Landscape Rake Build

[SkunkWerX]

But it's a rake? With springy tines.
How much of a load do we think it's gonna have at worst of times?

The tines are gonna flex far before any mounting flange or bolts shear.

 

[GuglioLS]

360 degree rotation ??? Nope, I didnt see that one coming. Guess I gotta go back to work on mine. Really, that thing is a work of art.

Hey Jim,
Thanks for checking out my rake build and your compliment, True, it could be considered a work of art, but it will be art put to good work.
After I read your rake project and saw the video of the articulating action, I thought that was just way cool and mine had to have that feature as well, so I changed my design mid construction to copy that feature. You done good with your design and construction and I wanted one at least as nice as yours.


Renze -
Not sure what you mean, what exactly is the "dead point" thats going to cause my rake to self destruct?
Here is a quick review on some of the construction:
The tine holding bar spindle pin is solid cold rolled steel 2-7/16" (62mm) OD, the boom is 4" x 4" x 3/8" thick wall square tube, cylinder mounts are 1" thick bolted on with four grade 8, 1/2" socket head cap screws (shear strength for one 1/2" grade 8 bolt is around 17,870 pounds). I could ram this thing into a battle ship, first thing that would happen is the TPH drag links would collapse. Maybe reconsider your observation?

GuglioLS, your landscape rake is looking pretty professional. You should start a little business of selling the plasma cut pieces!

Thanks Nickahawk, since I have not been flooded with parts request, I think I'll keep my day job.

Larry, you may be setting the bar a tad high for the rest of us to follow Great project, photos and storyline. Now for the dumb question.........How come you just didn't make the 360 blade interchangeable with a rake or a combo unit

Good question - just lazy I guess? no really, I just wanted a stand alone rake built from the ground up. I didn't want to mess with, or mess up the 360* blade as it works perfect the way it is. The 360* blade is a 6 footer, the rake is a 7 footer, the boom on the 360* blade is just long enough to allow it's 360* rotation and would not accommodate the 7' length of the rake. Beside that wouldn't it be a pain every time I wanted to swap from blade to rake? I mean, taking off just the blade part, then swapping it out for the rake seemed like more work to me than simply changing out TPH implements. That and the rake has articulation whereas the blade does not. How about I add a retractable blade to the rake? Maybe that would work out? I have a 10' hardened cutting edge. I found it laying on the side of the road may years ago. It's around here somewhere, I should go find it. I think it fell off the county road grader.

But it's a rake? With springy tines.
How much of a load do we think it's gonna have at worst of times?

The tines are gonna flex far before any mounting flange or bolts shear.

Hey Skunk - my thoughts exactly, no way will any of the bolts shear - ever. A 1/2" grade 8 bolt has 17,870 pounds of shear strength, The cylinder mounts are bolted on using four of those bolts for a total of 71,440 pounds shear strength. If I ran this into a brick wall, the wall would crumble, if I ran the boom into a solid rock cliff the tines would snap, then the TPH drag links will buckle, but before that I would have pushed in the clutch and nothing bad would have happened. I don't understand, I have not even used this thing and it's demise has already been forecasted. I guess I better post some video of it in action before it theoretically falls apart.

Larry

 

[J_J]

Hi Larry, The dead spot he is talking about is when the cylinder is in line with the king pin, and all movement has stopped. There is one spot on the rotating plate that this could happen, either pulling or pushing. This probably will not occur if there is some motion.

 

[GuglioLS]

Hi Larry, The dead spot he is talking about is when the cylinder is in line with the king pin, and all movement has stopped. There is one spot on the rotating plate that this could happen, either pulling or pushing. This probably will not occur if there is some motion.

Hi J.J. -
OK got it, in other words; Bottom dead center of the cylinder stroke when it's being rotated to change direction. At that point, the angle of the tines is so great it could not be used to rake in that position. As demonstrated in the video, when rotating the tines as long as I change direction on the valve fast enough, the inertia / momentum rotates the tine assembly past that bottom dead center point. I got it "stuck" there a few times practicing until I got the timing down, all I had to do was give it a little nudge (by hand) past the bottom dead center point to get it "un-stuck". One time when it was "stuck" at that bottom dead center point, I had kept cycling the cylinder at full hydraulic power and nothing broke. The rotate cylinder is 2" diameter, the system hydraulic pressure relief valve is set to 2300 psi, if my calculations are correct, that's 7,222 PSI of pushing force available from the cylinder which is peanuts compared to the beefy construction, I think it will be OK.

Larry

 

[J_J]

Larry,

If I am thinking right, and you get in that dead spot, the boom cylinder should be able to allow enough angle to continues the swing on the rake..

I have a landscape rake, but have not really used it that much. Does a landscape rake windrow like any other blades used at an angle?

Did you ever say where you purchased your tines, and how much they cost. I have lost a couple of tines, and plan to move some of them to fill the gap.

