homemade road grader

[CNC Dan]

I just registered and would like to share a project I made last winter.

I have been keeping busy since my horse died a few years ago by maintaing a field that was donated to the town.

Mostly just mowing, but I also built a picknick table and some jumps(for horses).

The dirt road that runs past the field hasen't seen any maintaince for decades. So I thought I'd take a crack at it.



This is the best pic of the grader in use. I tow it with my jeep in low range.

I have more pics of the construction but I have to post from my phone since my computer died, so it takes forever to type stuff in.

More pics to follow.

 

[jpm1]

First of all welcome to TBN!
That grader looks pretty nice, :cool2: good job . . .John

 

[sixdogs]

That's really pretty neat and the long tongue must help it grade. Where are you located or what type of soil is it? Almost looks like New England.

 

[Artisan]

Looks good! I bet that thing makes things nice and level.

PS

Your horsie and my puppy are in a WAY better place...BELIEVE IT.

 

[PineRidge]

Welcome to the site.

That looks like a well built grader and I really like the wheels for transport. What do you guess it weighs in at?

 

[CNC Dan]

Im in NE Mass. Good guess sixdogs.

As far as weight goes I can just manage to drag the tire end sideways if I get too close to a fencepost. The tounge end is a bit lighter, but I'm at my limit when I hook it up.

I should mention that I used mostly scrap and some donated parts.
The scrap came from a pallet/container that a BIG machine tool came in from Jappan. It was too big to fit in a standard shipping container. And the riggers wanted to charge us to take it all away! HA!

I got a lot of 3" channel, 5" channel, 5" square tube, lots of light angle.
And some 3"x1.5" 16ga sq. tube.
But it's all metric, so it doesn't match up with domestic stock.

 

[CNC Dan]

Pineridge:

wheels are not for transport, they are needed fore true grading action. Keeps the blade from dipping down into the low spots and/or cutting in too deep.

 

[CNC Dan]

Here is a shot where you can see where it has cut the tops off of a few high spots.

 

[GPintheMitten]

Great job on the grader, CNC Dan.

 

[CNC Dan]

And here is a shot from the back.




You can see the trailer jack I used as a poor mans hydrolic cylinder.
It pushes the wheels down to lift the blade up.

This is one of the pivot hinges:


and this is the the template to cut them:



hope these pics are not too big.
I can't resize them on my phone.

 

[chkntrktr]

Nice looking rig. It looks like it does a good job.

Is that a trailer tongue jack at the back, and what do you adjust with it?


Oops. You were posting pictures while I was asking questions.

 

[CNC Dan]

Nice looking rig. It looks like it does a good job.

Is that a trailer tongue jack at the back, and what do you adjust with it?

Thanks, and yes that is a $40.00 Harbor Frieght jack. It makes the wheels(free trailer axel) go down to lift the blade up.

 

[lockhaven]

CNC I think that you have been using company equipment? nice ground plate on what looks like a large granite surface plate. Very nice job by the way:thumbsup:

 

[CNC Dan]

CNC I think that you have been using company equipment? nice ground plate on what looks like a large granite surface plate. Very nice job by the way:thumbsup:

The boss lets me work in the shop anytime I want. A nice perk.
That ground plate was a drop(cutout piece) from a job we did. Had to rescue them from the dumpster(scrap guys only take Al and SS). All the welders are mine.


Sorry the picture is sideways.

A miller Dynasty 200DX
And a lincoln SP125+
Had the Lincoln since the late 80s
I also have a Hypertherm powermax30 plasma cutter.

 

[sixdogs]

Im in NE Mass. Good guess sixdogs.

..
...

I used to live in Northern NE. Pretty hard to hide glacial till bank run gravel and granite walls.
The blade setup you have will do a great job. Maybe even better is a wide--8 ft--landscape (rock) rake on a small tractor that has draft control. I got my 5/8 mile road as flat as a pancake using a graderblade like yours and then followed by the rock rake.

 

[Bob77064]

Welcome, looks good.

 

[PhysAssist]

Thanks, and yes that is a $40.00 Harbor Frieght jack. It makes the wheels(free trailer axel) go down to lift the blade up.

Very very nice- I may need to use your design as a (general) template.

I bought a roll over box blade to dig in the yard, and spread fresh gravel, but we really need something on a long axis and wheels like your beautiful build to grade our long gravel driveway.

Welcome and thanks heaps for sharing (and the inspiration).

Thomas
No matter where you go; there you are...

 

[texasjohn]

:welcome: Good job!

 

[Tig]

Great job. With regular maintenance that road is going to be beautiful. People will forget how bad it ever was.

 

[Mike476]

Great job, and welcome.