Home built hydraulic FEL mounted hedge cutter

[mark in portugal]

I showed the vid on a couple of posts here already, here are the build pictures of the machine.
I got sort of obsessed with it and went at it pretty hard, I think it took 3 months.
My tooling was stretched to the limit, and as I was on a tight budget I used some parts becuase they were there instead of because they were the best suited for the task.
I have 400 yards of hedge, 10' tall and 10' wide.
My plan was to buy a flail hedge cutter but then I found out what they cost.

big job on a small lathe. Oh look, my gasbottle lawn roller is in the pic. that mounts on the FEL too.

Drysaw can do it.

To rotate the blade, I used the bevel gears from a differential I had. It worked for years like that but it was never a great system.

this hub holds the cutter head and allows 360 degree movement.

I bought this off the shelf grass blade assembly. Not made for this work, but it made the cut.

small control cylinders I bought with an auction lot; I didn't even see them in there until I was loading it to take home.
Here I'm working out geometry with full size patterns.

Ok, now to make that in steel; and the crankshaft too.

I needed a thick pipe, so made it from these two thin ones. Nuts!

+

 

[mark in portugal]

shiny bits made from scrap; the collar on the right rotates on the end of the main tube, the thin thing on the left is the retaining ring.

They fit here;

And are rotated 180 degrees by this cylinder and linkage;

another angle;

The main pipe was rusty inside so I made this to clean it up;

working on the crankshaft; exciting!

Later, I bought a 4-jaw chuck, but back then I had to make do with the 3-jaw for everything.
Pressing it together in a quickly built frame with a little portapower thing I got at a flea market long before.

Back into the lathe for a final cut to the rear bearing post.

 

[mark in portugal]

I actually bought the sprocket new... The gears are from a junk car gearbox, and I made the cogwheel from plate and rod.
This whole mechanism is bonkers, and I can't even remember the rationale behind it.

Make a ring, cut it in half.

Make the cuts true...

Bolt it together and make it round again.
Simples.

This is the power head that holds the cutting blade and main hydraulic motor.

These parts all fit inside each other; the long screw extends the reach and retracts into the pipe with the gear on it. The 3rd tube is rotated by the cogwheel and rotates the biggest tube, which rotates the power head through the undersized bevel gears.

The trapezoidal nut in the 1" pipe for the long screw is cut to fit the bearing in the end of the 2" pipe.

the 1" pipe spines fast enough to whip inside the 1-1/4" pipe, so I added these split bushings.

This little hydraulic motor will spin the 1" pipe via the 2 gears, to extend or retract the cutter 2.2 meters.
I had to file the key slot BY HAND. Ug.

One of my little cylinders was missing the end, so I made one.

 

[mark in portugal]

Some heavier parts; the pivot for the whole machine to swing from right to left. The rings are from the scrapyard, cutouts from holes in something bigger than me.

Creating the cogwheel box at the other end of the main tube.

Cogwheel is rotated 120 degreesish by this setup.

meanwhile, my ebay electro valve block finally arrived from the UK. Trucking people were complaining about oil leaking from the packaging. This thing turned out to be more complex than it looked, but I figured it out and made it work.

Single point boring on a drill press; the boring tool fits into a bearing below. This works really well, it makes good round holes.
Very hard to get accurate size though.

Boring tool and insert to fit the drill table.

This larger cylinder will swing the tube over, bit it was too long. So I shortened it; that went easier than I'd imagined, and was good fun too.

Cog box with the little hydraulic motor protected by a steel pipe.

 

[mark in portugal]

This was a bad idea; the rod turned out to be slightly hard, and killed a good saw blade when I could have just used a grinder and then cleaned up the cut on the lathe.

This part is fun; cutting a new thread on the shortened hydraulic rod.
Satisfying.

The big cylinder acts through a linkage to rotate this center hub 180 degrees. I bored and tapped it, then fit 14mm allen screws to lock the shafts together.

The trick is to drill slightly undersize, then cut down the allen screw heads on the lathe for a tight fit.
Note the recessed zerk fitting.

Basic frame mounted on the FEL. It's the easiest way to hold it up while I work on it.
Plate is 20mm.

Disassembled valve block. I ended up making adaptors and fittings for it.

On the left, the valve that was in it, on the right a simple fitting I made so the same cavity acts as a port to fit a tube to on the outside.

I told you back on the first post of the thread, the bevel gears are too small; the lock pin sheared the second I tried to rotate the blade.

So I welded it to the shaft; not pretty but it held for years that way.

taking shape back in 2014;

 

[mark in portugal]

After using the machine a few times, the first breakage; this shaft broke where the tapered lock pin went through.

There was another problem, the blade wouldn't stay in position. I decided to make a brake for it, that would be simply overpowered by the hydraulics to move.
New shaft and hub with brake disk;

This worked ok. Not perfect, but ok.

Here it's on the stand I made to store it above my mower deck.

Next breakage; this pully was from my old car engine's crankshaft. Not up to the job.

I cut that flame cut blank into a new center hub, and heat fitted the hoop onto it.
That was tough enough to work for some years, breaking 3 timing belts too.

Upgrade; a decent hose guide system.

 

[mark in portugal]

some pictures of it assembled;
Except the big cylinder is taken out in this one, I don't remember why.

The hydraulic supply. The wheel has to come off to get at it.
The wheel is heavy.

cutter head with motor + all;

The valve block ready for action.

electric control box mounts on the rops.

I interrupt the supply to the FEL, send it up the the hedgecutter, and back. When the hedge cutter is off, the quick couplers fit together so it works like before.

You tube video of it working at that time;

 

[ptsg]

I've been following this great project almost since the beginning I think and looking at a it now, I'm sure that the milling machine you recently got, would have come reaaaally in handy.

 

[mark in portugal]

Next breakdown; my home made spline tube is looking a bit twisted.

Taking it apart;

After re-welding the splines onto the tube a bit harder and with more welds, it had bubbles inside that had to be cut. So I made this gross but very long boring tool.
The cutter is a drill shank, clamped in place by the screw that sticks out the end.

The tool bar is in the lathe chuck and the tube in the lathe tool holder; after cranking it slowly forward to the chuck, bacl up and extend the tool for the next section. gross and ugly, but it worked.

parts I made, disassembled.

reassembly;

And ready to work again;

 

[mark in portugal]

I've been following this great project almost since the beginning I think and looking at a it now, I'm sure that the milling machine you recently got, would have come reaaaally in handy.

Even more now with the new blade pack; I would have made them differently if I'd have had a mill.
so have you posted your machine builds here? I didn't see them.