Another Bucket Level Indicator Thread

[Kirt]

How about a proximity / level indicator?
A two part device, one in the cab and the other on the bucket.
Unless you are on perfectly level ground the level indicator itself won't be of any use.
But knowing the angle of the bucket in correlation to the angle of the machine would be useful.
A level bucket on a 10° slope is useless.

For your bucket, I completely agree.

Note that as a merchant, I would raise no objections to someone who wants a second one for the cab as you suggest. Maybe a bundle with a 2" for the cab and a 3" one for the bucket? Then you match the bucket one to the one in the cab if you're on a slope.

Of course, it depends on what you're doing on that 10° slope. if you're going down it with something on your forks, best to keep the forks level relative to gravity, not the slope.

<sigh> There's probably an instruction sheet in my future.

 

[bird dogger]

Based on the concerns of a potentially interested party in North Dakota, I left one with the new bearing design in the freezer for roughly 10 hours. Worked fine. Moved immediately when I picked it up. Obviously if it were full of water, the results might have been different, but I didn't do anything but pick it up off the counter and put it in.

I've been continuing to use the original prototype and I'm pretty pleased with the utility of the thing for my usage.

One more design fix is required for the 3" version, and waiting on feedback from the second beta tester before I remove the "BETA" label from the listing. Not too late to chime in with any questions or wants/needs.

Kirt, is your new bearing design now incorporated into the products listed on your Etsy account?

From your description of that design vs. skateboard bearings, I'd be tempted to prefer trying that up here in the Great White North of northeastern ND!!

Hopefully the snow will hold off for another month in order for more fall work to get done, so I could easily wait. But if your new bearing design is already in the indicators (or you build them when ordered), I'll jump in on one of the Beta models right away.

As nice as your new and improved Unifence cursor is, I'm anxious to put your level indicator to good use this upcoming winter!!

David

 

[Joisey]

My L47 has a bucket leveling feature which works from ground level to max height. That, along with the leveling rod that Kubota uses works fine for me. With that being said, I have been known to spend weeks making something that I find useful and other people just shake their head at. But it IS my time and my money. I say go for it.

 

[Kirt]

Kirt, is your new bearing design now incorporated into the products listed on your Etsy account?

From your description of that design vs. skateboard bearings, I'd be tempted to prefer trying that up here in the Great White North of northeastern ND!!

Hopefully the snow will hold off for another month in order for more fall work to get done, so I could easily wait. But if your new bearing design is already in the indicators (or you build them when ordered), I'll jump in on one of the Beta models right away.

As nice as your new and improved Unifence cursor is, I'm anxious to put your level indicator to good use this upcoming winter!!

David

You're too kind, thank you. I've got a dream of making a version of that cursor with a built-in magnifier over each line. Still working through that. Hopefully I'll get it done before I can't get along without it.

If you want a 2" version of the level indicator, that one is basically ready to go. If you'd like to wait till early next week I think I'll have the last bugs worked out of the 3" one. The biggest issue has to do with flex in the side pieces being a bigger problem than in the smaller version. The ugly way to fix that is to just beef it up, but I'm looking for something a little more elegant than that.

 

[Kirt]

My L47 has a bucket leveling feature which works from ground level to max height. That, along with the leveling rod that Kubota uses works fine for me. With that being said, I have been known to spend weeks making something that I find useful and other people just shake their head at. But it IS my time and my money. I say go for it.

My 23s has neither, so color me jealous. Also, SWMBO (She Who Must Be Obeyed) asked enough questions about the need for the 23s. That said, she's a keeper.

Like my books, I doubt this thing is going to be a huge seller, but I'm retired* and I enjoy the process.

And once in awhile someone like @bird dogger comes along and throws some appreciation my way. Makes for a good day.

*Worked long enough to be able to fail at small business until I die.

 

[Spam Bot]

My wife was kind enough to purchase one from Kirt, and I have been using it for about 2 weeks now. It does what it is supposed to do; however, the small numbers are sometimes hard to see. I think a bright orange line at the 0-degree mark would make it easier to read. I also have a tilt meter and a slope meter in the cab of my BX23S, and I have been keeping an eye on them since I have been moving a lot of sand, rocks, and dirt, and sometimes I have no choice but to put the tractor on a tilt to get some of the material into the bucket. So far, the meter hasn't fallen off, and I am glad about that. One morning, I found it with some moisture inside, but when the sun came out and warmed it, the moisture dried up. Since then, I have removed it in the evening and put it on the cab's header panel. I am a very satisfied customer.

 

[Joisey]

My 23s has neither, so color me jealous. Also, SWMBO (She Who Must Be Obeyed) asked enough questions about the need for the 23s. That said, she's a keeper.

Like my books, I doubt this thing is going to be a huge seller, but I'm retired* and I enjoy the process.

And once in awhile someone like @bird dogger comes along and throws some appreciation my way. Makes for a good day.

*Worked long enough to be able to fail at small business until I die.

I started working in a machine shop when I was 5 and was taught how to cut threads on a lathe when I was 7. I turned 71 yesterday and still have a shop of my own.

When people ask why my wife isn't upset when I spend hours in the shop "inventing" something or other, she tells them that I don't smoke, drink or chase skirts or watch sports on tv. Even though I'm not inside of the house with her, I'm only a few hundred feet away in the garage doing something that I enjoy.

I have made everything from gears for a RC cars to reloading dies for 37 mm shells. A vivid imagination along with a pile of metal and the proper machines to shape the metal make for an interesting hobby.

One of my finest accomplishments was teaching my dyslexic grandson how to make a shouldered shaft with threads in the lathe using a blueprint for dimensions. It took him a while, but he hung with it, and thought things thru, accomplishing the job with no mistakes. The look on his face when he was done was priceless. It beats the heck out of watching television.