The Craftmans Shop > New from Old
Rebirth of a 6 Foot Flail Mower
tom osselton:
--- Quote from: AdeV on November 01, 2016, 07:47:44 AM ---Hehe :D
--- End quote ---
Hey AdeV
Hows this one!
Will_D:
Great build Andrew!
Talking of blood, fingers and workshop accidents in general:
Question came up in the rugby club tonight:
When we watch my (Will_D')s favorite tea time program "Wheeler Dealers" Program on Sky at 5 pm why does Ed China never ever ever slip a spanner, or scrag off a screw driver etc. and draw blood?
awemawson:
Thanks for the kind words chaps :thumbup:
Another delayed start in the workshop today. Yesterday afternoon our Klargester private sewage plant decided to pack up - fortunately we have a comprehensive support contract, but the chap couldn't get here until 07:00 this morning, so no showers and certainly no loo flushing overnight :bugeye: Anyway once he was off site it was back to the workshop to try and finish the flail.
First I re-fitted the flappy plates. I can see why they had got so mangled - when the flail is lowered to the ground, they hang upright, and unless the flail moves either forwards or backwards at this point the weight of the flail comes to rest on the plates - fine if you are moving as you lower it - odd design :scratch:
Then I set too making a new rear curtain - the old one was torn and perished, and I'd managed to source a bit of 'retired' conveyor belt. Just a case of cutting to size, punching some holes in the right places and bolting it back with the new retaining strips I'd made a couple of weeks back.
Used my 'wad punch set' - a most useful boot fare find decades ago back when the countries behind the iron curtain were selling us heavily subsidised goods. Works very well but the steel quality is questionable !
awemawson:
So still to do:
a/ decide what to do with the lift arm adaptors - those 'H' shaped things. Ideally I should re-bush them as they're rather ovalled out, but that might come at a later date.
b/ sort out the dodgy PTO shaft & cover - this is waiting for when I can mount the flail to a tractor to make sure that the length is correct
c/ sort out and re-fix various labels, and re-create a missing one
awemawson:
Today was the day of reckoning :bugeye:
I'd refixed the labels, sourced new mounting pins and it was time to see if it worked. I had two potential issues:
1/ Would the tractor lift it - Ford 4000 is quite small
2/ Would the PTO shaft fit
Pleasingly the tractor lifted it off the ground quite happily AND the PTO shaft was the correct length so now I can invest in some replacement safety covers for it.
Trotted out to the field and cut about 1/3rd acre of grass heavily infested with rushes down to a short 3" staple - seemed to cope quite well but I do need to be careful to remember that this flail has a bigger 'offset' than my other one, so it would be easy to forget and swipe a gate post! The weight with it off the ground is pretty well on the limit without front balancing weights - it has light steering and it's easy to do wheelies :clap:
After it had cut the 1/3rd acre the gear box was mildly warm - certainly not hot so that probably shows that I got the bearing pre-loads about right, however I noticed that there is a minor oil leak from the oil level plug - just needs a turn of ptfe tape.
So in all that probably concludes this re-build - if I manage to find pto shaft covers I'll post a picture but other than that it's now ready for next seasons grass management :thumbup:
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