picture worth a thousand words

[Gary Fowler]

By the way, if you weld from the bottom as suggested, you can go ahead and clamp the pieces square (or tack weld them) and drill your holes. They will be aligned when you put them on assuming that you get them square with the existing plates. I am assuming that the outside configuration is the one that fits your tractor so you only need to weld 2 plates rather than 3.

 

[candyman]

gary,
i can pick up the blade & position it any way i want.

cm

 

[Haywire]

JMHO, but unless your welding has improved dramatically since the first pics, I would hold off on the welding projects till you get about 10lb of rod burnt on scrap material to get the hang of things.

Those extensions hanging down are going to have a lot of leverage on the original. I would add gussets back to the square tube, or make the gussets and extensions one piece of metal.

Ian

 

[Gary Fowler]

My first inclination was that you wont need gussets, but after going back and looking at the welding on the frame, I agree, you need to gusset the new bracket and the gusset needs to extend the the back of the 4x4? box frame. I would make them extend equal leg down your brackets as to distance to get to back of the grader blade box frame. Put a little bevel on each side of the gussets also so you have a little more metal to tie into. You may want to remove the frame from the blade so you can wrestle it around and keep all your welding flat. If you have an FEL you may just be able to lift and move the whole blade around just as easy. Keeping all your welds in flat or just a little uphill will make it easy (easier)to weld while also keeping the slag from the weld puddle out of the way if you are using 7018 rods.
When welding in flat or nearly flat with 7018, it is best to run the machine with the max amps that you can without it popping out a lot of bb or buckshot as I call it. You will get a smoother weld and better tie-in to the base metal. As long as you arent getting bad undercut (UC) on the basemetal, you are OK. Sometimes UC on the basemetal is not due to excessive amps, but the way you hold the rod. If you are welding to a T join or in this case the horizontal butt joint, try pointing the rod more to the piece with the UC and hesitate a little longer when you postion your arc on that piece (you should be making a circular motion between the top and bottom piece) With 7018, it will at first UC a bit but if you hesitant for about a 1,2 count the undercut will fill up unless you truly are running too many amps. You should be able to run a 3/32 flat and horizontal at 80-125 amps with not problems. 1/8" 115-150 amps. Adjust the amperage accordingly for vertical welding which sometimes requires a much lower setting than what you are welding flat or horizontal with. I find that with overhead welding, I get better results if I turn up about 10 amps or more from what I am welding vertical with which is contrary to what you will hear from lots of folks but you need the additional amps to keep the slag forced away from your puddle. IF you have any specific questions let us know and I am sure we can confuse you some more.

 

[IslandTractor]

JMHO, but unless your welding has improved dramatically since the first pics, I would hold off on the welding projects till you get about 10lb of rod burnt on scrap material to get the hang of things.

X2. Need more practice.

 

[Gary Fowler]

You do know that your lift arms on your tractor have adjustments usually on the right hand side as you are standing behind the tractor and looking forward whereby you can shorten or lengthen one side for levelling or tilting. Many also have variable adjustment U brackets that can further be adjusted.
This is just a note of info in case you hadnt noticed the adjustments for the 3 point hitch lift arms. Many of your higher priced blades have swing, tilt and swivel feature where as more economy ones may only have the swivel feature to help you get that just right adjustment needed for the task. I have used both cheapy and high dollar Rhino blades and never had to weld any attachements to get the angle I needed for digging or grading. JUST SAYING.

 

[deereman75]

JMHO, but unless your welding has improved dramatically since the first pics, I would hold off on the welding projects till you get about 10lb of rod burnt on scrap material to get the hang of things.

Those extensions hanging down are going to have a lot of leverage on the original. I would add gussets back to the square tube, or make the gussets and extensions one piece of metal.

Ian

x3 I would wait until you can make a butt weld with 1/4 inch plate, that wont snap when hit with a hammer.

 

[k0ua]

Candyman, you have been given good advice here. I know you want to take off and start making some useful projects right away, but man you gotta crawl before you walk. You need more practice in my opinion before you tackle this. Or at least take some 1/2 scrap and start putting it together before you start on your implement. Even at my level I would probably practice some before I struck arc to implement. Good luck my friend.

James K0UA

 

[gwdixon]

This project is worthy of a new thread. Maybe the mods or candyman can post it.

Anyway, I'm sitting here shaking my head. As already stated, using the adjustments on the 3PH would seem to be the way to go.

After the holes are drilled the only way to hook up the 3PH to non-horizontal holes will be to adjust the length of the arms on the tractor. Then they need readjusted to get whatever angle is wanted. Granted, severe angles will be possible.

Those drop arms are going to take a tremendous amount of force if the blade is used for ditching as it appears that it may. Butt welded or not, it is going to have to be expertly welded. Beveled and 100% weld where possible especially with the limited penetration of 7018.

Looking at the design would make me suspect that a lot of side-to-side bending is possible if one corner of the blade is plunged into the ground. There is limited place to put in side gussets. Maybe boxing in the rear of the mount and gusseting that to the 4x4 would add enough strength.

Just thinking aloud (at the keyboard).

 

[gkh7890]

CM,
A couple of comments if I may:

1. I think I would try a top & tilt kit to manipulate your blade before I would weld on those brackets. You already added the rear remotes so you have the hydraulic ports to run a TNT. Plus it will save you all the up/down & in/out adjustments of the 3PH system.

2. If you are going to weld on new brackets, I agree w/ Gary that I would add the new brackets to the bottom like he suggested. I really think you will be much happier with that method VS. the approach you are taking in your photos. With your approach I think you'll experience extreme torque and almost certain failure and when that happens, then you'll really be upset.


As I have only limit, novice welding skills (MIG), I too would recommend a lot of practice before you do that bracket project.

Again, just my thoughts.