Power Rake Build - 54"

[eCRX]

I started designing\modeling a power rake over the winter. (Got frustrated with sketchup so I purchased a student version of solidworks.)

A couple weeks ago I started the build.

It will be used by a GC2300 (22.5hp) and my brother-in-laws 26hp (L2650?) Kubota

some info:

• 54" x 6" sch40 main weapon
• Teeth - 1/4in AR400, tooth pattern/rake designed for lower hp (will be used on a GC2300 22.5hp and my brother-in-laws ?26hp? Kubota)
• Adjustable\Floating "Roll" on guide wheel assembly
• automotive rear wheel (thrust) bearing used on coast-side (typical flange bearing in chain case)
• removable 1-3/8 keyed shaft
• using 6" sch 40 for parts of the frame\chainbox.

most recent pic (drawn in solidworks)

older Sketchup pic showing some additional aperture\side-shield details not yet drawn in my SW model. Barrowed a 3PH model from the sketchup library and scaled it to proper specs.

so far I machined the 1/4" 'disks' that go inside of sch40 pipe and did some threading for the spinny part.

chain sprocket 'weld hub'.

Will show more details when I mill the keyways. (hopefully this goes smooth as this will be my first time milling a keyway on a shaft! )

Will have more updates periodically.

 

[Doorman63]

Pre keyed solid shafts can be ordered from garage door supply companies.
If you were close to Illinois I’d give you an 1-1/4” 10’ keyed shaft for free!

All your keys/sprockets/bearings can be ordered from Grainger/motion industries/etc. Taper lock sprockets are incredibly strong and easily changed.

 

[eCRX]

I think I'm a bit too far down the road to look into keyed shaft .

What is the purpose of a tapered lock bushing? Can I safely use it without a key or is it more to keep the sprocket from sliding axially?

 

[Doorman63]

I think I'm a bit too far down the road to look into keyed shaft .

What is the purpose of a tapered lock bushing? Can I safely use it without a key or is it more to keep the sprocket from sliding axially?

Not sure about the non keyed part.
Ours are always keyed. Because the bushing is split and clamps to the shaft as you tighten it, the load is spread across the entire bushing/shaft area. Axial play is practically eliminated. Removal to adjust location or change gear size is relatively easy.

 

[eCRX]

Finally ready to start welding. Everything so far was manually cut\milled\drilled\spun\sanded. I still need to make the side shields and top bar "aperture" stuff but the welder is looking lonely. Those are snowblower tires\rims if anyone was wondering, they are modified to be centered on a caster

The 'drum' is cut but didn't feeling like hauling into this pile. I should have the teeth (AR400) laser cut by the time it starts to resemble a power rake.

Pretty much maxing out my skill level every step of the way, no turning back now!

 

[MELEON]

Nice looking pile of parts! looks like you are off to a great start.

 

[ArlyA]

Neat project!

 

[eCRX]

Things are moving fast. Would greatly appreciate feedback from the welders on the forum.

GMAW feedback please

I'm building a power rake and don't have much welding experience. I'm maxing out my fabrication skills to be perfectly honest and most of the reason for building my own power rake is to learn how to weld. https://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/threads/power-rake-build-54.467414/ Would...

www.tractorbynet.com

 

[amhicks21]

I've got a suggestion concerning your tooth selection. One of my primary jobs for the past 15ish years is finish grading. I use an 80" ati preseeder most of the time that originally came with steel teeth similar to the ones you're considering. when new these teeth are 2" tall and have to be replaced once they wear down to 1/2". what I found is that when they're new they comb through dirt without pulling enough along and once they wear they have a hard time penetrating hard soil because the wear profile causes them to slide across the top of the ground. That sliding action causes the implement to bounce and causes a bunch of shock load to the drivetrain that wears things out. Over the years Ive had to replace every single moving part. so, what I did that absolutely solved every problem that I had was use 1 1/4" sharktooth carbides. You can see in this picture that i took about 7 years ago 2 sets of worn out steel teeth with the carbides welded in front of them. The steel teeth lasted 2 years each. 7 years later the carbides still look great and I haven't had to do any major repairs. At the time, I found those carbides for 3.50 a piece and there are 108 to replace. price looks like its probably a bit higher now but I promise its very worth it.

