before committing to anything. Could result in a better device or less expenditures.

Try "MTD", "tractors", "garden tractors" and such.

http://www.oilyhands.co.uk/Build_your_own_digger.htm The URL answers your quest.

berge

Google Cad Plans. They have many plans for small excavators, loaders and even tractors. They also can provide kits.

If your tractor is hydrostatic drive it has a pump and probably a place in the piping where you can tap into the Hydraulic circuit to run a bank of valves. Cylinders do not have to be backhoe size unless you plan to do major work. PTO driven hydraulic pumps will supply plenty of power 2000 psi and that is enough to lift much if you are not in a hurry. Pressure lifts, volume is for speed. A 4 inch cylinder will lift or push at around 25000 pounds on the rod. if the pump is small it will still push that much only taking a little time to do so. I would not use pneumatics as it makes for a bouncing work force while hydraulics stop instantly when the valve is closed.

there are may places on the internet that supplies instructions for what you are looking for. I will look up some of them and post them later this evening.

have to be careful about over heating your oil, you reservoir may not be big enough for the extra accessories for cooling.

Hello Guys,

Many thanks for the great information given so far, and there's lots of it! Now I have to digest everything and make some decisions, primarily as to how much I want to spend on this thing and what options to go with.

I really don't know much about the MTD tractor that my mom has stored away, except that it has low hours on it, won't start and as a hydrostatic Tranny, other than it's a big one, probably with a 20+ HP Kohler engine in it. I'll know more about it later next week when I go to her place and drag it home, Thank God I just bought a new 5'x8' Utility Trailer this past week, and attached a new Class III towing package onto the van this past weekend!

I may keep this initial project simple from the get-go and just go with a DIY front loader that's slaved off the hydrostatic system. Per P-911 comments it does look like I'll need to increase the reservoir volume in order to keep things cool. Does anyone have any suggestion on a minimum required reservoir size? 1 Gallon? 1.5 Gallon? etc.?

TIA guys!

Do a little calculating first. Figure out the displacement of the cylinders and such you are going to use. Then 125% of that volume is the tank size. If you are using the hydrostatic drive pump for the unit then you will have to add the tank on the same level as the sump for the hydro unit to keep the oil level correct. Little engineering for you to do.

If you are going to add a pump on the PTO then the tank can be mounted anywhere that is convenient to the supply and return lines for the pump and valve bank. I used prince valves in the past on a kubota conversion. Worked well. (Northern Hydraulics)

As not to repeat what has been previously reported, I'll add this: If this questioner is going to build a system, he must consider cooling the oil and pump. The oil can get very hot when being worked under pressure and if not cooled properly, the oil and may be the components will be damaged.

Hello, for what your wanting to do I would think around 5 gallons maybe use a "transmission cooler" with a fan on the line feeding back to tank. This may not be the best way to cool the oil but there would be less of a problem with pressure rated parts on pump side. As long as the oil has free flow from pump and not through pressure bypass the heating should be minimal for the work running the loader or backhoe. For safety on any closed loops like the loader holding a load in an up position you should have an over pressure safety valve to protect people and equipment.

Even small lower pressure hydraulics equipment pressure leaks can cause injuries or death if the oil stream enters the body. Just be safe working/building your project.

Charles

btw- does the mower motor turn over or is the battery dead or is there wiring issues.

I may be able to help find wiring diagram or something close a lot of these mowers are built by the same company just badged different.

If motor turns over the fuel pump may not be pulling fuel and/or carbs may/are gummed up.

If the motor is similar to mine the fuel pump is driven by exhaust pulse. This season my mower did not want to start even with the choke on I put my hand over the air intake for a few seconds completely cut air flow after a couple of tries it started ran ruff for short time then even out.

Valve choice can make a considerable difference. If the pressure-flow energy is converted mostly into useful mechanical work, the heating of the oil may be comparatively mild. But if the oil is being shoved through relief valves (such as can happen at the end of cylinder strokes), then the energy is dissipated into heating the oil. Open-center valves will minimize this undesirable effect.

Hello CaptMoosie, here a Google search that will give you several links to choose from

riding mower front end loader.

here a Cub Cadet spec page for backhoe and front end loaders sizes may be larger than what will fit on a rider mower but you could scale to size needed.

Never anger a guy who can operate a backhoe!

Another for Homemade backhoe

Here a site for loader planes and more.

Oh BTW your mower most likely has a belt driven hydrostatic trans-axle. Not a true motor driven hydraulic pump hydro-drive. But you can use the pulley that drove the mower deck. It would even be better if the drive pulley had a electric clutch instead of a belt tension idler. It would save wear and tear on the belt. You would only need it to engage after the mower motor was started. Starting the motor un-loaded is easier and safer on everything. Last thing would be upgrading the front axle-spindles.

Like a few have said your hydraulic pump flow-pressure is what controls speed and lift capacity.

There some sites on basic hydraulic fundamentals. This site hydraulic-pneumatics has a good e-book section.

Last thing Surplus Center seems to be a fair price on pieces and parts and more.

Hope this gives you some more ideas. This is a "roundtuit" projects Ive been toying around with past few years and learning-self teaching about hydraulics and more. I hope this summer i can start several of my projects. I plan on posting some of them on CR4 of my trial and errors with them.

Charles

Hello again, I found a web site w/free DL Books I've paged it to Fluid Power Navy Manual

there are some other books to help with symbols, basic hydraulics and so on.

Charles

Good site......it looks vaguely familiar, did you post the link here on CR4 before?

Not sure if I did or follow some one else link to site. I have been there some in the past looking. Can not knock military training literature for basic understanding a subject.

Charles