How To Weld Grapple Forks On Loaders
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Roger Gutschmidt, Gackle, N. Dak.: “I do a lot of welding and repair work and often find myself welding grapple forks on loaders. Most of them break on the grapple arms that squeeze the bales tight. In my opinion, most of the problems could be avoided by sharpening the grapple fork teeth. When grapples come from the factory, the teeth are usually pretty blunt. It takes a lot of hydraulic force to push the tines into dense bales, putting stress on the arms and tines themselves. Any grapple fork that I work on in my shop gets the sharpening treatment. It’s just like a pitch fork. If the tines aren’t sharp, you can’t slide them into the hay or straw.
“I’m sure manufacturers make them blunt for safety reasons because if you bump into a sharp tine, there will be blood. But you’ll never do it again. Sharp tines slip into bales like a hot knife through butter. You can sharpen the tines with either a grinder or a cutting wheel.”
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How To Weld Grapple Forks On Loaders TRACTORS Loaders Roger Gutschmidt Gackle N Dak : “I do a lot of welding and repair work and often find myself welding grapple forks on loaders Most of them break on the grapple arms that squeeze the bales tight In my opinion most of the problems could be avoided by sharpening the grapple fork teeth When grapples come from the factory the teeth are usually pretty blunt It takes a lot of hydraulic force to push the tines into dense bales putting stress on the arms and tines themselves Any grapple fork that I work on in my shop gets the sharpening treatment It’s just like a pitch fork If the tines aren’t sharp you can’t slide them into the hay or straw “I’m sure manufacturers make them blunt for safety reasons because if you bump into a sharp tine there will be blood But you’ll never do it again Sharp tines slip into bales like a hot knife through butter You can sharpen the tines with either a grinder or a cutting wheel ”
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