I have a hydraulic sicklebar trimmer (Sabre Samurai) that clamps to the side of the bucket on my loader. Not terribly stiff. In fact, due to the leverage of the mount and the thin sides of my bucket, it flops around like a wounded duck. Plus, clamping it to the bucket puts the weight significantly forward of the loader arms, which doesn't help.

I bought a blank SSQA (Skid Steer Quick Attach) plate that mounts to my loader arms nicely, will pull things a foot or more closer to the tractor and allows for quick mount/dismount versus dicking around with set screws and alignment, etc.

Plan A was to modify the original bracket and weld it to the SSQA which would stiffen things up nicely. However, looking at the bracket, I'd have to chop it up pretty significantly and if it doesn't work or I don't like it, I'm screwed.

A spare fully adjustable mounting bracket with spring loaded break-away (all of which is a requirement) is $400 plus shipping.

I'm wondering if having the relevant pieces cut out on a water jet and weld up a new mount myself would save me any money.



I would need the two pieces with the arced adjustment slots cut in them. It's 10mm steel, but 1/2 inch would be fine.

Two questions:

1. Any clue at all what I should expect to pay? I realize this would vary by area/market but a ballpark figure would be helpful in making a decision. I do have two shops in a reasonable distance that have water jet cutting capability.

2. Do they need a CAD drawing to work from, or can I just leave the original for them to copy. If they need the CAD, it would obviously be cheaper for me to come up with a CAD drawing than to have them do it.

A few thoughts from my experience with this:

- Alot of dedicated fab shops would charge a setup fee plus between $75 to $90 an hour if they would even be willing to take a small project like this. Obviously this would cut well within an hour but they may have a minimum (a laser would cut this within a minute)

- Fiber lasers have come a long way in the last few years and 1/2" can be cut with Co2 or nitrogen, if there is a laser house around, they may give you a better price (as long as they tab it properly it will stay flat, you just have to let them know flatness is a requirement).

- Regarding the CAD, a DXF file is usually preferred but if you dont have it the shop would draw it at an additional cost of course (if you have the file they can nest it with other parts of the same thickness to save time and material).

- Alot of tool building shops have water jets, one of them may be a good place to start as their machines often have open capacity.

If you were closer to Wisconsin I would hook you up with the plates.


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If you can draw it in CAD, sendcutsend.com might be the cheapest option & they go up to 1/2".

I have not used them, but have seen results & the purchasers were happy.

Unless you 'know a guy', shops don't usually want to fool with stuff like this, too easy for the customer to be always right, even when they are wrong & have no clue.

Also, for the CAD - if the part will fit on a scanner/copier, get a black & white scan, then import to CAD & trace the outline.
Hell, for that you might be able to set it on a sheet of paper & rattle can a negative, then scan it.

As long as you have (relatively) clean edges & the geometry correct, it should be pretty easy to draw up in CAD. Fusion360 would be my go-to, but there are other, free, options. Onshape is popular & you don't need to install it. FreeCAD is another. I tried tinkercad at one point & didn't like it. sketchup baffles me for some reason (usually trying to edit 3d-mesh for 3d printing & fail miserably)

One thing to remember, that part looks powdercoated - you need to take some of that thickness into account in the CAD model or the cut parts will be tight after you paint/powdercoat.

I would suggest Laser cutting, it's a lot faster than waterjet and time does equal cost. Note the advantage of water jet over laser is the exceeding clean edges, something you won't get from laser. In this case I don't think pretty matters so laser will be cheaper.

Well, turns out I'm a dumbass...Surprise, eh?

This guy had the same idea and pointed out that the stock bracket will slip over a piece of 2x2 tubing and pin in place without modification.

Simple, cheap, versatile, cheap and simple.

Sometimes I get so wrapped up in "cool" I forget the First Law of Engineering: KISS

Thanks for all the advice tho!