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As many of you are probably already aware, I have designed and built a good number of various different implements over the years.... some of them were VERY different.
I have been speaking with a good friend of mine who is a custom metal fabricator, he has built several of my designs for customers over the years. We are trying to decide if we should get more into doing this.
As part of the decision-making process I am asking for input from you, the end-users, about your feelings on this.
If you had to name one single use for your machine which is not adequately covered by reasonably priced attachments for your CUT, what would it be for? Firewood gathering? Firewood processing? Transporting/moving/hauling something?
Also, if you know of some use which is not covered at all, speak up.
I look forward to your ideas.
Best of luck.
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Blizz, already been there, already done that, but it doesn't work with a PTO-driven implement since you can't flex the drive-shaft very far off-side.
The 'Murphy Pruner' already exists too, but it is a two part hydraulic operation, it first grabs the limb, then a pruner pinches off the branch. This way the branch is still 'captive' until the operator releases it. It makes it very easy to pile them in one spot, etc. The whole apparatus is mounted on the end of a boom pole like device which clamps onto the bucket.
Harvey, how many grapples do you want? Either to go on the bucket or a completely serate 3pth version, which BTW, is outstanding for gathering & carrying firewood or brush. You just back up, lower, close the jaws, raise it and drive away. Then there is no pile of whatever to look over or around if you have far to travel.
Self-levelling pallet forks for the 3pth are easy, a little complex & expensive, but easy. You also lose some lift capacity.
Keep 'em coming fellas.
Best of luck.
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Tom, it sounds like what you want is a small agricultural irrigation-type pump. They are getting hard to find, but 2" PTO driven pumps used to be common back in the 'old days' when all you had to drive them was an 8N or a Farmall or Cub.
It should be easy enough though to rig up a large centrifugal pump to be PTO driven however it might not develop the pressure you want, especially if you have to pump uphill very far.
Best of luck.
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Bill, a regular concrete mixer can be easily converted to #3pth mount & PTO drive.
In fact if you ask around some of the rental yards they often have old drums which have been replaced because of the buildup from not being washed out properly, they can often be had for next to nothing.
The hookup is relatively simple, any competant welder can do it in a few hours, the drive is accomplished by having the drum rest against a small rubber tire which is driven by a PTO shaft carried between two bearings.
Best of luck.
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Nobody is disputing that these things exist, I think I was misunderstood.
In my original post I used the term 'reasonably priced'.
There are many very useful, well designed & manufactured implements out there. The problem is that the large majority of them seem to be VERY expensive for what you get.
The grapple and the cement mixer are two examples of this.
What I am talking about is making up such devices using mostly 'off the shelf' parts but put together as 3pth or FEL-mounted, PTO-driven implements which are AFFORDABLE for the average user.
As an example, a friend just bought a 3pth/PTO brush chipper, it is an excellent unit. However, it is only 6" (maximum, in reality 4" on average material) capacity with no power feed and it cost a little over $3,700 before tax, etc.
This is basically a big steel box with an inlet and outlet chute and a big heavy flywheel/fan combination plate containing a couple of planer knives.
Likewise, a PTO cement mixer costs a nearly triple what a COMMERCIAL unit with it's own gas engine costs.
Everybody deserves a profit at what they do, but everybody deserves access to quality equipment at a reasonable cost also. Lack of competition should NOT affect prices.
Best of luck.
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Ken, maybe that's why they don't show the front of even one of those tractors on their website.
Best of luck.
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I did come up with such a device a number of years ago, it was to mainain the long driveway and trails at our hunt camp. It would be easily adaptable to a CUT but was originally designed to go behind a pickup.
It was basically just a very long trailer tongue if you will, arched way up in the middle and at the very back was the front axle out of an old 3 ton (2WD) truck which was mounted rotated backwards on an angle of 45 degrees. This allowed the steering to also swivel the wheel off vertical to increase the 'bite' of the tires when making an agressive bite along the shoulder, like when you want to pull the gravel back up onto the road. Halfway between the axle and the hitch was the blade which rotated only on the horizontal plane. The vertical adjustment of the blade, as well as the pivot functions were accomplished by hydraulically pivoting a pair of hinged joints on which the axle was mounted which increased or decreased the amount of the arch. All of this was controlled by the operator who stood on a small platform at the very rear looking forward and down over everything. The hydraulics were powered by a gas engine driving a two stage hydraulic pump like that used on a wood-splitter.