 

[eCRX]

amhicks21, i had no idea those existed, that's pretty neat!

I already spent money on the (AR400) teeth and my applications are fairly light duty, so it's too late for me. This method looks so much more appropriate than how the name-brand companies implement carbide teeth. I think they're just used to copying each other? If I get enough use out of the rake to wear out the teeth I'll at least of a good mount for them.

 

[eCRX]

Update.

The hard stuff - cutting keyways, building double-strand sprockets, aligning\tacking the teeth, and tensioner and now done. Also tweaked the drawing quite a bit. (one of my hidden agendas was the learn Solidworks)

My brother-in-law laser cut the AR400 teeth for me. The tensioner "shoe" is from an older model (1965?) Harley-Davidsons (i used 1 and half of them tied together). I swear - the welding nobody can see looks amazing.

It's prime grass-growing season here so I have to get this thing done!

 

[amhicks21]

Looks like you're making really great progress. One thing im a little concerned about is using single keyways for the gears. Ive had problems over the years with the preseeders I use even though they use 6 spline shafts. I think there's a high chance that keys wont hold up. another thing the preseeders had issues with was they were originally built with a single #80 chain that failed commonly and was eventually upgraded to a #100. I know you aren't doing really heavy work with it but keep a close eye on if the chains are stretching or wearing. They tend to pile up in the case when they fail and bend either the shaft or the case. I don't want to come across as negative because thats a really cool project but just wanted you to be aware of some of the failures ive had to deal with so maybe you can avoid them.

 

[eCRX]

Looks like you're making really great progress. One thing im a little concerned about is using single keyways for the gears. Ive had problems over the years with the preseeders I use even though they use 6 spline shafts. I think there's a high chance that keys wont hold up. another thing the preseeders had issues with was they were originally built with a single #80 chain that failed commonly and was eventually upgraded to a #100. I know you aren't doing really heavy work with it but keep a close eye on if the chains are stretching or wearing. They tend to pile up in the case when they fail and bend either the shaft or the case. I don't want to come across as negative because thats a really cool project but just wanted you to be aware of some of the failures ive had to deal with so maybe you can avoid them.

Thanks for the feedback. I don't really know anyone with PTO driven equipment so I appreciate the feedback. I've done a disturbing amount of research and can't disagree with anything you're saying. There's a lot of hints in building a good power rake in all ground engagement equipment so thanks for sharing the weak points on a preseeder.

I wasn't feeling too confident in a single key either after researching the drive systems on tillers however some of the cheaper power rakes seem to use them.

To mitigate I'm using stronger cold rolled steel on the shaft and eccentric locking collars on the bearings. The keys are sanded-to-fit and require a good tap to fit so I'm hoping that helps too. I might scrap the box store (princess auto) key stock and get something from the local industrial supplier... the key stock cut way too easy on the bandsaw for my liking. I could see myself laying a good bead of weld if there's ever a simple key failure.

For the chain I'm going to look into filling with a small amount of oil instead of grease to keep from wearing. It's remarkable how little wear\stretch is on an automotive timing chain so I'm hoping to barrow from that too. I'm not left with a lot of room for stretch as you can see. Something i learned; I was about to run out and buy an 'offset link' until I read the footnotes - 35% reduction in capacity when using offset links! 50-2 or 80-1 chain is common for a power rake of this size\capacity (or even a step or two bigger) I had to buy about 3x more than I needed so i have a few lives. 50-2 chain would be equivalent to single "70" chain if there was such a thing FWIW.

I have a mostly random potato sized rocks on my property and my dad has a few roots, so we'll see if the weakest link is strong enough.

 

[pmsmechanic]

If you upgrade to taper lock hubs on your sprockets then loosening off won't be a problem. Google "browning hub" or "split hub" to see what I'm talking about. I've been told that you can tighten the hubs onto a worn spline and it will grip without slipping.