Cut a fork in half the long way?

[CCWKen]

Nice work on the trakter! I made forks that attach to my bucket. I found a piece of 1" square shaft in the salvage yard that I think was part of an implement. It was dang hard but still weldable. I don't have a picture of them but I could get get one tomorrow. They're movable along the bucket edge with a support at the rear of the bucket. All I do is loosen a bolt on each and they slide right off. I use them close together to dig out cactus or apart for hauling tree branches or moving stuff around.

Here's the tractor they mount on. I call it my Kenbota!

[Bguns]

Neighbor has one..
Here is all you need to know about em:
http://www.powerking.info/restoration.htm

[mark61]

Buddy on the farm up to hill from me wanted some kind of forks for his 65 hp tractor. Had a mounting plate for the front end loader so we welded so 3x3 angle iron about 30" long with the ^ pointed up and some bracing. 1 day I pulled in to visit and he had an old F150 hanging 5 feet off the ground with those forkes wedged between the frame and cab!

mark61

[Jim2]

Tell us about that tractor: Make, Model, Age, HP, etc.

The tractor is a 1979 Powerking 1614. It was made in Waukesha Wisconsin. It's powered by a 14 Horsepower Kohler K321 engine. It has two 3-speed transmissions hooked up one after the other giving 3 reverse speeds and 6 forward speeds. The loader is OEM, though I've customized it by mounting it lower and further back on the tractor. I added some steel to the frame to build it up. The rear wheel weights are off of a combine each half (for a total of 4 weights) are 100 pounds.

The little tractor gets a real workout keeping the snow cleared at my house. I've got a 5' backblade for the 3 point. The loader and the backblade work very nicely together. The tractor is maybe a little underpowered with just the 14 Hsp Kohler. I've got a big hill and I generally plow downhill, and then come back up empty in high gear. Plowing is no problem--it's coming back up that gets the Kohler out-of-breath.

Jim

[Jim2]

With the right blade I don't think it would too much trouble to split one, time consuming, but doable.

May want to rig up a guide to keep the cut straight, then grind to soften the edges and get rid of any potential stress risers on the cut edge.

I haven't split them, but I have cut them down to short little stubs, and they weren't an more difficult to cut than any other thick steel I've cut.

Be easy if you had even a little 4x6 HV, build an inclined table with a couple guides for it then gravity feed the fork in.

Ken.

That's kind of what I was hoping for. I have run into trouble in the past trying to hacksaw cast iron. I salvaged some weights that may have been used in construction(?). They had a couple of welds on them. Whenever i get close to the welds, the hacksaw would get teeth rounded off. I tryed to machine that stuff in my lathe with carbide, and there was no joy.



I want to avoid paying $100+ for a fork, ruining it, destroying a bunch of bandsaw blades, and having nothing in the end to show for it! Now, I know that forks aren't made out of cast iron, but I really don't work with anything other than mild steel very often.

Truth be told, I ain't gonna get at this anytime soon. I'm thinking about it now with the idea of trying to find some forks if this idea is feasible. I'm selling a house, moving, and I'm going to be finishing the basement at the new house. Plus, as I mentioned already, I'm kind of wondering if the little tractor will be up to the duties that are required at the new place.

Thanks for all the input. I know there are a lot of "forks" out there that are made of tube or whatever. Considering my lifting capacity, they would probably be fine. I'm just partial to recycling a real forklift fork if I can make that work.

Here's something else that I found:

http://www.budgetforklift.com/micro-pallet-forks.html

That would be a sure thing, but no doubt a little more spendy!

Jim

[Jim2]

Nice work on the trakter!

Thanks, but most of it is OEM. The loader mount, and some little touches here and there are my own.

Here's the tractor they mount on. I call it my Kenbota!

I like that Kenbota! I'd love to make my own tractor, "someday". People ask me what I use all that stuff (lathe, mill, welder) for. I mostly just give them that "deer-in-the-headlights" look, and mumble something about restoring, or making tooling or something, and that it's a hobby. It'd be nice to have something to point at and say "that's what I do in the shop!".

Jim

[GKman]

I mad a set of fork lift forks for the back of my Ford 8N tractor. I used angle iron (3X3X1/4 I think). End view, upside down ell. Side view, tapers from full 3" to 1/4" at the end. Top view 3" wide end to end. Only had to rip 1/4" thick mtl that way.

[Ries]

Most forklift forks are HARD.
Ever tried drilling one?
Aint easy.

I would think that even with $20 bimetal blades, you would go thru a few, and it would be mighty slow, cutting a blade in half lengthwise.

I think its cheaper in the long run to just drop a couple hundred on the Northern Sales small forks, or something similar.

[Mcgyver]

i made a fork attachment once for a three point hitch, used heavy walled rectangular tubing - can't rember how heavy, at 1/4 inch (this was 25 years ago). torched a triangle out of each side at the end so i could bend the top down so the ends came to a wedge. work well. i'd bet you'd pop those tires before you bent the tubing.

[Jimno2506]

What about two iron "digging bars" or the like. They are hard and don't bend easy.
They may not be as wide as you'd like, but you could always put something like c-channel on top.


http://www2.northerntool.com/product/200326362.htm


Regards,
Jimno