Finally built my grader

[jenkinsph]

Jenkinsph, I thought a lot about the blade angle, finally deciding on the 5 degrees. I think it is a good compromise because it doesn't seem to move the material much, but may keep the rocks from heading downslope toward the ditch when I grade the road.

I use a rearblade with topntilt to form the crown and work the ditches but in my case I have very little work to do on my well established drives. Maybe an hour a year is a close estimate. With my customers it is a different story here in the soutwest some of the housing sites can be very rough and rocky. The landplane with straight blades does a great job of smoothing out the bumps. I am so satisfied with the results I am leaning towards adding all hydraulic angle, depth adjustment and scarifiers to it.

 

[djw250]

The landplane with straight blades does a great job of smoothing out the bumps. I am so satisfied with the results I am leaning towards adding all hydraulic angle, depth adjustment and scarifiers to it.

Those would be very nice features, and make for a versatile, high-end tool. The scarifiers would be great for hard pack. For now I'm satisfied with my fixed blade setup. I used it on some clay that needed some final smoothing, and with some small adjustments to the top link, it worked very well for that. I can see that I'll probably use it a lot.

 

[jayste]

Very nice grader. You got exactly the results I'm looking for. I've had my side pans fabricated for a while now and the job took to the back burner for the fall season. I'm still trying to get my blades. I'm going to try another source. My plans are to build mine very similar to yours. So far I have $0 in them. I used 1/4" plate so I added a 2X2 angle to the side of the pans to give it a little spine.

Jay

 

[djw250]

Jay, looks like you have a good start. I had my first pan done for quite a while before I really got busy on the rest. It really wasn't that hard once I decided to get it done. You might try the State or County road maintenance crews if you are interested in the motor grader blades. They change them out regularly, and most of the used ones still have quite a bit of material left. I bet if you talk to the right person, you could get a couple of useable blades for free. I did.

 

[jayste]

Jay, looks like you have a good start. I had my first pan done for quite a while before I really got busy on the rest. It really wasn't that hard once I decided to get it done. You might try the State or County road maintenance crews if you are interested in the motor grader blades. They change them out regularly, and most of the used ones still have quite a bit of material left. I bet if you talk to the right person, you could get a couple of useable blades for free. I did.

DJW, that's exactly what I had in mind. I've got a neighbor who works for the county and I thought I'd ask him. Thanks.

Jay

 

[Renze]

DJW, that's exactly what I had in mind. I've got a neighbor who works for the county and I thought I'd ask him. Thanks.

Jay

At work, they used to replace lots of payloader bucket blades. When these 40x250mm blades were worn to half of their original size, its still a lot of meat to beat on, for the average farm tractor. I collect whenever i can

 

[ovrszd]

So far I have $0 in them.
Jay

I've built a lot of "stuff" but never had $0 in any of it. How'd you figure that??

 

[jayste]

I've built a lot of "stuff" but never had $0 in any of it. How'd you figure that??

Material was free and I don't count my labor.

Jay

 

[2manyrocks]

Very sharp and amazing to see built for $200 in materials or less in this day.

 

[mcd176]

DJW250,

What thickness are your side pans, round tube and square tube?

Thanks