Add CHAIN GUARDS To Rotary Cutter

[SBD]

Here is my chain guard. It is nothing fancy but was cheap and easy to build. I used a square sign post to give the chain ends more space away from the swinging blade. The distance from the blade is something that you will want to consider or you will be cutting the length of the chains in the center so they won't hit the blade.

 

[Jimmyb33]

Those are looking realy good. Noce job!

 

[Soundguy]

The closer together they are.. the more 'protection' you get as there is more chain material hanging to disipate energy or outright deflect thrown debri.. etc.

Soundguy

Great, more good ideas and thanks Jimmy, for showing me that photo of your Rhino chain guard. That gives me a good visual of what to do.
So the consensus is to leave the chain as separate dangling strands, without connecting them at the bottom. I see that Rhino guard is like that too.
Another question, how far apart should I place them? I see schmism has his (appears to be) about 2" center to center in his sketch. I would like to do that too.

 

[Soundguy]

By the way.. you make great looking welds..

Soundguy

Here is a picture of both front and rear chain bars.



And an even better photo of the attachment to the bar.



I will make spacers that suspend the chain bar away from the cutter body...out far enough where I won't be whacking them off. I can add the sides to the short front bar once I'm at camp and can see where the blade opening is. The opening does not go the full 72" width of the mower. The rear opening is only 36" wide, so that 38" bar is perfect already.

So far I like how they turned out. Especially considering it's cost me nothing so far and it is 100% better than what I had. As a matter of fact, I even got a new pair of giant bolt cutters in the deal.

 

[3RRL]

Those are looking realy good. Noce job!

Thanks for the compliments Chris and Jimmy. They are coming along alright. Not bad for welding that galvanized chain. I used 1/8" 6011 rod on my AC stick welder.

SBD,
Thanks for sharing the picture of your chain guard. I see the spacing on yours is very close to what I have done, so it should work. Mine might be space a tad further apart, but I only had so much chain to work with. As it is, they are closer together than what I planned on.

Tonight I will cut the spacers that will set the guard away from the cutter body and take them up to camp. I will set the bar a little farther out than yours in your photo, because I have 5-ｽ links and I see yours has 4 links. I figure 4" away from the body. Otherwise mine will get chopped off.

 

[pycoed]

Thanks for the compliments Chris and Jimmy. They are coming along alright. Not bad for welding that galvanized chain. I used 1/8" 6011 rod on my AC stick welder.


The Rhino toppers use this arrangement

 

[3RRL]

Oh pycoed, that is a clever way to secure the links to the chain housing. I was too preoccupied to think of that, having only the steel in my garage to work with. Thank you for sharing it though. I'm sure all these ideas are going to help the next guy make his chain guard correctly and easily right from the start.

I am going up to my property now. Hopefully, I'll get it mounted and painted so I can share some pictures with you when I return.
Thanks to all for your great input.

 

[patrick_g]

Oh pycoed, that is a clever way to secure the links to the chain housing. I was too preoccupied to think of that, having only the steel in my garage to work with. Thank you for sharing it though. I'm sure all these ideas are going to help the next guy make his chain guard correctly and easily right from the start.

This is pretty much the way the chains were "secured?" on my HD Cimmaron brush hog. All the chains are off the cutter now. I still have them, I just don't know were and with a quarter section to search and no clue as to where they fell off I have had to make "alternative arrangements."

The drawing posted by pycoed may show threaded keepers (nuts) which is an improvement over the pins I had!

Looked really good till I used it in serious brush and they all fell off somewhere, front and back.

Pat

 

[3RRL]

I got the additional side brackets and chain guards made at camp to cover the missing areas. Then I mounted them all with spacer bars to the rotary cutter this weekend. The spacer bars are 3/8" thick x 2" and 4-1/4" long. They came out pretty good and they don't swing in far enough to hit the blades. Here are a couple pictures of how I mounted them to the cutter.
This is the front of the cutter...front I guess since it's facing the tractor's rear end.
Before painting them.





And then after I painted the mounting bars.





I did all the fitting and welding at my rural property using a Lincoln 225 AC stick welder using about 150 amp setting and 1/8? 6011 rod. I run it off a Generac Wheelhouse 5550 generator with 8500 surge capacity. It runs the welder easily.

 

[3RRL]

These are pictures of how the tail (trailing) end of the rotary cutter chain guards turned out.
Again, these two are after welding them and the added side chain guards on before painting.





lol...I might add to clean out any leaves or brush under your cutter BEFORE you do any welding, as I found out soon enough.

These after I touched them up.





This set came out looking pretty cool. For some reason, I had to bend the bar slightly to miss the blades here? I wonder why they cleared on the other side? Anyway, I think this one really looks good the way it's shaped.

So far this project cost me exactly zero $$ so I am happy about that. I did it all from scrap steel and chain I had sitting around my garage and my property. The only thing I bought was a new pair of bolt cutters, but I'm not going to count that since I was going to buy a pair anyway...big deal
Now I have some protection from flying debris whereas before I had nothing at all.

The money I saved on this project (about $275) I'm going to use to add a hydraulic system to raise and lower the rear wheel to adjust my cutting height on the fly. The areas that I brush cut are so uneven, I think doing that might add to my cutting pleasure. If not, it will be fun just to do it anyway....it will be another "gadget" to play with. I have a hydraulic cylinder, connectors etc. and more scrap steel to play with, so I figure the only thing I might have to spend money on is new hoses. And oh yes, a double pilot operated check valve for the cylinder.