Tapered bucket for skid loader

[Bob]

I may have posted pictures of a tapered or trenching bucket I built several years ago but I can't remember. I ended up selling it as I didn't think I would need it any more. Now I need one and tried to buy the other one back but he wouldn't sell it even with a profit. I went back to the neighbor that had the big tapered I beam to cut the pieces out of the 5/16" web. I ordered a back plate for $139. It was the same price as the other one but I had to grind out and reweld all joints as they were so bad. Another friend had an unused piece of new cutting edge 8' long. 3 teeth, weld on studs and pins were $158. So $300 and my labor and I would have another tapered bucket. This time it was a little harder to cut the sides, bottom and gussets as I don't have my truck. It would have made it so much easier.

The other bucket worked very well for trenching and pulling up small trees with out tearing a big hole in the pasture.

[Bob]

This time I'm in the new shop at my new place and I have a lot more room as I'm retired and don't have crap every where for jobs. Got every thing welded up, E70s wire for the bucket and 7018's for bucket to back plate, cutting edges and teeth studs. The welding inspectors were tough on this job.

[Bob]

At 71 now, I'm not nearly as good as I once was but I can still see it melt in even if it's not very smooth.

[VaughnT]

Very nice work. I would never have thought about a tapered bucket like that, but I can sure see how it'd come in handy for a lot of different projects.

[Popeye an old miner]

This time I'm in the new shop at my new place and I have a lot more room as I'm retired and don't have crap every where for jobs. Got every thing welded up, E70s wire for the bucket and 7018's for bucket to back plate, cutting edges and teeth studs. The welding inspectors were tough on this job.

Thats a mean lookin bucket right there, scares me to think what that would look like comin at me. Thats some nice work you did there, I can understand why that fella dont wanna sell the old one back to you

[123weld]

u musta posted it, cuz i remeber someone from the south doing this. i was sketical it would hold up, apparently i was wrong. thats pretty good at 71. u gotta get back in a truck before u get too used to not having it, i mean whats a texan w/o a truck. anything from 73-87 ought to fit, even if it aint 4 wheel

[Bob]

It's at the mechanics place now. I'm hoping for the best.

[shortfuse]

At 71 now, I'm not nearly as good as I once was but ...

(as the country song goes..."once I was as good as I as I ever was") LOL

[SweetMK]

The welds must look like "chicken scratch" for that inspector to be spending so much time there,,,

Great looking bucket!!

[MinnesotaDave]

Pretty cool bucket

That's the type I got approved to make (for resale) at the High School shop class next year.

[scsmith42]

Good looking bucket Bob!

Around here they use buckets like that for rooting stumps out with a skid loader. They are surprisingly effective.

[Bob]

Pretty cool bucket

That's the type I got approved to make (for resale) at the High School shop class next year.

My partner in this ranch has a commercial one that is just about worthless. That is why I'm building this one as I sold the first because I knew he had one.

Couple things to keep in mind that mad mine better than his; I angled the back forward about 15 degrees. That makes it tilt upward further than his does. It helps in retaining the dirt to move and helps with rooting up little trees as you usually use the curl movement more. Also I used teeth that are flat on the bottom so when you are trenching, you set the bucket flat and tilt it slightly forward to scoop about 4" and drive along cutting your trench. Several passes like that and you're done. With his bucket, the teeth are about an inch off the ground and the bucket has to be tilted way to far to dig in.