Loogie
Silver Member
Greeting fellas!
I few years ago I picked up the Herd M-96 seeder/spreader. It's a great unit, but it's also the only attachment I own that is not compatible with my i-Match quick hitch. It's time to rectify that. For years I've been wanting to learn to weld and this small project was at the VERY top of my list.
So, the first thing I made after buying my welder and playing around with it a while was this bracket (you can clearly see that I have a lot to learn!)
Then I removed the three bolts holding the hopper to the base and the two bolts holding the hopper to the upper supports and took it off. Then I put the spreader in the quick hitch and marked the proper mounting location for the bracket I made and cleaned all the paint from that area.
Then I clamped the bracket in position -
...and started welding! Because the backing plate is 1/4" steel and the supports are solid 7/8" steel I had to run a higher power and wire feed speed than what I had been practicing with - and you can tell because the weld bead is FAT.
As soon as I was done I took it and put it in the hitch the check the fit - perfect!
All I had left to do was paint it and put the hopper back on. This ended up being a much easier project than I had anticipated. The total cost for the mod was about $3 in gas to go to the steel yard and pick up the scrap steel I used for the project - oh and the $1200 it took me to get set up for welding! :thumbsup:
While I'm taking about the spreader I should mention about the history I have with it. When I first started using it I was really **** about cleaning it when I was done. However, despite my best efforts the gate mechanism still rusted quickly and rapidly became unusable. I was very disappointed.
I disassembled the majority of the spreader. The hopper gate was made from 14ga sheet metal and was secured to the bottom of the casting by four more pieces of 14ga sheet metal (two on each side). You can kind of see it in this picture:
The two strips of 14ga have two holes drilled in the off-center, so when one if flipped it creates a channel that the gate slides in. It's also a east place for water to collect and rust - and it did.
So after taking the whole think apart I did an electrolysis rust removal and got it all cleaned up. I replaced all the hardware with stainless steel and I re-engineered the gate linkage.
I used brass bar stock for the actuating arm and then I milled some 1/2" UHMW plastic to accept a 1/8" piece of UHMW that I cut to match the teeth on the sheet metal gate so that the settings would be the same. I really had to think a long time about putting plastic parts on my nice metal spreader, but ultimately I didn't think there was a better solution.
Here you can see the gate supports (black) and the gate itself (white). The holes in the supports were drilled to match the existing sheet metal supports but I used longer screws. The screw holes go right through the casting into the hopper so the screws need to be flush with the hopper. You can see the UHMW gate and end of one of the screws at the bottom of this picture.
Since completing this rehab four years ago I have had ZERO problems with this spreader. No rust and nice smooth operation. The UHMW parts haven't shown any wear, but the gate would be easy to replace if need be. If I were to do this again I would make the gate out of thicker material and just create a rabbet so it would slide in the groove. The existing 1/8" UHMW has sagged a bit, but it hasn't affected the performance at all. It's not enough for it to leak fertilizer or anything, but a thicker door wouldn't sag.
Cheers,
Loogie
I few years ago I picked up the Herd M-96 seeder/spreader. It's a great unit, but it's also the only attachment I own that is not compatible with my i-Match quick hitch. It's time to rectify that. For years I've been wanting to learn to weld and this small project was at the VERY top of my list.
So, the first thing I made after buying my welder and playing around with it a while was this bracket (you can clearly see that I have a lot to learn!)
Then I removed the three bolts holding the hopper to the base and the two bolts holding the hopper to the upper supports and took it off. Then I put the spreader in the quick hitch and marked the proper mounting location for the bracket I made and cleaned all the paint from that area.
Then I clamped the bracket in position -
...and started welding! Because the backing plate is 1/4" steel and the supports are solid 7/8" steel I had to run a higher power and wire feed speed than what I had been practicing with - and you can tell because the weld bead is FAT.
As soon as I was done I took it and put it in the hitch the check the fit - perfect!
All I had left to do was paint it and put the hopper back on. This ended up being a much easier project than I had anticipated. The total cost for the mod was about $3 in gas to go to the steel yard and pick up the scrap steel I used for the project - oh and the $1200 it took me to get set up for welding! :thumbsup:
While I'm taking about the spreader I should mention about the history I have with it. When I first started using it I was really **** about cleaning it when I was done. However, despite my best efforts the gate mechanism still rusted quickly and rapidly became unusable. I was very disappointed.
I disassembled the majority of the spreader. The hopper gate was made from 14ga sheet metal and was secured to the bottom of the casting by four more pieces of 14ga sheet metal (two on each side). You can kind of see it in this picture:
The two strips of 14ga have two holes drilled in the off-center, so when one if flipped it creates a channel that the gate slides in. It's also a east place for water to collect and rust - and it did.
So after taking the whole think apart I did an electrolysis rust removal and got it all cleaned up. I replaced all the hardware with stainless steel and I re-engineered the gate linkage.
I used brass bar stock for the actuating arm and then I milled some 1/2" UHMW plastic to accept a 1/8" piece of UHMW that I cut to match the teeth on the sheet metal gate so that the settings would be the same. I really had to think a long time about putting plastic parts on my nice metal spreader, but ultimately I didn't think there was a better solution.
Here you can see the gate supports (black) and the gate itself (white). The holes in the supports were drilled to match the existing sheet metal supports but I used longer screws. The screw holes go right through the casting into the hopper so the screws need to be flush with the hopper. You can see the UHMW gate and end of one of the screws at the bottom of this picture.
Since completing this rehab four years ago I have had ZERO problems with this spreader. No rust and nice smooth operation. The UHMW parts haven't shown any wear, but the gate would be easy to replace if need be. If I were to do this again I would make the gate out of thicker material and just create a rabbet so it would slide in the groove. The existing 1/8" UHMW has sagged a bit, but it hasn't affected the performance at all. It's not enough for it to leak fertilizer or anything, but a thicker door wouldn't sag.
Cheers,
Loogie
