Flail mower build

[Sspiderman]

I want to build a flail mower to add to the excavator attachment I知 planning to be able to reach up and down banks along the driveway.
Looking for suggestions on lightweight Flail designs.
Was thinking about using a chainsaw motor or even a big weed whacker motor.

Thoughts?
Oh and thanks in advance.

 

[ptsg]

I did built one from scratch for my homemade backhoe a few years back.

Works very nice but I did take the heavy duty build a bit too far but mostly because I had the steel laying around. The flail blades are made of 10 mm (~3/8") thick flat bar, again overkill.

The main frame is 1/4" thick steel, including the belt guard. It's powered by a 0.305 ci Parker hydraulic piston motor, which spins at around 2200 RPM with the pump setup of the backhoe, and I reduced it to around 1800 RPM on the flail rotor via a couple of pulleys. I'm using two A belts on the flail, which turned out to be a mistake. I keep burning belts. The flail has been in storage waiting for its revival for some time now. I will take the V belt pulleys off and replace with timing belts and pulleys so it doesn't slip like before.

Other than the belt issue, the flail does work very nice.

I'll throw some pictures and a video of the build. If you have any questions, just feel free to ask.

 

[Sspiderman]

Thanks for the info PTSG, that痴 a good heavy duty one, looks like it works well.
I thought about hydraulic drive, but the closest parts house (with reasonable pricing) is 3 hours in either direction, so was thinking power right on the head. I値l take a look at hydraulic again.

 

[ptsg]

I read "excavator" but didn't read "excavator attachment" before. I had the idea that had an excavator. So this means you most likely won't have auxiliary lines on the excavator. Even if you had, you really need a second pump to run the flail. I had to add another one on my machine.

For your case, a secondary engine is an easier and cheaper way to do it.