 

[GuglioLS]

Larry,

If I am thinking right, and you get in that dead spot, the boom cylinder should be able to allow enough angle to continues the swing on the rake..

WOW yes that's a brilliant idea - why didn't I think of that?

I have a landscape rake, but have not really used it that much. Does a landscape rake windrow like any other blades used at an angle?

I'll have to let you know on that as soon as I try it out. I have been traveling all week on jobs. According to member Jimgerken, who built a really nice rake himself (to be featured in Farm Show Mag), says yes it will do that windrowing thing. (Page 4 reply # 33):

Larry, your pics are great. Glad I could help too. Yes, the rake angled does wonders. It does a great job of sifting out soil and moving rocks, reluctantly, to the side. I have found that going in reverse, with the rake angled also works, even without turning the rake around. Mine does not turn around. As you rake a trail, for instance, lets say its ten feet wide, the first few passes everything flows toward the side pretty well, but then the material builds up and the action becomes sluggish. At this point, angle the rake the other way (do not turn it around though), and back up. It will not sort dirt out in this mode, but the big windrow you made sure moves to the side nicely. When you get to the side of the trail, you can now also offset the rake, and keep moving the rocks off the trail, even while keeping your tire away from the edge of the trail, for safety.

If you dont angle the rake, you are gathering stuff till you have to dump it in a big pile. If you are angling, you are sorting, grading the materials off to the desired side of the trail/road, removing large rocks and leaving inch-minus.

Did you ever say where you purchased your tines, and how much they cost. I have lost a couple of tines, and plan to move some of them to fill the gap.

I posted early on (page 1, reply # 10) I got the tines from Agri supply, they have three offerings - 1 hole Chinese for $2.09, 1 hole made in Italy for $2.99 and two hole made in Italy $2.99 ea. I used the one hole Italian ones

Agri Supply Rake tines


Larry

 

[SkunkWerX]

I posted early on (page 1, reply # 10) I got the tines from Agri supply, they have three offerings - 1 hole Chinese for $2.09, 1 hole made in Italy for $2.99 and two hole made in Italy $2.99 ea. I used the one hole Italian ones

Larry

"I'll have the two hole Italian, on rye, extra peppers, hold the oil"



The rake tines bend an amazing amount when over loaded.
I have been lucky enough to bend one or two back into alignemnt with the others after "tweaking them".
Good ol spring steel.

 

[Renze]

Renze -
Not sure what you mean, what exactly is the "dead point" thats going to cause my rake to self destruct?

Larry,

The dead point:
When you switch the hydraulic lever, from extension to retraction of the cylinder quickly, to continue the rotating motion. Thats where you find the dead spot. If the rake is not in motion, and you extend the cylinder, the rake may begin to rotate in either direction, clockwise or anticlockwise.

When there are four 1/2" bolts, i agree that it would more likely bend the cylinder rod than break anything else.

I find it hard to explain, but imagine putting paving stones inbetween existing pavement (like when you dug a utility line trench through existing pavement)
When you put the stones back, its going to be tight. What you'd usually do, is putting 2 stones up against each other like /\ and step on the middle where they meet. The more you push them down, the more force they will put on the existing stones pushing them aside, untill both described stones sit flat inbetween the existing pavement.

When the stones are pushed flat like described above, they will be at their dead point, and the closer they are to the dead point, the higher the force will be.
I dont know if you ever worked with paving stones ( they dont use them as much on your side of the Pond, i think) but it helps to imagine the force to the sides, the flatter the triangle gets.

Another analog is the rope tied between 2 trees: When the rope is 100 meter and the trees are spaced 10 meter apart, each tree will only have about 1/2 the force you excert to the rope.
But when the rope is spanned firmly between the trees, as short as possible (rope length as much as the tree spacing, tree is perfectly spanned in a straight line) either the rope will break or the trees will bend.

Maybe reconsider your observation?

.

 

[GuglioLS]

FINALLY a rake in action video. (~10 meg)
One of my twin daughters volunteered for the honors of taking the video:




I tried it in all cylinder positions, working them to their extremes by extending and retracting. It works smooth, and obviously did not fall apart, nor bend or break any parts, I didn't shear any bolts or bend any cylinders. (Sorry Renze) I still appreciate your metal bending tip, but your prediction of dire consequences for my rake have not materialized, better luck next time.


Below are a few shots of raked ground after initial raking, grass seeded then raked smooth:




Did you notice how tall and green the weeds are? We are in the middle of our monsoon season, so everything is growing out of control. I have not mowed or weed whacked since starting the rake project, so I better get after it.
Thanks for all your support, interest and ideas in this build it yourself rake project.

Larry

 

[TBDonnelly]

That rake is poetry in motion.

Thanks for all the pictures and documention of the process. Oh...and did I mention the paint job. Great, great work.

Don