u/boastgeckos

Four months ago I had a couple of posts looking for information about some unusual excavator buckets that I acquired in an auction lot. You can see the previous post here: https://www.reddit.com/r/heavyequipment/comments/1tw9to5/mystery_excavator_buckets_revisited/

Since then, I've acquired an excavator and wanted to adapt these buckets to a modern pin connection.

• Adaptor consists of two mirror image halves that grab the pipe at top of the bucket and bolt through the 2-inch bucket hole with an 18-inch length of 2-4.5 UNC grade 8 threaded rod with 4 nuts.
• Adaptor plates have bushings and holes for two 65x410mm pins.
• Main body of adaptor plate was plasma cut out of 1-inch mild steel plate. A 1/2 inch spacer about the same dimensions as the main plate (but with room for the bucket welds around the attachment pipe) is bolted and welded to the main plate. Two 3/4-inch reinforcement circles are welded to the spacer around the bushing holes.
• Holes were cut with annular cutters in a magnetic drill press, the 80mm annular cutter was purchased from China via ebay.
• Pins connect to my Caterpillar quick coupler.

Now that I have a proof of concept, I plan to make additional adaptors so that I can quick couple to the rest of my buckets.

Last month I posted photos of a mallard duck that made a nest in my back yard:

https://www.reddit.com/r/FortCollins/comments/1toqtfs/mallard_made_a_nest_between_the_junk_in_my_back/

Yesterday, her eggs started hatching and this morning she headed out with 8 ducklings toward the Poudre River. I followed her for 4 blocks through yards, streets, and fences until she entered a back yard that was surrounded on three sides by a solid privacy fence. I don't know how long she will stay there, but it probably has more stuff to eat there than in my back yard.

I had not realized until today that she was banded. I entered the number on the USGS bird banding laboratory website and got the following info:

>
INFORMATION FROM OUR FILES:
Species: Mallard
Date banded: 08/06/2024
Banding Location: NEAR SOAP LAKE, GRANT COUNTY, WASHINGTON, USA
Age: HATCHED IN 2023 OR EARLIER
Sex: FEMALE

Edit: The previous post and discussion can be found here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/heavyequipment/comments/1ttfbbo/i_have_some_excavator_buckets_that_attach_with_a/

A few days ago, I posted a photo of an excavator bucket that somehow attaches with a single pin. Thanks everyone for the insights in the previous post. I thought I might get some more ideas if I showed the rest of the buckets.

I've got 4 of these buckets, which were included in an auction lot with some buckets that fit my older John Deere backhoe.

The buckets are:

1. The 48 inch bucket with teeth pictured in the previous post
2. 59 inch ditch bucket with a bolt-on cutting edge
3. 39 inch bucket with teeth
4. 24 inch bucket with teeth (the rock digger inside this bucket has a Deere backhoe mount)

All buckets have a single set of ears that take a 2 inch pin, 8.25 inches between the ears.

All buckets have a 4 inch diameter pipe that runs along the top back of the bucket with evidence that something connected to that pipe.  The spacing of the pipe to the pin is 8 inches on center (of pin/pipe).  The pipe could be gripped with more than 11 inch spacing on three of the buckets, the 24 inch bucket has some extra flanges that increase the minimum 4 inch pipe grip spacing to 12.5 inch or so

Since I'd love to have a Cat 315, I was imagining how I could use these buckets on that machine (see last photo).  The Cat 315 uses 2 70mm pins with 11.06 inch inside spacing and 18.23 inch center-to-center pin spacing.  I designed a 1 inch plate that would hook the pipe, bolt or pin to the hole, and provide two 70mm holes with spacing for the cat 315.  The excavator or quick connect used with these buckets might have looked something like this. Note that this won't work on the 24 inch bucket---it would need more space between the pipe connections.

One suggestion from the earlier post was that this is half of a grapple bucket.  If so, I've got 4 halves and I'd love to see how the other half connected and what the whole assembly looks like.

This is a big bucket, too big for a mini-ex. From the first photo you can see that the paint is warn off around the top tube outside the pin flanges, so maybe it attaches there too. Also about 16 inches below the pin is a pocket that something could lock into. 8-inch spacing between the pin holes.

Only one set of holes, 2-inch diameter pin. 8-inch inside spacing between holes. I'm assuming that something fits into the pocket at the bottom, about 15 inches below the holes.

She managed to collect a big pile of leaves, I'm glad I didn't do a better job of raking them up.

This change should keep conservative rural Colorado from voting down the proposed sales tax.

https://coloradonewsline.com/2026/04/28/boundaries-rail-district-would-shrink/

https://www.cohousedems.com/news/bill-to-update-the-front-range-passenger-rail-district-to-pave-the-way-for-future-service-becomes-law

https://coloradosun.com/2026/04/22/front-range-rail-district-boundary-change/

Stopped by this evening and spoke with Hamilton, who said that they hope to open in two weeks as Brothers Automotive.

Does this indicate inclusive Slurpees, or is this God's promise never to rain again?

I seem to see one of these trucks heading south every time I'm on College Avenue. Anyone know what they are hauling?