Show us your Arb Diggers please.

[dig-dug-dan]

59 minutes ago, doobin said:

Personally I buy mainly from the internet, on price. This is because I've learnt the hard way that (around me at least) most dealers, fitters, welders, mechanics etc aren't worth a wank, and I can do a better job myself. The trade off is that I have to carry a lot of steel stock, tools and fittings myself- but there's not many Sundays when I can't get myself out of the shit with what I have in stock.

 

Approved wanted £280 for a headstock for my rotator. Having seen the 'standard' of some of their mini digger headstocks (6mm plate on the cheeks!), I think a good morning in my workshop was time well spent. A pound saved is as good as a pound earned. I also got the angle of the holes spot bollock for my particular digger's crowd angles.

 

Here's a tip for anyone doing similar- if you have to do a complicated bolt circle, plot it out in a CAD program and print it at 1:1 with centremarks. Use spray adhesive to stick it to your plate. Centrepunch, remove template and centre drill. Stick it on the mill and bore the holes. On a ten bolt circle with M10 bolts I drilled the holes at 10.5mm for clearance, and it was spot on.

Sounds good if you have a cad program and know how to use it!

[doobin]

37 minutes ago, dig-dug-dan said:

Sounds good if you have a cad program and know how to use it!

Draftsight is free and the learning curve not too bad for basic stuff like bolt circles ??

[LGP Eddie]

14 hours ago, doobin said:

Personally I buy mainly from the internet, on price. This is because I've learnt the hard way that (around me at least) most dealers, fitters, welders, mechanics etc aren't worth a wank, and I can do a better job myself. The trade off is that I have to carry a lot of steel stock, tools and fittings myself- but there's not many Sundays when I can't get myself out of the shit with what I have in stock.

 

Approved wanted £280 for a headstock for my rotator. Having seen the 'standard' of some of their mini digger headstocks (6mm plate on the cheeks!), I think a good morning in my workshop was time well spent. A pound saved is as good as a pound earned. I also got the angle of the holes spot bollock for my particular digger's crowd angles.

 

Here's a tip for anyone doing similar- if you have to do a complicated bolt circle, plot it out in a CAD program and print it at 1:1 with centremarks. Use spray adhesive to stick it to your plate. Centrepunch, remove template and centre drill. Stick it on the mill and bore the holes. On a ten bolt circle with M10 bolts I drilled the holes at 10.5mm for clearance, and it was spot on.

If you haven’t the kit skills or inclination, best thing is to do what you’re best at and leave others to it.

 

If I send you an order for a 20/13 multi head bracket with dog bone and normal pins, converting down to JCB JZ70 Semi Hitch on a Wednesday in Scotland with no drawings, could you have said item to me Saturday morning in Staffordshire completely finished by Coded Welders, Traceable Steel, full computer design etc and my arse completely covered should the worst ever happen.

 

Go poking about for the Cheapest kit and your pound saved could often be the most costly or expose you to the maximum risk.

It all depends on your applications, facilities and ability.

 

Not everyone out there is shite, some incredibly talented guys all over the country, the hard bit is finding them, and generally when you do they’re flat out with no need to particularly advertise their services.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eddie.

[LGP Eddie]

Just an example of exactly the same thing installed on the same machine, no names of installers.

You have to remember that the cost of either would be the same, but one installer might be making a bit less than the other due to using up a bit more pipe than the other!?

 

Which one would you want on an Arb machine?

 

There’s quality out there, finding it’s the hard bit, but if you don’t know what you’re looking for in the first place it’s even harder!

 

 

 

 

 

Eddie.

[LGP Eddie]

Had a few messages about running a Flail under a Tiltrotator and can you simply ‘T’ into the lines and run the Flail with the Tilty piggybacking off it?

 

This is my own experience some 10 years ago now and yes I was able to simply ‘T’ into the lines, the SVAB controlled the Flail via a latching button, and the Tilty would work normally by robbing a bit of flow when I activated a roller to manipulate it.

 

Trick was to use small movements and adjust it out of the cut to keep the head fully spinning.

I only did it occasionally, as I never really had much I couldn’t get with the head fixed.

 

With regard to Case Drain, it was simply T’d back into the return on the mower itself, no need to run the pipe any distance, and to protect it come the worst, just install a 5 bar crack off one way valve free to air.

Basically if you ever get up to 5 bar it would allow a tiny bit of oil past to prevent the motor seals blowing.

Pipe it and catch it if you like, but I only run bio oil and in all the time I used it, it never blew off anyway.

 

 

 

 

Eddie.

[monkeybusiness]

Tight fit with the gripper! 

[LGP Eddie]

46 minutes ago, monkeybusiness said:

Tight fit with the gripper! 

Could pick it up backwards I’d have thought, might just be enough crowd at full reach away from yourself to actually use it to move the odd big piece.

 

[sjs5060]

Shameless plug but I've just put one of my machines on arbtrader so if anyone's looking for a 3 tonner it mite be worth a look.

 

ste

[doobin]

11 hours ago, LGP Eddie said:

If you haven’t the kit skills or inclination, best thing is to do what you’re best at and leave others to it.

 

If I send you an order for a 20/13 multi head bracket with dog bone and normal pins, converting down to JCB JZ70 Semi Hitch on a Wednesday in Scotland with no drawings, could you have said item to me Saturday morning in Staffordshire completely finished by Coded Welders, Traceable Steel, full computer design etc and my arse completely covered should the worst ever happen.

 

Go poking about for the Cheapest kit and your pound saved could often be the most costly or expose you to the maximum risk.

It all depends on your applications, facilities and ability.

 

Not everyone out there is shite, some incredibly talented guys all over the country, the hard bit is finding them, and generally when you do they’re flat out with no need to particularly advertise their services.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eddie.

I agree there’s good guys out there. Few around me however, and by the time I’ve explained what I need I could have done it myself. 

 

Won’t work for everyone mind,but I personally wouldn’t have it any other way. Totally self sufficient. 

[monkeybusiness]

I’m really lucky to have a couple of brilliant engineering firms on the doorstep - they can make just about anything and have regularly pulled me out of the mire at the last minute. One in particular (Harbrook Engineering) builds stuff for people all over the country and have never failed to deliver perfect kit/repairs - they are between my house and my yard too! They are genuinely worth looking up if anyone needs anything fabricating as they only make good stuff.

 

One of my best mates made/fixed/dismantled whatever I put in front of him (immediately whenever necessary) and was the most incredible mobile fabrication engineer. I’d suggest an idea or show him something that wasn’t quite right or outright destroyed, and he would come up with a solution that would work every time. Unfortunately he died at Christmas and it has left a massive hole (from both a beer drinking and making stuff perspective). 

 

As Eddie said, it doesn’t necessarily come down to cost, and excellence is out there. I’m more than happy to pay every day of the week for something that is worth its money. I do get frustrated with crap service and salesmen’s lies though....