one more land plane build

[Stokes760]

Found a I beam drop 16 x 5.5 x 5/16. Its 10'11'' long and 26 lbs per foot. So working on a land plane build just have a few questions.

blades angled vs straight. Seems like angled blades for gradeing and straight for leveling. So guys with straight blades do you wish they were angled while gradeing ? guys with angled blades wish they were straight while leveling?

If I cut my beam in half ill have 5' 5.5" skids if I back set the blades 5.5" and run them at about 22.5* it would land in the middle of the skid and I would end up with a 5.5' cutting width useing a 6' blade. Does that sound feasible.

I would like to have adjustable cutting depth. How are you tbn guys doing it and what depth increments?

 

[Gordon Gould]

I put my blades straight and to answer your question; no, I never wished they were angled. Then again, I may not know what I am missing.
The reason I put them straight was that I wanted to be able to run up and down the road in either direction and on either side or in the middle w/o worrying about blade angle and material flowing to one side. If angled blades really are a significant help in building crown then you would be forced to grade in only one direction all the time on a crowned road. But I am not sure if angled blades do that much for you anyway. Another reason I chose straight blades was that I also have some sections of road w/o a crown. Those sections are flat but pitched to one side for drainage. As you say straight blades make more sense for flat. So to me it seems straight blades tend to be more general purpose but those people with angled blades like them as well as i like my straight blades. That is why I think it might not make much difference which way you go.

I use a rear blade to set the shape or contour of the road then maintain that contour, what ever it is, with my straight bladed grader and this works well for me.

 

[jenkinsph]

Both of my graders are straight blade and work great. I agree with Gordon's assessment.

About the adjustable height, the easy way to do this is to have the blades mounted to a frame work and then attach the skids with a set of multiple holes. Could use some heavy flatbar to attach the blades mounts together this is then bolted to the skids. I would also recommend using 4x4x 3/8 angle for the blade carriers, the 4" dimension is needed to have enough room for proper blade mounting.

 

[Stokes760]

here is a couple pictures

 

[Stokes760]

here's a model I made in solid works. angle iron at about 20.5* weighs about 580 lbs could be off by +/- 10% didn't really spend time drawing exact profiles for the beam angle and tube.
should I mount the lift arms to the front of the tube or on the top of the front cross tube

 

[jenkinsph]

Here are the two I built with some pictures of various jobs I used the larger plane to do. Seems to work well for lawn smoothing, slab leveling and driveways with blades set flush and straight. When I built the patio on the house it originally was with more drop and the HOA wanted the concrete wall hidden. Added the retaining wall blocks and tapered the ground away from the patio extension. Gotta love the HOA's.

Something to consider when building a landplane is it needs to be very rigid you don't wan't it to flex or twist. I would use either good pipe or square tubing for the cross members. I rolled the ends together on my skids to allow them to roll over the ground easier and to stiffen the beams preventing bending or flexing length wise. You can use stiffeners instead if you prefer. I have had good success with the ski shaped skids on the smaller 4ft plane, rides over everything without hanging up and doesn't hold all the gravel the wide flange beam styes do. Dropping gravel on the grass or road is a pita.

 

[stuckmotor]

Jenk,
I like your house. Is it passive solar?

 

[MtnViewRanch]

I have angled blades on both of my LPGSs. While the material does move side ways, it is such a small amount that you might as well think of it as no sideways movement at all. I actually marked and watched material go over the cutting edge, and the sideways movement was less than 3/4". So counting both edges, less than 1 1/2" of sideways movement of the material per pass. As far as the blades being angled, I believe that the angled blades would-should cut out wash-boarding better, but do not no this to be a fact.

I believe that you would be happy with the blades in either position.

JMO, and we all know how that goes, everyone has one. :2cents:

 

[jenkinsph]

Jenk,
I like your house. Is it passive solar?

Those are customer houses.

 

[jenkinsph]

I have angled blades on both of my LPGSs. While the material does move side ways, it is such a small amount that you might as well think of it as no sideways movement at all. I actually marked and watched material go over the cutting edge, and the sideways movement was less than 3/4". So counting both edges, less than 1 1/2" of sideways movement of the material per pass. As far as the blades being angled, I believe that the angled blades would-should cut out wash-boarding better, but do not no this to be a fact.

I believe that you would be happy with the blades in either position.

JMO, and we all know how that goes, everyone has one. :2cents:

Brian,

I agree that either straight or angled blades should work well. I haven't seen where washboarding makes a difference using the straight blades either, it does matter when using a rear blade with increased angle. The only advantage I can think of for having an angle in the blades is to limit the dirt trailing off to one side of the plane instead of both sides. When you pitch the land plane with straight blades forward (shorten top link) to dig in the blade is still held in contact uniformly across the ground. When you do the same with an angled blade the side that is swept back is going to be raised higher than the leading edge. That is the only problem I have with the angled blade setup. Granted we are talking nuances here, I wouldn't worry too much either way. I am thinking about building a new 14'x8' land plane for a larger tractor with hydraulic blade adjustment and rippers. I am open to hydraulic adjusted angle on the new plane if I can see enough benefit.