Land plane/ grading scraper

[catdozer]

Your welcome.
Well I stole alot of ideas from others here on TBN.
Keep in mind the ones made from scrap or material on hand like catdozers will work just as well as ones made from new steel and painted up.

I too stole many ideas on here. The only scrap I used was my blades as which were given to me and my lower hitch angle iron. The rest came from a large steel pile that was given away as the plant was closing in Chicago, and that was close to 18 years ago when steel wasn't worth anything. Heres a picture of when I picked up the steel for my project. A homemade landplane will last longer than a purchased, since you know how well it was built.

 

[RDrancher]

Your welcome.
Well I stole alot of ideas from others here on TBN.
Keep in mind the ones made from scrap or material on hand like catdozers will work just as well as ones made from new steel and painted up.

I have a guy that has a bunch of iron selling out a few miles down the road. I'll have to check out what he's got. A combination of yours and the one that jenkinsph has will work out just fine. Mine has to look good since it'll be out on the job.

 

[crazyal]

Has anyone thought about welding a Lolly column or two across a grader for extra weight?

 

[MtnViewRanch]

Has anyone thought about welding a Lolly column or two across a grader for extra weight?

If the implement is built with the proper thickness of metal, there is no reason or need to add weight. Typically when a light weight implement has weight added to it because it is not heavy enough, then the implement ends up failing. There is not enough strength in the original structure to withstand the forces put on it due to the additional non structural weight that was added.

A perfect example is an 8 foot wide box blade that weighs 600lbs. A person buys this and figures out that it just isn't going to do what he wants it to do, it just floats over everything. So he looks and finds out that a good BB that size should weigh at least 1400lbs if not 1600lbs. So he adds 800lbs of who knows what to get the box up to the proper weight so that it will actually do some work. It doesn't take long before the metal starts bending and the welds start ripping out. It's not that the box was actually bad, just that it was never designed to do the heavy work of a box blade that is actually built heavy and intended to do hard heavy type work.

Point being, don't bother adding weight unless that weight actually adds to the strength of the implement.

Just my :2cents: learned the hard costly way.

 

[Kioti Tom]

If you want to see a land plane in use to see how it does, Everything Attachments has a video they made using it on a neighbors drive. It may answer some questions you have.

 

[JeremyWI]

Gordon,
I am new to this forum, but I am looking to build a grader very much like yours. My question is how far did you extend the cutting edges from the bottom of the grader? Did you mount them to angle iron and at about what angle?

 

[Gordon Gould]

Gordon,
I am new to this forum, but I am looking to build a grader very much like yours. My question is how far did you extend the cutting edges from the bottom of the grader? Did you mount them to angle iron and at about what angle?

Welcome to TBN Jeremy.
Take a look at the first picture back in post #10 on page one of this thread. It show how the cutting edges are mounted and should help you. The blades are mounted on 4" X 4" X 3/8" angle iron which would put them at about 45* and I set them 3/4" below the runners. I am not sure if this is the best way. It is just how I did it because I didn't know any better. Hope that helps.

 

[JeremyWI]

Gordon,
Thank you for the reply. This helps very much. Going to start on mine this week.

 

[jenkinsph]

Gordon,
Thank you for the reply. This helps very much. Going to start on mine this week.

Hope to build a new small one this week too. The wind has been blowing to hard for me to weld outside.

When I built this larger 8' landplane in 2009 I built it with the blades flush with the wear strips. Seems to work very well and you can easily load it up with dirt or gravel. Something to consider is setting the blades lower maybe a full inch and having a wear strip with wood shims between them and the frame for spacing the blade off the ground. This would allow you to dig deeper when remixing the gravel and fines on a driveway. When you wan't to finish grade as in the last two pics you could add the shims to make the blades flush with the skids.

 

[woodlandfarms]

So, here is my dilemma. Is pulling a land plane comparable to pulling a box blade or easier. I ask because I am serious about building one but my tractor is super wide but can really only move a 60 inch box blade. I wanted to make at least a 72 if not an 84.

 

[RDrancher]

Hope to build a new small one this week too. The wind has been blowing to hard for me to weld outside.

When I built this larger 8' landplane in 2009 I built it with the blades flush with the wear strips. Seems to work very well and you can easily load it up with dirt or gravel. Something to consider is setting the blades lower maybe a full inch and having a wear strip with wood shims between them and the frame for spacing the blade off the ground. This would allow you to dig deeper when remixing the gravel and fines on a driveway. When you wan't to finish grade as in the last two pics you could add the shims to make the blades flush with the skids.

Hey Steve, since our projects seem to run along the same lines I'm curious as to how long your 8-footer is. And would you change the length for any reason?

 

[jenkinsph]

Hey Steve, since our projects seem to run along the same lines I'm curious as to how long your 8-footer is. And would you change the length for any reason?

