360* Rotating Back Blade Project

[GuglioLS]

Today I got the blade assembled. You might notice the snow has not melted, more is on the way.



Another angle:



Here's a close up of the pivot shaft. I will be making a coupler to slip over it out of 2-1/2 long X 3" dia solid round with a 6 spline PTO adapter shaft bolted to it.



Larry

 

[GuglioLS]

I am straining my brain on the gear box. The basic concept is sound, But OMG, figuring out all the critical placement and laying it out is what's hurting my brain. I may need to scrap the idea of the 4 bolt flange bearings and go with press fit tapered roller bearings. Also the gearbox needs to be totally enclosed and oil tight. So I am going to take my time working out all those critical details. It is becoming increasingly obvious to me that my skills and little Lathe / Mill combo are just too small for this huge project.


I made a little more progress this afternoon - I have not had much time to devote to working on this. The snow keeps falling and the wind is a blow’n the snow into huge drifts, too busy plowing it

I did find time to made the coupler that will connect the back-blade pivot shaft to the center of the worm gear: I actually was able to use my lathe, mill & drill press and did it all by myself ;D

In the foreground is the coupler made out of 3" dia solid round stock 2-3/4" long. I drilled 6 holes 1.25" deep and taped them 3/8-16:



This is the underside of the coupler bored out 2" wide x 1.5 deep



All the holes lined up - whew! and It bolted together nicely.






It's late, dark, snowing (again) and cold - but I had to go out and see if it would fit:



Larry

 

[GuglioLS]

This is the collection of pieces, parts, & steel I'm accumulating to build the gear box. That’s next I still got some "engineering" to work out on that though.



And here I am with that "what were you thinking" look.



Larry

 

[GuglioLS]

At this point in time is when I caught wind that Rob’s (3RRL) tractor was having some sort of electrical issue that prevented the Starter Motor from getting any “Juice”. We discussed it a few times so the next time he was up at his 3 Rivers Camp Property he would try out the suggested fixes. After nearly 6 weeks (three weekends) of no luck. I felt really sorry for him. So I offered to fly out and lend a hand. During our conversations I was really picking his brain about machining. He must have thought (to himself), that I was no machinist, and that my gear box project was heading off the “deep end”. He did not let on, but I know he secretly felt really sorry for me. So here we are, two geniuses, each faced with a problem that neither one could solve. BUT, together, can solve them for each other – I fix Rob’s electrical, and he pick up where my equipment and skills leave off. He offered to help me out - WOW what a guy! Now we are both in business! I am so thrilled that he is going to help me, as I was getting way over my head in what I could actually do.

Rob said to send him all the parts and he would take a look see.
I sent him my “basket case” of gears, bearings and other assorted parts for him to take a look at, and to come up with a plan, This was all prior to my actual visit and fixing his tractor!

Here’s where Rob received all the parts and asses the situation. At this point, I’m sure he has no idea what he’s really gotten himself into.

Notice that bright steel "Halo" above that follows him around?



Larry

 

[GuglioLS]

At this point, I flew out to California and we met in person for the first time. I saw Rob’s shop – now I understand how he can build ANYTING. The next day he and Loretta took me up to camp, I got his tractor going in 9 minuets and without breaking a sweat – in hind site what a big mistake that was. Wait till you see all the work Rob is doing on my “little” project. Now I feel REAL bad. I should have s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d his tractor repair out to the max. Boy, am I dumb.

At one point or another, I sent Rob my Virtual CAD* Drawing:
* CAD (Crummy A** Drawing)



Larry

 

[GuglioLS]

Now, would you just look at what Rob did to my drawing –

Rob -
“After dropping Larry off at the airport, I managed to get some design work done on his gear box. Larry is a terrific person and a lot smarter than you think. On top of that he is a gentleman and is welcome back for a pleasure visit anytime he wants.

After Larry explained other details what he has in mind for the gear box, things became more clear to me. He is going to use this gear box not only for his blade project, but to run other PTO splined attachments and implements with it...very clever.
So here is what I got done today. I will order steel tomorrow.
This is sheet 1 of 2 on E size paper.



This is sheet 2.



Rob-“

Larry -
What an amazing transformation – Man, this guy is GOOD!

Larry

 

[GuglioLS]

Rob:
Well,
I guess I better report what's happening with Larry's Gear Box. He gave me a call today to see if I was working on it? I said "Sure, just let me make this last putt and I'll get back to you." With that in mind, when I got home I started on his project.

I had bought all the steel for the box yesterday.
Here it is all plied up in my messy garage.



Man, those plates are heavy! I bought lengths and planned on sawing them to size on my Jet saw to save a few bucks on cutting charges.



You can see some chick tried to give me her name and phone number on that one plate....well, not exactly.
Rob-

 

[GuglioLS]

Rob:
“Buying the plates like that meant I had to start sawing them first.



I started on the smaller pieces first and broke a saw blade right away. Of course that was my last one so off I went to buy some new ones. The local hardware tool supply store only had a 10 tooth in stock but gave me the name of a Saw supply place that carries the 3/4" x 93-1/2" blades in the right tooth set. I was looking for 3 - 4 set but he only had 5 - 8 set in either Starred of Simmonds. I had him make me up 2 blades in that set and it cut super good. Even on the larger 1" x 12" wide plates.



Rob-

 

[GuglioLS]

I was thinking I better contact Larry so he wouldn't think I stiffed him after all that work he did on my tractor and flying out here. Hahaha, He was probably starting to wonder.

OK, so after sawing and de burring the plates, I decided to "square" them up. This is a small PITA because you have to "indicate" each plate in dead square before making your mill cuts. However, well worth it price wise if you would have seen what they wanted for already ground and squared plates. It was outrageous!



Here I am milling the sides square and to size so I can find center so all the holes that need to be bored into the plates will match up with each other. The bored holes will retain thrust bearings so the locations have to be dead nuts.



I used a Ø3/4" solid carbide 4 flute endmill to do the side milling.
You can see the rusted saw cut disappearing in this picture.



Rob-

 

[GuglioLS]

I have more steel shots to share today. Taking them and then formatting to upload, etc. is a nice break between the machining. Larry wanted 1" thick steel plates all around except the 2 ends. They are 3/4" thick. Total weight of all the plates (only) is 178 pounds. With his worm and worm gear, collars and bearings etc it's going to be about 240 lbs dry. But there is enough room inside for 10 quarts of oil ... leaving room for the internal components. So it will be pretty heavy duty when it's done and filled. I think I better add an eye bolt for Larry and some handles too? Geez, this is getting better all the time!

I started milling the side plates down from 6" to 5.500".



I put them in my home made milling/ grinding vise that I know is square and parallel all around within .0005" so they would come out good. I made that one in 1978. I have at least 10 like that of different sizes that I've kept, but probably made more like 25 of them over my career.

Here is another shot of the milling to size.



You can see my milling machine head is trammed in perfectly square because the milling cutter marks are equal all around and not tilted.

Rob-