I had a nasty experience with the hedge flail a few weeks ago
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
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
) 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"
Some more ordered from another seller that arrived the very next day
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!