The skids are 5' long on mine and work well enough for most things. I could see building one with longer skids for dedicated driveway and gravel road work with up to 8' skids. When I was looking at pics of some of the factory made models most had skids about 4' long. I found a deal on some beam drops that were a little over 5' and made them as long as possible which is what is in the pic. You have to think about the limitations of longer skids though, the extended skids can limit your use when backing up to objects and take up more room on a trailer.

Once I have the new 4' compact landplane built I am going to consider some other variations of the skid type implement, such as a screed for spreading top dressing on lawns.

 

[RDrancher]

Yes, I can see longer versions getting in the way of doing a lot of tasks. I found a heavy 10' long I-beam. I think I'll cut it in half and go from there. I'm interested in your skid spacer idea but not sure that I understand it.

 

[jenkinsph]

Yes, I can see longer versions getting in the way of doing a lot of tasks. I found a heavy 10' long I-beam. I think I'll cut it in half and go from there. I'm interested in your skid spacer idea but not sure that I understand it.

The skid spacer thing is simple really, instead of welding the lower wear strips in place weld studs on them and drill holes thru the beam flanges and bolt them down. You can use wooden spacers to space the wear strips away from the main beams/skids thus lowering the skids running surface.

 

[Vern2]

Great thread,

A tool I don't have, cool. Live on paved road, acre lots, started out as dirt streets in 1969. I left my 15' right away, dirt. It gives me another reason to own a tractor. A landplane would be a great addition. My tractor, compac utility tractor 5' wide.

Gould,
You did good! I really like the rear flap, it works much like a box scrapper, when needed.

Jenkinsph,
Your idea about spreading top dressing on lawns is really good.

How about this approach? (One leaver to change landplane, to spreading top dressing on lawns.)

Somehow... rotate first solid cut blade, that's 1/2" below runners, to position above runners(with 6" high teethed drag, behind raised cutting blade) made from 1/2", 5/8" or 3/4" steel. The second solid blade 1/2" higher then runners, allowing a small amount of top dressing to pass through and keeping landplane fuction working. I know what you want, would you please draw your idea. Wait, I just did the heavy lifting.

Edit: next day. The handle to change front cutter:

Pull it forward to lock down cutting blade. Push handle back, will rotate cutting bar to raise position and actvate serrated spreader bar. Can use 6" of 1" plus - round bar stock welded in corners of 4" angle iron, on either side to rotate front cutting bar to lawn spreader position. tooth drag

Right now I'm doing a couple mods to convert two tractor tools to quick hitch compatible in garden link, below (12" one bottom plow and a middle buster.)

Garden stuff

 

[RDrancher]

The skid spacer thing is simple really, instead of welding the lower wear strips in place weld studs on them and drill holes thru the beam flanges and bolt them down. You can use wooden spacers to space the wear strips away from the main beams/skids thus lowering the skids running surface.

Ah, now I get it. Thanks!

 

[jenkinsph]

Vern,
Thanks for the input.:thumbsup:
I will likely build a separate screed that is built for this purpose, With tall sides and an 80" width. Will have steel runners and frame but will have 3/4" plywood to form the sloped sided bin. This being taller I need it to fit between the rails of my trailer. The rear board will be adjustable height from 0 to 4 inches, good for spreading mulch or just adding a uniform layer of topsoil.

 

[senecak19]

Time to revive an old thread.

Gordon - nice work!

In looking at my needs I realized Gordon's land scraper would fit my needs more so than a box blade. I'm building one of these with a combination of scrap steel and new steel. I had a 48"x30"x1/2" steel plate laying around. I had a local shop cut it in half (the long way). I purchased most of the materials listed on Gordon's bill of material. My total investment right now is $353 some of which is surplus material for other projects I'm guessing the weight upon completion will be somewhere between 500 and 550lbs. Overall dimensions are 48" long and 60" wide. Yes, I'd like a longer one, but... that's the plate I had. Right now all of my material is cut. Grade 8 bolts and 7/8" hitch pins were purchased. Tomorrow I start welding. Pictures to follow.

 

[94BULLITT]

Time to revive an old thread.

Gordon - nice work!

In looking at my needs I realized Gordon's land scraper would fit my needs more so than a box blade. I'm building one of these with a combination of scrap steel and new steel. I had a 48"x30"x1/2" steel plate laying around. I had a local shop cut it in half (the long way). I purchased most of the materials listed on Gordon's bill of material. My total investment right now is $353 some of which is surplus material for other projects I'm guessing the weight upon completion will be somewhere between 500 and 550lbs. Overall dimensions are 48" long and 60" wide. Yes, I'd like a longer one, but... that's the plate I had. Right now all of my material is cut. Grade 8 bolts and 7/8" hitch pins were purchased. Tomorrow I start welding. Pictures to follow.

Cool, I'm looking forward to seeing some pictures.

 

[senecak19]

Here's the progress. Welding never took place as my brother needed some help that involved some seat time on the tractor. Naturally that took precedence over this. I'm out of plate material at the moment so there's no rear gate going on just yet.