I only used it one year myself, when the local road contractor saw it work he bought it on the spot, I understand he is still using it to this day to maintain private drives and roads.
The biggest advatage was it could be pulled by any pickup, however a heavy 4x4 worked best, both for traction and the ability to roll along slowly in low range. Even though this meant it required a two man crew, it also meant it go between jobs at highway speeds, something the little 'Pony' graders can't do and the savings in travel time and expense more than made up for the 2 men's time.
Send me any and all ideas or designs.
Best of luck.
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Tom, you're right on the money about the rigid tongue, however the blade does pivot side to side, I put two independantly adjustable cylinders on it to raise and lower the blade, one on each side, by adjusting one more than the other you could achieve some pretty extreme blade angles. It also changed the blade-to-earth contact angle by keeping the front rigid, thus as the blade went down further the 'cut' angle got slightly more aggressive also.
As for the steering, it was also hydraulically controlled, and was therefore locked (by the hyd. fluid) in whatever position you left it in.
When I was roading the device, the hitch to wheels distance was 18' so even if there was a little play in the steering gear it did little to the stability, besdies by tipping the axle back 45 degrees the motion in the steering gear was effectively cut way down also.
It was a 3 hour drive to the camp and it sat behind the truck at 65mph like any other trailer, it sure raised a few eyebrows from the other drivers though, especially the truckers and a police cruiser that nearly took off somebodys mailbox from paying more attention to it than the road.
Best of luck.
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bnr, the lift is not that complicated, or expensive to build, and it's being worked on presently, a friend of mine who makes portable bandsawmills has developed a prototype which goes behind a pickup for a buddy of his who is a structural steel welder. The problem is to achieve approval from UL, etc., so that it can be widely used in commercial applications and that costs so much you have to build in big expenses taking it back to being expensive.
Art, the driveway maintainer is good idea, and if done well could be pitched as a business opportunity for the buyer.
The multi-spindle cutter is another good idea but the multiple spindles mean multiple gearboxs, which means a lot more money. Aside from all that the offset (front to back) of the two sets of blaldes required to allow them to miss each other would eat up any savings in depth created by the multi-spindle concept. I also think the extra weight of the drive-train would negate the effect of bringing it in closer.
Tom, I'm not sure what you mean by 'indexing' cylinders, any time I have seen cylinders working together they have been regulated by one of two devices.
The first is a 'load sharing' device, this type of valve splits the hydraulic flow EXACTLY in two components, each doing equal work. Notice I did not say "in half" that is because you could in theory use this type of valve with two DIFFERENT sized cylinders, but still achieve a balanced work load. This is what you would want in a FEL or lift platform use, it would prevent the lighter loaded cylinder from getting all the fluid and therefore extending out of balnce with the other one.
The second type is a 'priority type' device, this is basically a sequencer for hydraulics, it gives no fluid to the secondary port until the primary port reaches a pre-determined pressure, and the opposite when the flow is reversed, the primary port gets no flow until the secondary reaches the set pressure point. This type of device is used for things like tilt-bed trucks, it prevents the load from being transfered to the rear axle until the 'landing gear' is down to support the weight and prevent an overload on the rear suspension, likewise in reverse it would not allow the 'landing gear' to go back up until the deck was fully retracted.
Clear as mud, huh?
Best of luck.
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Mark, you slipped up the middle while I was replying to the earlier posts.
An excellent idea, I will have a go at it for sure, even if it was such that the implement had to be lowered in order to ake the adjustment it would be better than getting off the machine and wrestling with a manual one.
May the force be with us !!!!
Best of luck, too.
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Mark, I like the 'pump version' even better, it is easier and more likely to develop the necessary pressures required to tilt a heavy implement, like a box-blade. I would do it a little different though, I would use a traditional hydraulic top-link, but mount a small hand pump & reservoir on top. If it was positioned carefully you could swivel around and pump it from the seat, or mount it remotely, on the fender say, and control it as if it were a regular remote valve.
Blueman, this is an easy one, the only limiting factor is that the further back the load is carried, say behind your splitter, the more the load, like the tongue of your dump wagon, effectively weighs. This can be at least partially ovecome by mounting large heavy caster wheels under the tongue. Another way would be to mount the splitter ON the dump wagon, therby using one item to carry the other, you would only need to extend the lines to the splitter, or plump them together. Since the dump wagon is probably used to carry the wood this is probably the easiest way to do it.
