Claims
- 1. A hydraulic, self-cleaning bucket assembly for attachment to a striker assembly of an excavator, wherein the self-cleaning bucket assembly comprises:
a bucket comprising two sidewalls, a contoured bottom, and two square tubing pieces, all welded together to form the bucket; a wiper plate rotatably mounted onto one of the square tubing pieces, said wiper plate being movable through a 135° arc and having an edge movable along the countoured bottom; means for mounting the bucket onto the stick assembly; a striker assembly mounted onto the stick assembly, said striker assembly being positioned to stop rotation of the wiper plate past a predetermined point as the bucket is emptied; a hydraulic cylinder with a manifold and a line, said hydraulic cylinder effectuating rotation of the bucket.
- 2. The bucket assembly of claim 1, wherein the striker assembly has openings, and which further comprises two spaced-apart pre-drilled bucket mounting plates welded to the square tubing pieces, and wherein the means for mounting the bucket onto the stick assembly comprises pins, said pins being inserted through the pre-drilled bucket mounting plates and the opening in the stick assembly.
- 3. The bucket assembly of claim 1 wherein welded onto one of the square tubing pieces are two pairs of pad eyes, each pad eye having a hole for a wiper mounting pin, and wherein the wiper plate has two pre-drilled mounting extensions, the wiper plate being rotatably mounted onto said square tubing piece by inserting one of the pre-drilled mounting extensions between each pair of pad eyes and then inserting the wiper plate mounting pin through each pair of pad eyes.
- 4. The bucket assembly of claim 1 wherein the striker assembly comprises a mounting plate with two spaced-apart prongs projecting therefrom.
- 5. A method for excavating materials with a self-cleaning bucket assembly using a hydraulically-powered excavator with an excavator stick, the method comprising the steps of:
welding a bucket with two sidewalls, a contoured bottom, square tubing pieces, and bucket mounting means; rotatably mounting a wiper plate onto one of the square tubing pieces; mounting the bucket onto the stick assembly; mounting onto the stick assembly a mounting plate having two spaced-apart prongs projecting therefrom; scooping materials into the bucket, thereby causing the wiper plate to rotate toward the prongs on the mounting plate; moving the bucket over a dumping area; emptying the materials from the bucket by rotating the bucket, whereby rotation of the wiper plate is stopped by the prongs on the mounting plate, causing the wiper plate to scrape the materials from the sidewalls and contoured bottom of the bucket as the bucket continues to rotate.
- 6. The method of claim 5 which further comprises the step of removing a preexisting bucket from the stick assembly of the excavator.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 09/474,609, filed on Dec. 29, 1999. That application claims a self-cleaning hydraulic clam bucket. This application claims a bucket (one-half of the clam) which functions is the same manner.
Continuation in Parts (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09474609 |
Dec 1999 |
US |
Child |
10040043 |
Nov 2001 |
US |