seed drill in progress with pics

[Bill Barrett]

Nice to meet you Barret, thats going to be nice drill. I been using Pheasants Forever's drill, but would like to come up with something of my own.

 

[dnetherland]

Barrett,

Do you mind sharing your source for the seed cups. I need to fabricate a small seed attachment for a small grain drill. I can pretty much fabricate everything except the cups and fluted rollers. Thanks.

DN

 

[Chip_er]

Hi there fello Islander, your not that far from where I am. Question for you if you don't mind. Your seed deployment system, could this be modified for say carrot planting.

I've been thinking about something like what you've built, but for carrots.

Thanks in advance
Richard

 

[toxic]

Hi guys, Sorry I haven't been keeping up with my own post lately but I just got home from my vacation in europe. anyway I'll see If I can answer some questions.

Flusher- you are correct that the way it is right now the seed would be layed in strips. to correct this I am going to build a trough out of sheet metal so that when the seed falls out of the seed cups they will hit the trough and hopefully scatter. It will kind of look like this l/ , The top opening being where the seed cups are. Also for best results I have always found that going over the lawn twice 90 degrees to each other works best. however this can be very time consuming and sometimes not possable in a narrow yard.

dnetherland- The seed cups I used Where just what I had on hand . Just picked through them and used the best ones. But You would be able to get replacement seed cups from any dealer that sells graindrills. If you go that way, I would recamend Great Plains/Landpride. There seem to be the best IMO, But if there is not a dealer near you my second pick would be John Deere.

Chiper- I honestly can't say I know what a carrot seed looks like or how to plant it, But I don't think this design would would be percise enough for that. But I will look into it more . Might be another project for me. Not that I really have a need for a carrot planter, but you can never have to many toys.

thanks.

 

[diyDave]

A couple thoughts. Carrot seed is finer than a frog's hair split 4 ways, the way to seed in this type of drill would be to thin out the seed with sawdust, and run the mixture through the drill. Even with that bit of knowledge, in 10 feet of a pass with that seeder, you'd probably have enough carrots to feed bugs bunny and all of his kin for a year! For the diffuser plate, look at what a Brillion seeder uses, heck you might even be able to find the part on a junked Brillion. To calibrate the seed cups, loosen the bolts that attach each of them to the box. With the feeds in the closed position, shine a light up from the bottom, so you can see how close to closed each is. If a couple are open a little, tap with a hammer, on one side, then retighten all bolts. That seed box looks a little small for fescue, why not extend it a little, with some 1/2" plywood, so you can put more seed in. Also with the spacing of your tines, have you had any problems with debris jamming up in the front?