Thumb test drive.

Works great! Picks up logs and concrete beams and even delicate stuff such as steel beams. I'm well pleased with the result 😸

The huge concrete beam weighs somewhere beyond 8 tons and is too heavy for our little digger, but it can grip it and drag it around. The thumb and fangs easily withstand the full force of the bucket curl cylinder.

#DIY #ExcavatorThumb #Welding #Metalworking #Homestead #SalvagePunk #Drilling

Thumb is getting there. Cut off the corners, flipped them around and welded them back on as reinforcements, now the whole thing looks more streamlined. I think it'll be strong enough without doubling up the thickness near the fangs.

If they break I'll do it :)

Also made two pins out of three. This is the dullest job in the world, drilling a 8mm hole through 25mm solid rod, but the pins I bought weren't long enough after some design tweaks. At least it's not stainless steel!

#DIY #ExcavatorThumb #Welding #Metalworking #Homestead #SalvagePunk #Drilling

Some background about #PeSla

Pe’ Sla Controversial Drilling Project

GABRIELLE NELSON, March 25, 2026

Excerpt: "The decision memo doesn’t mention Pe’ Sla. Gubble says in the memo, 'There are no known Native American or Alaska Native religious or cultural sites within the project area.' The USDA spokesperson told #BuffalosFire in an email, 'No activities are planned on Tribal trust lands, including Pe’ Sla.'

"The #BlackHills #CleanWaterAlliance says otherwise. The map provided by #PeteLien & Sons shows the project’s drilling sites outside of Pe’ Sla boundaries, which were agreed upon in a Memorandum of Understanding between the Forest Service and tribes in 2024. But a map of the proposed drilling operations made by the alliance using coordinates provided by Pete Lien & Sons shows one site within those boundaries.

"Plus, the alliance says the actual area that needs to be protected from #drilling operations, which includes #noise, lights and traffic (usually 24 hours a day), should be larger. The alliance shows a two-mile buffer on its map. Most drilling sites are within that buffer zone. Yet, the alliance emphasized it is opposed to all drilling in the Black Hills, even outside this two-mile buffer.

"Protected Indian trust land also lies within the Pe’ Sla boundaries. In 2012, four #Sioux tribes — #Rosebud, #CrowCreek, #ShakopeeMdewakanton and #StandingRock — raised $9 million to purchase nearly 2,000 acres of Pe’ Sla. In 2016, the Bureau of Indian Affairs placed that land (plus 200 acres) into federal Indian trust status to protect the land from development.

" 'They recognized that due to the unique cultural significance of the Pe’ Sla area that this situation was different, that this is a special place,' said Gunhammer. 'But now, unfortunately, the Forest Service, Black Hills National Forest, has managed to look past all of this very, very well documented history.'

"Lilias Jarding, executive director of the Black Hills Clean Water Alliance, told Buffalo’s Fire that the project is 'obviously not OK' because of its proximity to Pe’ Sla. She said the Forest Service ignored this when they approved the project without an environmental assessment."

Read more:
https://www.lakotatimes.com/articles/pe-sla-controversial-drilling-project/

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/kq5sj

#USPol #IndigenousNews #IndigenousResistance #ProtectTheSacred #WaterIsLife #BlackHills #NoMining #OcetiSakowin #SiouxNation #PLS #RapidCreekWatershed