Steel Cut for Grader/Planer

[Chilly807]

Great looking work Gordon. I can't believe you cut those parts with a Sawzall!

I was thinking that myself. I cut about 16 feet of 1/4 aluminum a while back with a recip saw and that was enough workout for me. I still shake once in a while, like Wile E. Coyote on the earthquake pills

I use a zip-cut disc and a grinder for most of my steel cutting, I'm too cheap to actually buy a cut-off saw, and a plasma cutter is right out of the picture at least for now.

Chilly

 

[MtnViewRanch]

Brian

2 Graders?

Like most things, bigger is not always better. :shocked: I have a few conditions where the 5 footer just works easier & better than the 7 footer.

 

[bucmeister]

Saw an interesting method of adjusting blade angles one time. One side was fastened as a pivot point with a hinge type setup while the movable side was controlled by a piece of flat steel stuck through a slot in the side plate that had angle iron pieces welded above and below the slot with holes for a pin at various spots along the length of the angles. Hope the description makes sense.

 

[Spudland_Dave]

Gordon,
I see you had fun cutting the steel but you missed out on some more. For the $240 you payed the weldor you could have found a used AC/DC stick welder and do the job yourself. Then keep the welder and happily plan for the next fun project. Don't get me wrong it looks great, but you gave up on some of the fun. As it was said by a wise man here on this site:"Learning to weld is like money in the bank."

While I'm all about doing it myself, in today's economic climate as odd as this may sound, more and more, I'm finding it cheaper to have things made then do them myself. Heck I'm having steel "shapes" Plasma cut, bent on a brake, professionally done in every respect for the same price as what the raw steel would cost me....helps me in many ways...I can quickly fabricate cardboard templates for the shop and on my way into work drop off the templates and when I go home I pick them up...then at night or on the weekend, I spend less time fiddling with the little things and more time actually making serious progress.
I've been wanting a plasma cutter for a while, but lately I ask myself why should I buy one when I can have the work done for me for "free"....

Back on topic...great work all around!

 

[Jim in ICT]

Gordon, I also have to commend your work with the sawzall. That's a bunch of work! I'm interested, how was your parts fit up? Even though I use a chopsaw with an abrasive blade, there's still times my cuts will be a bit out of square. I'm sure that your welder would've been able to accomodate if needed. Anyway, great work, I printed off you design and plan to build my own.

 

[KWentling]

Nice job. A suggestion. If it's not too late, before you paint, cap the square tubing upright your top link connects to. That will collect water and freeze, bulging and possibly cracking the tube. At the least drill a hole so it will drain. I just priced one of these (Dura-Grader). If I'm going to have one I'll be building one. A question I have, is how much blade do you have extending below the runners? Would it be worth it to make that adjustable? You could adjust how much material you are moving and that could extend the useable life of the cutting edge. Thinking mine would be 8 or 10' wide and angle adjustable.

Kim

 

[MtnViewRanch]

Nice job. A suggestion. If it's not too late, before you paint, cap the square tubing upright your top link connects to. That will collect water and freeze, bulging and possibly cracking the tube. At the least drill a hole so it will drain. I just priced one of these (Dura-Grader). If I'm going to have one I'll be building one. A question I have, is how much blade do you have extending below the runners? Would it be worth it to make that adjustable? You could adjust how much material you are moving and that could extend the useable life of the cutting edge. Thinking mine would be 8 or 10' wide and angle adjustable.

Kim

Kim, what size tractor do you have to pull a grader?

 

[KWentling]

Kim, what size tractor do you have to pull a grader?

100HP
Kim

 

[MtnViewRanch]

100HP
Kim

A 10 footer will have even your tractor working. Are you planning on grading roads with it? A lot of roads don't even have a 10' wide straight- flat area on them. In other words, you would be shaving the crown off of the road using a grader 10 foot wide. Now, one that wide would be great for actually leveling out a field, horse arena and the like. :thumbsup:

There was a guy around here that had bought a 12 footer. I think that he hooked it up to his tractor, realized that there was no way that he was going to be able to pull it, took it off and sold it for $800.:laughing: The paint on the cutting edges was barely scratched. Who ever bought it got one heck of a deal. :drool:

Please post pictures of your rig when you get it done.

 

[KWentling]

Brian; I would probably go 8' wide because traction might get to be an issue. The road I maintain averages about 16' wide. I maintain it now with an 8' 3-point blade with a tail boom wheel. It works OK but wish it were 10 or 12'. When angled the effective width is reduced to more like 6' by the time you allow for the "slobber" and I'm always having to adjust to keep from driving on the windrow. It would help if I would put hydraulics on the offset too. On this tractor I have another remote to work off of. I was looking at trading this blade for a wider one but it looks like it's going to cost me at least $3000 for 2 more feet of blade. Haven't priced a 12'. This blade is also only rated to 80HP so adding a couple of feet to it is probably not a good idea. I figure for that $3000 I can build a heck of a drag, probably have money left over, and have 2 options for working the road and other projects. Got to build a garage when the weather gets straightened out so this is not going to happen for a while (time and money issue). Still would like to know how much blade you guys have below the runners. I would assume not much but I've never been around one of these.

Kim