Pallet Forks

[thebuildist]

I picked up a set of 4" wide X 42" forklift forks for $50. Great deal. The guy also had an old bent up back guard for $10, so I bought that too.

My quick-attach system is off of a Toro Dingo design, which is 10" high and 28" wide. But I've widened mine to 36" to reach to the outer edges of my boom arms.

Standard forks of this size are 16" between the faces of the upper and lower hook. In order to get that much distance I'd have to build an independent frame of that size and then attach that fram to my quick-attach adapter plate. I decided I'd rather just mount the forks directly to the quick-attach adapter plate.

For the upper mount rail I took a piece of 1/2" by 3" steel bar and cut it to 36" long, then cut a series of notches in it to correspond to the various adjustable fork locations.

I then welded that rail onto the top edge of my quick-attach adapter plate.

For the lower rail I took a piece of 1/2" x 2" shaped "track" and cut it to 36" and welded it across the bottom edge of the adapter plate. The thicker profile track shape gives that member more bending/twisting strength, and serves to kick the bottom edge of the fork tines forward, which gives the forks a little more backward tilt. (Using the forks on a loader, it's often handy to have the forks able to roll back well past horizontal.)

That left the upper and lower rails about 11.5" apart, and my forks are intended for 16". So I cut the welds on the upper hooks and welded the hooks back on farther down, to match the 11.5" distance between rails.

Welding on these hooks on isn't generally advised. The hooks are under a lot of stress, and the tines are a very thick and made of a tough high-carbon steel. So there can be a danger of a "cold" weld, where you don't get proper penetration and bonding. I decided to go ahead, partly because I won't be using the forks anywhere near their original capacity, but committed to doing the welding as carefully as possible.

So before welding the hooks back on the tines, I cut off the excess 5" from the tine risers. Then I tacked the hooks in place, and took a big propane weed burning torch and heated the whole region up to right around 500 degrees before I began welding. I used 3/32" 7018 rods, with the first pass running 145 amps, which is way hotter than normal. But it ensures that I don't get a cold weld.

I carefully cleaned the slag thoroughly between welding passes, running about 110 amps after the first pass. It took about 3 passes to weld around most of the hook, but the area up underneath the hook took 5 or more passes to fill it all in properly.

Then I cleaned the tines up and painted them black, installing new locking hardware.

Next I spent a couple hours straightening the bent up back guard as best I could. I had to cut the ends off of it to make it match the width of my forks adapter, and in the process I converted it to a two-piece configuration, so that I can bolt it onto the adapter in two pieces. In order to remove the fork tines you just remove the back guard and slide the forks all the way off of either end.

I got everything painted and assembled and put it through its paces, and it all seems to work perfectly.

I couldn't resist the temptation, and I had to try picking up the back end of my truck. It's an F150 extended cab 4X4. I don't know exactly what the back end weighs, but I could JUST see the slightest daylight under the rear tires when the rear wheels on the loader came up in the air. So it's as close as you can possibly be to picking it up without actually picking it up. Oh well.

But it does show empirically that the forks are stronger then the loader's ability to lift, and that's what I was shooting for.

Bob

[Eugen]

I am officially very jealous of your forks! Wow!

[Harry]

Bob sounds like your WPS for the forks is a good one. Preheat keep the heat while welding then cool down slow to prevent any cracking.

Keep the Peace
Harry