The Craftmans Shop > New from Old
Rebirth of a 6 Foot Flail Mower
awemawson:
So today was 'remake the U-Bolts'
Firstly I make a crude jig by drilling correctly spaced holes in a scrap of Scaffold Tube. Then checked that the old U-Bolts were a nice slide fit in it before I chopped out the crescent shaped bit that I needed from all four.
Next I cleaned up the old welds and glued them back together, and gave them a coat of zinc rich paint while they were still warm
Three fitted nicely but the fourth needed it's legs squashing slightly to be a comfortable fit.
awemawson:
So back from a few days away and back to the re-build. What's been giving me sleepless nights is how to get the main flail rotor back into the chassis in a controlled fashion to let me align and bolt up the flange mounted bearings that retain it. The chassis is asymmetric, so when lifted hangs at an odd angle, and the rotor shaft is bally heavy and the flails get in the way of jacks and wedges.
Eventually, by dangling the chassis from a strop on the forklift and jacking up the shaft I was able to get the left hand side (which is a plain 2.5" hole in the chassis) threaded together, and with judicious joggling could lower the chassis so the right hand end (which has a slot to allow the rotor to enter) to go roughly into place.
It was then a case of wiggling and huffing and puffing until the four 16 mm bolts lined up with the retaining baffle / ring threaded holes. Technically trivial, but not easy due to the sheer mass and un-cooperative nature of the parts. In one case I did have to turn a bolt end down to it's minor diameter to give a lead into it's hole, but eventually it all went together and has been torqued up to 'murder tight' :clap:
I'm now rather regretting asking my 'sand blasting tenant' to blast the remaining bits, as he can't do it until Tuesday PM and I could do it myself this after noon - but having asking him it's unfair to not go ahead as agreed.
awemawson:
When I dismantled the flail, I had huge problems withdrawing the jackshaft drive UJ yoke female spline from the output shaft of the gear box. They were thoroughly jammed together. So I decided that it would be a good idea to dismantle that bit of the UJ letting me remove the yoke. This let me sand blast in my cabinet blaster the female spline to clear out any remains of rust or whatever, and check that I'd achieved the required sliding fit. That spline will be re-assembled using Copper Ease anti scuffing grease.
I also dismantled and cleaned the needle roller bearings (32 rollers per bearing) to check that they'd survived the considerable onslaught they received parting that spline. Pleased to say that they had :thumbup:
So, the obligatory zinc rich primer and a top coat of black on the yoke, and back together they went.
awemawson:
I don't intend to dismantle the entire jackshaft - it's bearings are good as are the other six U/J bearings, and I suspect puling it apart will cause more problems than it solves. It's in a position that if it needs attention in the future no major dismantling is needed to get at it - so leave well alone :clap:
I just gave it a bit of a clean up - coagulated grease baked hard after a few decades - and it'll go back as it now is.
NormanV:
Time rather short today as the bacon was due to be sliced having finished curing - 60 packs of 6 rashers cut to a generous 6 MM
I hope that you washed your hands after cutting the bacon. You wouldn't want to get the grease on your mower parts and mess up the paint adhesion!
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version