Posthole Digger Home made post hole digger

[EdKing]

Hello,
I am in need of a post hole digger and I'm short on $$$. I have a 2 man digger that the motor quit on, with a 6" and 9" bits. I am currently stripping down an old Dodge van for the motor to put in my truck. I was thinking, why not take the rear axle and make a post hole digger. I figure I can shorten the axles on either side of the punkin, turn it sideways, leave the brakes and drum on the topside and adjust the tensioner to act like a slip clutch. I could then grind the lower axle square to fit in the bits from the 2 man digger. Weld on some brackets to hook it on to the 3ph, and hook a PTO shaft to the punkin to drive it.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Ed King

 

[jimgerken]

I can't see why it wouldn't work. It is definitely heavy duty enuf. Two things I would check first. The oil will be sloshing to a new side of the punkin, will stuff get lubed and will the oil stay in there? And the other thing is the gear ratio. I don't know what speed reduction (if any) is done by the usual right-angle box on these diggers. With your punkin, you'll have something like 3.5 or 4 to one reduction. Without knowing what the commercial ones do, this seems about right to me. I sure would not want it running 1 to 1 (540 RPM auger!!!). Go for it and post photos, I need one too, and this sounds very do-able.

 

[looch]

<font color=blue>(540 RPM auger!!!)</font color=blue>

That would be neat wouldn't it. You would send that Long back to where it came from via the more direct route /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif.

(Sorry, no useful advice)

 

[EdKing]

The oil will be sloshing to a new side of the punkin, will stuff get lubed and will the oil stay in there?

I figure if I cut the axles right, I can use the seals to keep the oil in. I could also drill and tap a hole
in the top to fill and check oil level.

Ed King

 

[cedarranch]

Boy - I think I would just wait until I could pay the $400 for a post hole digger. /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Ed,

I think a properly designed post hole digger is dangerous enough... but a homebrew unit sounds like an accident waiting to happen.../w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif
{besides the pto shaft and yoke would cost upwards of $200+}

I'd rent one for immediate use or save my $400. up for a "proven unit"... /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[Anonymous Poster]

This situation was totally covered a few weeks ago on the Yahoo Club "homebuilt equipment for tractors".

 

[jimgerken]

how do i access this yahoo club about tractors?

 

[JeffRey30747]

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/homebuiltequipmentfortractors>http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/homebuiltequipmentfortractors</A>

 

[Anonymous Poster]

The initial posting is message #963