Chain harrows

[BHD]

I may be wrong here,

But I would think one would need some type of furnace to heat each rod up to a cherry red and then put it through a series of jigs to form the two different pieces,

I really do not think making the jigs would be that hard, but to handle the red hot parts, and to form them would take some thinking to make the dies and tools to make them, and to handle them hot.

 

[bobodu]

Those bends can be easily made cold with a two prong fork thingie clamped in a vise. Feed your round rod through a pipe cheater. The ends can be closed with judicious use of two small pipe wrenches.

 

[Reg]

OK, I think I've done enough thunkin' on this.
Some time this week I will probably strip some solid copper wire (scraps of Romex) and hand bend it into the shapes shown on the Hackett site.
My guess is that the bend radii MATTER and they most likely have some important and fixed relationship to the rod diameter.
So, if I mic the copper wire and bend it around different drill bits until I get things right I should be able to scale it all up if/when I decide to try it on thicker steel stock.

I don't know if I'll ever get up to high carbon steel, or how thick I will be able to go if I do.
4 or 5 ft lengths of black pipe seem like reasonable bending levers, so whatever I can do with those will probably set the upper limit on stock - unless I resort to heat - and I might.

Maybe I'm not ALL done with the thunkin' part after all.

 

[bobodu]

Wow....the "links" some people will go to...
Mics,copper wire...radii mattering???
It's a tool to drag in the dirt!!!
I've built FELs, dump trucks,windmills...even a whole tractor using nothing but bits of string and six soybeans for measuring.....

 

[turnkey4099]

OK, I think I've done enough thunkin' on this.
Some time this week I will probably strip some solid copper wire (scraps of Romex) and hand bend it into the shapes shown on the Hackett site.
My guess is that the bend radii MATTER and they most likely have some important and fixed relationship to the rod diameter.
So, if I mic the copper wire and bend it around different drill bits until I get things right I should be able to scale it all up if/when I decide to try it on thicker steel stock.

I don't know if I'll ever get up to high carbon steel, or how thick I will be able to go if I do.
4 or 5 ft lengths of black pipe seem like reasonable bending levers, so whatever I can do with those will probably set the upper limit on stock - unless I resort to heat - and I might.

Maybe I'm not ALL done with the thunkin' part after all.

Seems it would be far quicker and perhaps cheaper to buy a used one. My neighbor has one rolled up in a fence corner that hasn't been used in over 20 years.

Harry K

 

[Reg]

Seems it would be far quicker and perhaps cheaper to buy a used one. My neighbor has one rolled up in a fence corner that hasn't been used in over 20 years.

Harry K

Yep,
LOTS of them 2,000 plus miles from me (-:

 

[POC]

I made one that works pretty ok out of a piece of chain-link fence......

 

[Inky05]

I made one that works pretty ok out of a piece of chain-link fence......

My thoughts, Exactly!

 

[turnkey4099]

My thoughts, Exactly!

And truck tire chains work as well or better - they are heavier. I made one with just one PU chain for smoothing a new lawn. About killed myselft trying to drag it.

Harry K

 

[Reg]

Already done it with the chain link fence and (optionally) old tires.
That works FINE for seed beds, lawn re-seeding, etc.
I want/need something with a bit more bite in it, e.g. to break up horse manure and scratch up existing pastures.