Fork carriage for my Ford 755

[Frank S]

C-bag I wouldn't care if the containers from Kuwait arrived upside down as long as I got them.
The container I shipped over there was close to 30,000 lbs overweight so the company paid a huge weight Penalty then it took 15 people and a 10.000 lb forklift and a wrecker crane a week to unload it
I'll have enough work area around the lathe and enough tooling sorted out by sometime tomorrow so I can at least get the bushings made
I have those 2 flat bed trailers that I really need unloaded by the end of next week so I will have room for 2 more trailers
Hopefully the next trailer to arrive will be my tool and parts van then I will be able to erect at least a tent between them to give me some semblance of a covered work area for projects like the fork carriage
But there is only so much a near old fart and his 100 lb wife can get done in 1 day

[C-Bag]

For me I don't know which is worse, losing the whole thing, or opening up the container to see everything turned to scrap.

Our machinery wasn't that heavy but it was pretty heartbreaking to see what a ride in a container could do to it. One was a rotary tote dump that got sent to Tasmania(no joke) and another was special dump to Hawaii. We thought we had really tied both down but looking at the pictures the install crew sent back when they opened the container convinced us. Ever after nothing was sent in whole units. It was better send it in pieces and assemble there. Less overall time spent and in some cases saved us from just having to scrap the whole thing.

You've got some really nasty weather coming your way too. Very cold and wet. Good luck.

[Frank S]

The whole day was spent trying to straighten up enough so I wouldn't feel like I was having to walk over dead bodies while running the lathe but I sis manage to get half of the bushings made


It probably doesn't matter now since the cats decided they now own the tractor

[Frank S]

I'm a little dismayed with mu progress on this simple project. the main part of the carriage only needs some grinding done to the top and bottom edges then notches cut in for the fork position locks.
I have the 8 bushings made the weather from Thurs. through Sat. was less than cooperative for working outside so other than to finish up the bushings in the machine shop van. Then I got a call from a friend of mine that I have been repairing his equipment since before Ronald Reagan was running for President. He said that he needed me to come to Ft.Worth and do some repairs for him. Now I am not in a habit anymore of wanting to make 450 mile round trip service calls anymore, well 2 years ago the wife and I did make a 5000 mile round trip service call to repair and add safety upgrades to a 20 year old elevator that I built. so I do make them for a fee. Anyway here I am in FT.Worth hoping to finish up the repairs tomorrow

[C-Bag]

Your other van didn't show yet, so you could put the awning between the two? Working outside with no cover is my least favorite, second is working in an enclosed shop with poor lighting. Awnings on a good cement pad are my favorite though.

Good luck with the repairs. At first I got confused and wondered how in the heck you were going to get things done on the carriage and was in Ft Worth. Got bad brain sycro's.

[Frank S]

No the other van has not been delivered as of yet. I totally agree on the working outside with no cover. While I don't mind doing field work as long as it's not at my own place. It sure would be nice not to have to haul everything out when you start a project then make sure that each and every piece of equipment is rolled up and moved to a shed at the end of the day.
A concrete pad is not going to happen until I get ready to build my shop.
I've used the loader bucket to scrape off about 18 " of the top soil but still have a good 24" more I need to remove before getting down to a hard red clay and coarse sand layer. About 200 yards from where I a have started the excavation if I dig down about 6 feet I can find a suitable base material to fill in and build up the pad area for the building I want to make it about 2 ft above grade. This will mean that my little 6.5 HP duel action compactor is going to be way too small for the job. SO I might decide to take the 2 dozen or so old 10.00/20 truck tires I have that are mounted on Dayton rims. break down 1 side pull the tubes ram them full of dirt replace the ring then build me a roller with a weight box on top to pack the fill down with

[Frank S]

Back home last night so today first I unloaded all of those 10.00/20 tires & wheels and stacked them where I wouldn't need to move them until I start the roller project then the wife and I unloaded the rest of the trailer and the truck then She wanted some low hanging limbs trimmed from one of the trees so I finally got started working on my fork carriage sometime around 2 this afternoon.
First off I must have spent half an hour just trying figure how I was going to uses the parts I had for the mount plates then I had to make the 4 of them and no 2 could be cut just alike

Then lay out for the holes the position was not critical but I wanted them close to the same as the bucket mount is.

I stacked all 4 and drilled a pilot hole for the bushing hole locations
I also had to make a different stylus for my circle burning attachment that would fir in the pilot hole so the torch could not slip

Thye powder coat had to be burned off before cutting the holes





I probably could have cut the holes about .020" smaller but the fit turned out just fine for a weldement

Before I can weld these in I will have to fit everything up with an aligning bar so the bores will all be in near perfect alignment

[C-Bag]

Whew, what a lot of work! Are you still glad you didn't buy that other carriage for $600? I would think your usual hourly wage and the time you've got into this thing makes it waaaaaay more expensive than that. But what do I know?

Like my Okie G-pa used to say "I'm proud fer ya son" you are the king of heavy metal.

[Frank S]

Yeah I couldn't have got anywhere near the carriage like the one I am making for any price. And I would have still had to modify the other one to fit the loader
Newholand Ford does offer a fork carriage for their loaders but those things are little girl things as well
Thye are predicting freezing rain in my area tomorrow so may not get anything done. Typical west Texas January weather 70° one day and ice the next

[C-Bag]

I know the dilemma of not having exactly what you need available. Just wondered about the other carriage and knew you would have to modify. But I didn't know if it fit your needs. There is that hard to quantify point of where the cost/use balance is tipped one way or the other.

We work on the opposite ends of the scale you definitely being on the macro end of the scale. I've done some of that work when I worked on a rice farm but didn't like how they were always expecting me to work without proper tools. I did have a big old milk barn to work in, but that was a hassle too because of the troughs in the floor.

Do you have permits etc to contend with when you build your shop? Or are you in one of those areas where you can build whatever you want? I have a friend in Kentucky and he says you can do what you want where he is in the boonies.

I'm curious too why 2' above grade? Flooding? My biggest problem was it being hotter than Hades in the summer (100+) and cold fog for the winter. Was a farmer who had an earth sheltered above ground like bunker with doors on both ends and it was wonderful. Warmer in the winter and way cooler in the summer. Very cave like and dark to work in with the doors closed though.