Skeleton bucket?

Does anybody use one?
I am digging and most importantly, backfilling for the plumbers. I use plenty of bedding but the plumbers freak out if I put any stones in the trench, even though I know they are not magical and will find their pipe like a guided gopher missile.
I found a 60" cleanup for the 120 for cheap enough that I could sacrifice it and slice holes in it with a big plasma.
For the mini, I was thinking of making my own adapter, and then use round stock that I bend in a template to make a round stock skeleton, complete with tines. I could hardface it a bit, but the purpose would never be mining hard ground, only going through my piles to weed out the bigger rocks quickly.

I made one myself a couple of years ago, works great, you’ll still gets some rock through it but nothing that will crush a pipe. Somebody had given me a bucket that fit my machine, so I just cut the bottom out of it and had the pieces cut on a plasma table. I think you’re better off to go with flat stock than round stock, I think the round stock will not hold up. You can use the bucket to dig a trench because the material packs in it,it won’t fall out until you start shaking it, it’s pretty handy to have.

Thanks. In the case of the mini I don't have a bucket to sacrifice.

I am not sure what the plumbing rules are there, but we can't have any rock larger than 1" in the bedding. They never used to enforce that but last year the State started mandating it and a lot of cities followed suit. If like here, the plumbers freak out because the inspector will red tag your project and make you pull the material out and redo it if they find larger rock in the bedding. Sucks, adds cost and time to every project. Here we would need a screener type bucket to get that small.

I pretty much cover any “sensitive” piping with at least a foot of bedding sand and then use the skeleton bucket to put another foot of cleaner material on top of that, the last thing I ever want to do is go back to fix something. As far as the bucket goes, you can look on machinery trader to try to find a used one or just buy a skeleton bucket and be done with it. The cost would probably be the same if you figured your labor and material in.

The utility I work for beds the wires and pipes with sand.

I love mine for backfilling trenches, and right against new foundations. Mines made by steelwrist, but it looked easy enough to copy. I've been meaning to chop up an old bucket I have for my 5 ton to make something similar.

https://steelwrist.com/int/products/sorting-buckets/sob8-s50/

we use a ton of bedding, but we have really big rock and the concern is those bigger ones will defeat the bedding in a worst case scenario. If I screen out the big ones it buys some peace of mind. I know that once the "bedding burrito" is built, the pipe is protected but my ground guys are plumbers and those rocks give them nightmares.

skyking1 said:

we use a ton of bedding, but we have really big rock and the concern is those bigger ones will defeat the bedding in a worst case scenario. If I screen out the big ones it buys some peace of mind. I know that once the "bedding burrito" is built, the pipe is protected but my ground guys are plumbers and those rocks give them nightmares.

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It's the same up here. We use a foot, sometimes 2 of sand, but I never liked the idea of dropping 2-3ft diameter rocks right on top of that. There's no shortage of rocks here. At least with the skeleton bucket I can make sure its all 2inch minus material.

Tags said:

I pretty much cover any “sensitive” piping with at least a foot of bedding sand and then use the skeleton bucket to put another foot of cleaner material on top of that, the last thing I ever want to do is go back to fix something. As far as the bucket goes, you can look on machinery trader to try to find a used one or just buy a skeleton bucket and be done with it. The cost would probably be the same if you figured your labor and material in.

Click to expand...

Thanks, that is what I am talking about. The other thing about big rock is compaction. You just don't get it in a trench situation with a hoe pack and too many big nuggets. Out in the field with a big roller, sure you can get good numbers.
My labor is free when I have nothing else to do and they want me to hang around

I use the 6" over and under. I have never had a broken horizontal pipe. Risers are another story
Oops there it is!