On Monday, October 16, 2017 at 2:01:48 PM UTC-4, Leon Fisk wrote:
On Sun, 15 Oct 2017 17:00:23 -0700 (PDT)
" wrote:

snip
When I was back in Washington my neighbor had a backhoe
which I used on a couple of occasions. If I build a mini it
will not be near as cool, but will beat the shovel I have
been using.

Not sure how big you're planning on... but there were several youtube
videos for the HF version last I looked. It was a couple years ago, I
found them interesting. I wouldn't want to go any smaller than those
for a home brew.

--
Leon Fisk
Grand Rapids MI/Zone 5b
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I am figuring on about the same size as the Harbor Freight mini backhoe. Smaller would be about as expensive and less capable. And I really do not need one, much less a bigger one. I have most of the steel already from scrounging at the local scrap yard. I have some cut offs of 1 inch dia stainless steel. I might go a bit bigger for the boom swivel. I looked at what was available at Fassio's ( a local steel distributor ). And can get hollow bar there. The plans I have use 1 " for the boom swivel, but that seems small. So may spring for some larger material for the boom swivel.

I am not worried about the ground being too hard as it is clay and easy to dig with a shovel ( except the clay sticks to the shovel. )

Dan