Rotary Cutter Does anyone recognize this (old) brush hog?

[EFK]

Sorry for the pics of it up on it's side at the moment, needed to access underneath.

I think this dates to probably the 1960s sometime but there is no mark or number or anything on it anywhere. It's 5 X 5 in size, the gear head is huge and it's a heavy sucker. I'm no lightweight, and it took two of us to flip this thing up vertically as in the pic. The blue paint looks like it's over top of an older layer of reddish colored paint. It's a standard 3 point mount but I currently removed the mount brackets to do some straightening and welding. The gear head is about 14" height and at least 12" front to back, a very heavy casting.

Years ago, the crossbar/blade mount that mounted to the gear head underneath shattered and pieces of bar and blades flew everywhere. I need to come up with a new crossbar or disc or something to mount blades on. The original blade mount bar was about 16 to 20" long if I remember correctly. The problem here is the large circular boss protruding on the mounting surface. A simple flat bar with 4 bolt holes drilled won't work, it has to have a large circular cutout to clear that protruding boss.

It would help a lot if I could try to find a replacement but I don't even know what to look for as I have no idea who made this thing!

Someone told me to try to simply mount either blades or chain directly to this gear head but I don't feel comfortable or safe doing that.

Anyone recognize this thing? Thanks!

 

[metalbender]

If you are making or having a mount made, make sure that the center hole registers snug on the boss. Not just cut out to clear around it. If the gears are good, should be a sweet cutter.

 

[EFK]

Thanks for posting. Yep, I agree - that boss is probably there for a reason, to ensure that there is no lateral play or wobble once the bolts are installed. The bolts are 3/4" in size and have through-holes in the heads so the 4 are designed to be wired together once installed. That center boss is 2.25" in diameter.

The original blade mount was a bar, but I'm thinking if I have to get something made, it might be better to get a disc maybe 12" or so in diameter and then orient it around using commonly available blades from TSC or something like that. I'd be using this more for brushy rough stuff i.e. autumn olives and multifloras rose coming up everywhere, and of course lots of rocks and stumps here in PA. I think a disc mount would be a lot more useful and safer.

Does this seem like something a standard machine shop could make? Any ideas on steel grade?

 

[TractorGuy]

That looks like some kind of homemade something. Did you remove some shields from the front and sides? Those fixed wheels are not going to track well and if the blade drops down low enough to cut it's going to be flinging stuff in every direction. Even if you dropped the wheels to the lowest setting it looks very dangerous.

 

[bullbreaker]

Looks sturdy but homemade to me also . Mighta been primed then painted Ford blue back in the day . Never seen a gear box like that one but I can tell you "Comer " used to paint theres yellow like that way back when . I'd say gearbox rated between 40 to 50 hp . Pretty massive for a 5 footer .