Home Made Implements

Here's a drag harrow I made. It uses 4x6"s with railroad spikes as the teeth. I drilled 3/4" holes in the cross beams and drove in the spikes. They're 6" apart and the front and back beam are offset for 3" spacing total. I lag screwed a 2x6" on top to hold in the spikes, drilling a hole over each spike to help seat the board over the head of the spike. That way the wood had enough space to smash down aroung the edges of the spike head. I built a basket for weights on top. I use CAST eyebolts because the formed ones aren't strong enough to keep the chain from pulling them apart. You can see how good of a job it does on the garden. It's 8' wide. All I bought were the 2x6's and the eyebolts, the rest were old lumber I had laying around.

The second type is cultivators, disks, snowblades etc. for 20-30 hp tractors. Most small equipment is priced way out of line, and on top of that you don't get very good quality. Tillage equipment probably the worst. I built my own s-tine cultivator, 6' wide 17 shank, bought new s-tines and fabricated a frame, probably cost me more than at a dealer but I've got much heavier frame. The disks manufacturers put out for small tractors are trash. You can buy a big used disk cut it down, and for about 50% you've got a 6' disk with 1-1/4" gang arbor bolts and bearings, 18" or 20" blades.

In fact I'm looking at a disk now, been a for sale sign on it for some time. Center section is 44 blade, ideal load for 60-70 hp. The wings, manual lift type are 6 blade each, ideal to make up a 24 blade 3 point disk, just an ideal load for 30-35 hp utility, and it will probably sell for more money than the center section 44 blade trailer disk. But look at it this way the 44 blade will make a 20 and a 24 for small tractors.

If you looking for implements for 60 to 100 hp tractors, there is a surplus of used tillage equipment out there and in good condition for the price.

What cost so much were the pump, hose, regulator, nozzle bodies and tips. I had about $350 in the whole thing so I suppose I saved a little money over a new one. However, if I had bought a used sprayer, more than likely it would have required all of the new parts I ended up buying anyway. It looks a little funny, but the roundup still kills the same. I also built a 3pt trailer mover. That was free to build so I saved about a hundred bucks.

I would stay away from trying to build any earth engaging implements from scratch other than maybe a drag or something. By the time you buy or hunt for steel heavy enough to do the job it would be easier to just buy the whole implement. Or you spend three days building the plow or whatever and leave it stuck in the field the first round BTDT!! Take it easy

-PeaBo

Please don't throw rocks at me because it's not an implement. I made it in high school shop class. BOY, that was a long time ago ! Anyway it is a two cylinder model steam engine. It was built from a blueprint except for the flywheels, which were my own design. The only parts that were not machined are the screws and the copper tubing for the steam inlet. It is not worth a dang thing but to look at. It probably doesn't develop enough power to run a sewing machine but I guess it kept me out of trouble in the "formative" years.

Great job,