Land plane/ grading scraper

[john40981]

They are probably a straight cutting edge and a curved cutting edge would work best.

:thumbsup:

 

[thescubasmith]

Great looking design! I really like the hinged door on the back, and the chain in place of the toplink on he last pass seems like a good idea. Thanks!

 

[garc]

I was curious about Gordon Gould's DIY driveway grader/smoother that was featured in today's TBN eMail of 10 great 1-Day Tractor Projects. Elegant and effective piece of equipment !
I have attached a pic of the 200 lb 8 ft Train Rail Grader attached to my 400 lb box scraper for a 600 lb total. With Top & Tilt 3 point hydraulics it does an amazing job of maintaining my 1000 feet of driveways especially after the winter ravages of snow plowing.

 

[crystallake]

I know this is an old thread but i had this question. What welding method did you use, MIG or Stick and if stick which rod?

 

[woodlandfarms]

For what? To build a scraper? For me I use stick on my heavy metal.. #1 is that I am the worlds worst welder and stick on thick stuff gets good penetration for me... But if you got a big mig, why not right?

 

[crystallake]

Starting to gather materials for a build like Gordan Gould's grader. Found some old grader blades that are still in good shap..8" on one end and 4' on the other, tapered with square holes for bolts. Question: Should I cut them down with plasma cutter or just leave the taper? How hard is this metal going to be to drill ?

 

[jenkinsph]

Starting to gather materials for a build like Gordan Gould's grader. Found some old grader blades that are still in good shap..8" on one end and 4' on the other, tapered with square holes for bolts. Question: Should I cut them down with plasma cutter or just leave the taper? How hard is this metal going to be to drill ?

I cut mine with a O/A cutting torch and have used a chop saw before too. Good quality blades I would pick up the plow bolts needed and fasten them down as is.

Starting a new build I bought new blades that are reversible. Just makes more sense to use new blades as this is the most important feature of the tool. For mounting a 6" tall reversible blade a 4"x4"x 1/2" angle seems to work the best as it allows the correct clearance of the plow bolts. The equal leg angle also sets the 45 degree angle for the blade to wear properly. All of the blades I have used are drilled for 5/8" plow bolts. To drill the holes in the angle iron I used a 5/8" bimetal hole saw, clamped the blades in place over the angle iron and drilled through the blade holes without a pilot bit. I found that to be easier than fighting the drill press in this case.

Long skids with smooth leading edges are important, mine are 60" in length. I may build a new one soon and the skids will be longer. May build a 6' x 6' for a friend this summer.

 

[crystallake]

On your build did you angle the blades front to back or decide to weld the 4x4 straight across. My farm roads have little to no crown, but I also plan to use the grader for smoothing out some food plots for planting. Picking up the steel today. I will post my progress.

 

[jenkinsph]

On your build did you angle the blades front to back or decide to weld the 4x4 straight across. My farm roads have little to no crown, but I also plan to use the grader for smoothing out some food plots for planting. Picking up the steel today. I will post my progress.

Both of my lpgs use the blades set straight. Most of my use (75%) is for smoothing pastures when grading for flood irrigation. This week I am using the small 4' lpgs to smooth over a customer lawn area.

Here are the two lpgs , 3ph spike tooth harrow and roller that I have built for smoothing and rolling my jobs. About $2000 total in everything plus my time which is cheap.

 

[Gordon Gould]

Very nice roller you built Steve !!

gg