Mounting a Tractor Hedge Flail

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awemawson:
I suspect that the answer is that the patent has expired, but the registered name hasn't. Tirfor seems to be the original. Mine is ex War Department and as you say they weigh an absolute ton. They'll do things in a very controlled manner that you can't by other means. But you need the biceps of Superman :ddb:

awemawson:
I had a nasty experience with the hedge flail a few weeks ago :bugeye:

I had done two 'passes' down the north hedge in the ten acre field, and was two thirds of the way on the third pass 'facing up' the hedge ie with the axis of the flail drum vertical when there was the most almighty bang and I was covered in cubic safety glass crystals. All a bit traumatic! Shaking somewhat I climbed down to inspect what I'd hit and hence what had hit me.

One of the chestnut spiles in the fence that fronts the hedge must have been tilted forward at an angle - I was trimming back an overgrowth of blackberry that had erupted over the fence and into the field and had successfully missed all the others :med: The top 18" of chestnut had totally disintegrated into missiles that the flail chucked in my direction. The top wire in this fence is barbed wire which was broken but fortunately none detached or hit me.

So - what to do? Well the 4 mm safety glass is available for this tractor for about £150 plus probably needs new rubbers, but that only gets me back to the vulnerable position that I was in before. I know - I'll fit 6 mm Polycarbonate - if it's good enough for police riot shields which are only 5 mm then it's good enough for me.

Two suitable sheets ordered up (Part On Tools King's Norton via eBay) for £127 and some Dow Corning 799 special glazing squirty stuff certified for polycarbonate also ordered.

Polycarbonate sheet arrived two weeks late (so I missed the dry weather :bang:) and badly scratched UNDER the various packing layers which were undamaged. Seller swears blind that he has pictures of sheets before dispatch but never produced them ! After MANY shenanigans I eventually get a refund from eBay and re-order sheets from Trent Plastics that arrive next day in perfect condition and by the very same courier!

Where's the glue? "Oh sorry we meant to message you - can't get it any more so we cancelled your order" :bang: Some more ordered from another seller that arrived the very next day :clap:

OK we have glue, we have polycarbonate so set too. Fixing the uncut sheets against the cab and the door with bungee cords spaced off with a rolled towel I was able to trace round the window frames with a sharpie and cut with a jig saw - a few iterations and I got a perfectly respectable fit.

Now the temperatures have plunged. Minus 3 C in the tractor shed - glue needs minimum of 5 degrees C apparently. As the sun came round and eventually shone into the shed the temperature came up to about 4 degrees - what to do. Well I started the tractor engine and once warmed left it on a fast idle while I had breakfast.

Weetabix finished the temperature was now 6 degrees in the shed and climbing so I was good to go when the exhaust fumes cleared (!) Glue squirted on, cut panels again held in place by bungee cords and rolled towels and leave it for a few days to cure.

That takes me to this morning - now I've always wanted to fix mesh grills on this side of the cab to stop this sort of incident. Poking around in the welding shop I came across the mesh side panels that I removed from the furnace chiller unit that failed - they looked about the right size!

Sure enough the cab window is perfectly covered by one and the door window is very largely covered just leaving a small triangle exposed. I've bent up 'hangers' that are pop riveted to the top of the door and above the cab window, and the heavy mesh engages with them so at the moment only gravity is keeping them in place.

Next job is to devise a hold down method that is easy to release to clear debris from behind them yet stout enough to survive the odd blow from a flying fence post!

hermetic:
Like the safety grilles Andrew! there is a product line there somewhere! I know its a bit of a faf, but you could tig a bit of extra mesh over that corner, and with a dab of galvafroid, no one would ever know!
PS I am well "on the spectrum"
Phil

vtsteam:
Good idea, Andrew. :beer:

That scratched polycarbonate was ridiculous! Reminds me of the "bevel gears" I got recently! :doh:

awemawson:
I've been awaiting for some 'over centre' latches to fix the lower edge of mesh on the cab, and they arrived today. I'd intended to remove the D shaped end, and replace it with a hook that would catch the mesh and hold it in place. In the event it turned out that the geometry was such that I'd have to make 'stand off' brackets for the catches, and I thought if I'm going to have to do that I might as well use a standard 6 mm Lynch Pin - a far more agricultural solution :ddb:

So I needed to form some channel shaped brackets - 37 mm between cheeks. Now it's not possible to bend this shape on the box and pan folder as the second bend is interfered with by the bending fingers. I have the 60 ton press, but no tooling, and it seemed an awful fag to make tooling for only four brackets - so what have I that I can press into service?

I picked my old shaping vice - I'd replaced the jaws years back when I had a shaper and they are in nice square edged condition - could I press a square bar between them and form a channel section - a few rough and ready experiments said yes I could - so I did :lol:

Came out alright considering the crude method of manufacture. I clipped the corners off the upper part of the brackets to allow a standard Lynch Pin to be used and they have fitted on relatively easily.

At least now I can use the tractor when things dry up a bit.

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