DIY Farm Impliments

[Ironman]

I figure it's best to start a clean thread on this build we talked about in Math Help
Got many ideas and just scribbled them down and flopped back on the couch. I'm finally getting over this cold and I detected a trickle on energy yesterday so I've started the build of this critter.

I decided to go with a couple of rusted up drive shafts from something I scraped.
This will be the eccentric or crank, or whatever to shake things. After watching those video's I posted, I decided that the stroke will be what ever it is, I can't see a problem if they manufacture something like that.

Yesterday I hammered together the A frame, and today I tack welded the bearing box into place. This is all leftovers and scrap so it ain't pretty.
y next job is to mount the blade in the mill and sharpen an edge, then I'll tack weld it to the side bars and see how it looks.
I had given some thought to using some tie rod ends from a 12,000lb steering axle for the crank ends and the end on the blade lever, but not having a spare to push into a hole in the plate to swage the taper in, and not knowing how they would last in rotary motion killed the idea. Pressing is the only way I have at hand to do a short taper.

Pic 1 is a similar driveline in the way I will use it
Pic 2 is showing what is done
#3 and 4 is self explanatory as to what the U joint will do
So this is it, at the moment, If I have a good day tomorrow, I'll report more.

[CaddmannQ]

This isn't what I'd imagined from your sketches. A picture really is worth a thousand words.

I like the bearing arrangement a lot. Not so much the big overhang at the crank though...

Having a job I want to do usually trumps health issues. Good luck there.

[Ironman]

Originally Posted by CaddmannQ

This isn't what I'd imagined from your sketches. A picture really is worth a thousand words.

I like the bearing arrangement a lot. Not so much the big overhang at the crank though...

Having a job I want to do usually trumps health issues. Good luck there.

The crank overhang is the only way I could think of to create a bearing of sufficient strength, and as usual all things are subject to rebuild and modification. The more I look at videos, like Camdiggers latest, the more I realize there is not that much power required and my tendency to overbuild 300% is not necessary.

Anyhow, off to the shop to see if I can clamp the blade to the table and mill a cutting edge.

[moe1942]

Lookin good....

[CaddmannQ]

Originally Posted by Ironman

. . . my tendency to overbuild 300% is not necessary..

That reminds me of the mechanic that made the brakes so strong he broke the suspension loose. It makes it easy to find the weak links.

You are playing a game I enjoy all the time, which is making use of spare parts and good "junk" that is currently taking up both physical space, and space in my mental inventory.

[Ironman]

I managed to clamp the T1 plate at an angle on the mill table and it made a surprisingly easy job of putting an edge onto it. Then I cut and tacked the vertical bars to the blade and a piece of 2x2x1/4" wall box tube to the top of it.
I ran out of juice and quit till tomorrow, but I'm thinking about how to do the next step, which will be attaching the blade.

[arizonian]

I know I am missing something, just have to wait and see what you come up with. How is the slip yoke not going to slip?

[toprecycler]

So is that black plastic sheet with holes for the plants? Is the sheet to cut down on weeds/ other plants growing mostly?

When you go to harvest, do you remove the sheet separately, then dig the garlic?


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[Ironman]

Originally Posted by toprecycler

So is that black plastic sheet with holes for the plants? Is the sheet to cut down on weeds/ other plants growing mostly?

When you go to harvest, do you remove the sheet separately, then dig the garlic?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yes to both questions. We are getting old and this is what we are trying to do to reduce the weeding labor. It has to reduce weeding and hold more moisture, I think. I would like to have a sickle bar mower off the tractor to cut off tops, before lifting the ground cloth, but it may be just me worrying too much. We should be able to lift it with 2 people and roll it up and then do the undercut.
I have not used this idea before, but I put up pictures to answer Arizionian, because you can see the bed is higher.

[CaddmannQ]

I live about 50 miles from a place called Gilroy which is probably the garlic capital of the known universe.

I have never seen it grown under perforated plastic like this but because of the drought situation here I am sure we are going to see more of this type of farming.

There’s a lot of target irrigation and drip irrigation and greenhouse growing going on.

All I irrigate is my redwood trees and my ornamental lawn and shrubberies. I irrigate a lot of it with used water from raising tropical fish.

I had a friend here that wanted to start a sort of hydroponic plant and tilapia farm here in the San Joaquin. For a little while the idea of being a scientific gentleman Farmer appealed to me, but the guy turned out to be a flake and the whole business went belly up before I got any money involved.

My wife was raised in farm country and while she gardens like a madman she will not grow anything edible. She had to do stuff like pluck chickens and cook tortillas when she was a kid and so nowadays she doesn’t even want to touch a piece of meat. I have to do all the butchering and most of the cooking myself.

LOL Judging by the size of azaleas I can grow on poopy fishwater, I think that all this expensive fish food I’m feeding would turn into some very nice vegetables.