Land plane dimensions

[jenkinsph]

Good info, today was a long day of cutting and welding.
I have never used one so all info is good info. I have to remove my BH to attach the 3 Point lift arms so I do not use the 3 point very often. I found that my box blade works well for rough maintenance but the dressing is always done with my 72" bucket in the FEL.
One thing I have noticed in every video is that the rear blade's job is more of a "wiper" than a cutter.

A benefit of using the blades straight is you can cut/shave evenly across the width of the plane. If you tilt it forward to cut more aggressively it works better to have both ends of the blade the same distance from the leading edges of the skids. I recommend you building the whole thing with rigidity of the frame in mind. Heavy is ideal. Good grader blades are important, I use 6" x 5/8" x96" with center mounted plow bolts reversible edges. This works best mounted to 4"x4"x1/2" angle iron. When I built my 8' I had some 8" flat bar 5/8" thick and added two pieces of heavy angle top and bottom to help stiffen the blades up. You might also want to consider a pipe roller on the rear skid that can float up and down a few inches too.

 

[workinallthetime]

got it completed shortly after my last post, took a little adjustment to get used to it but my driveway has never looked better.
The second time I used it I started out with my ole 54" box blade tilted hard on one side to pull all of the loose gravel from the sides back to the main track after that the leveler worked beautifully. With the length of my gravel drive it was a great investment in time and materials.

 

[BackRoad]

Pics...or it didn't happen!

(Always like to see what people have designed and built!)

Also, someone mentioned straight blade vs angled 10 or 15 degrees. I've got an EA 7' LP with angled blades. I find it moves gravel to the operator's left (towards the crown) quite effectively, which seems to work well for driveways.

If building one for dirt work, potentially having the blades offset from each other, to shift dirt in both directions might be interesting.

 

[Wyobuckaroo]

I've got the material... Just need the time and ambition to put it together....

The sketches in my "good idea" note book are for an angle iron side frames and back blade to bolt to the sides of my box blade...

I'm thinking adjusting the top link will be the key to getting it to do what I want on the driveway gravel..

 

[workinonit]

I've been working on my design today. I borrowed one from a freiend/neighbor 20 something years ago to do my then new driveway. It is the best implement I've ever pulled. One he built. I'm going to pick it up tomorrow along with the materials to build mine. I will post up some pics. One thing he told me today is that when he built it he set the sides up on 1" tubing so that when he installed the cutter blades they would extend 1" below the side channel. The other thing it has is angled blades but they are in opposite directions. So one pulls materila one way and the other pulls it back. Just enough material flows over the blades to level things up.

 

[workinallthetime]

got busy "testing" and never looked back.
mistakes - dropped the front blade too deep and welded it up. maybe an inch below the sides. which was too Much for packed gravel, I have to use the box blade to tear up the edges and give me some loose material before I use it. i have to make a few adjustments to keep it from hopping when it hits hard-packed areas.
all and all its amazing, I would say it was definatly worth the effort. My 1000 foot driveway looks brand new when I am done - proabaly 10 passes each way.
Pics to come in a few days

 

[workinallthetime]

here is how it turned out, noticed today while taking the picture the welds on the cutting edge have broken loose in all but 2 spots. penetration was good but, you can see the holes where the weld penetrated the edge but they have still broken loose.
I am not sure if heating the edge with the torch first will help or not, maybe just bolt it onto the angle iron. I was also thinking of making a serrated edge to go in its place hmmmm.