Best of luck.
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Tom, those indexing cylinders sound like regular cylinders with a priority valve built in, and probably a big price tag built in too. The valve is something like $70 Cdn. at Princess Auto, I would have to wonder if special cylinders could be any cheaper.
Art, there are lots of those maintainers around, no doubt, but I'm sure there are lots of people out there who would rather just buy a pre-made, pre-engineered, quality product, take it home and start to work it. Not everyone has, or has access to, a well equipped shop for fabricating such things. I doubt you could hire a local fabricating shop to make one any cheaper than they could be produced in even small runs.
Now, for the survey, how many people cut their own firewood, and wish there was a way to do it using their existing chain saw, but do it in such a way as to greatly reduce back strain while greatly improving production and safety. The cost would be minimal, but some welding, etc., would be involved.
Let me know folks.
Best of luck.
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Ken, basically it's a heavy duty table on which you place the logs, complete with a ramp for loading if desired. It has a mechanism into which you clamp your chainsaw, which is counter-balanced to reduce the weight of the saw to whatever point you want and allows you to work the saw with complete safety with only one hand, provided you keep the other one out from underneath of the saw,  . This frees the other hand to move and steady the wood. The cut wood can drop straight into a wheelbarrow or any other type of carrier.
You end up with very uniform cuts. All work is done at waist-level and you have very little handling of the wood, definitely no stooping and picking up over & over.
I am building a prototype, I'll post some pic.s when it's done.
Best of luck.
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Ken, you getting pretty close with that idea, the only difference being in my design the saw blade is horizontal and stays that way, the saw goes striaght vertically up and down, it does not pivot.
Pivoting the saw from the tip of the blade is not the safest or most convenient way to do it, it is cheaper to build a jig to do it that way though. Also, by making the entire saw go up and down while staying horizontal you don't have to reach as far up for the handle while still getting decent clearance under the blade, it's easier to make an adjustable stop to limit the raising to just enough to clear the log.
I didn't feel the need to mechanize the feed, it would only make the whole thing more complicated, expensive and heavy. I did however envision a small stopper to prevent ramped wood from clogging the table, then a small hook on a handle, maybe 2' long just to pull the log over the stopper and into position for cutting, it could also be used to pull the log from the far end into the sawing position.
Chief, the firewood processor has been around for a long time, primarily in the Nordic countries. They are too expensive to justify for anything but a purely commercial operation, a homowner would never get their money back. Even the smallest PTO (no power unit to buy) start at about US$10,000 and even if you counted nothing for your labour or tractor to power it you would still not save anything over buying wood already processed. Around here big mobile processors can be hired for US$10 per full cord, for reasonable minimum quantities. At that rate you would need to process upwards of 1,500 full cords before you even got your investment back.
I'm talking about something that could be built in a weekend for a cost of maybe $150 and using the saw they already have, allow someone to easily cut a couple of cords a day, and still be able to walk the next day, .
Plans available, line up to the left of your screen, .
Best of luck.
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I don't know about down there, but here in Canada that would be illegal. The ONLY legal way to abandon a drilled well, even a gas well for that matter, is to plug it by pouring it full of cement.
This is done so as to prevent surface water, or water from the ground-water table from entering and polluting the aquifers farther down, including someone nearby's drinking water supply.
9 points for creativity though......
Best of luck.
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I don't think it was meant as a joke, at least I took it as a serious, very creative suggestion, unfortunately it just isn't workable.
Thus the high score on creativity, .
Best of luck.
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OK Billy, I took it as an idea, if you knew me you'd realize that NOTHING is impossible.
As an engineering student my professor used to drill into our heads "Nothing is impossible, somethings just seem to cost more than they are worth." so I'm programmed to find a way to do things, not say that's impossibl;e.
Besides, it's a common thing around here to reclaim irrigation and dewatering pipes for fence posts, so it didn't even phase me.
Beers on me, but be careful, it's the good Canadian stuff, we use it to stop charging bears, doncha' know......
Best of luck.
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Atually I was wondering what fool left the lid off the well, if it had been in place he probably wouldn't have fallen out in the first place, drunk or not......
Safety pays!!!
Best of luck.
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Dave, I understand what you're trying to do, but can't help thinking you're making it more complicated than it needs to be.
The first big problem you're going to have is if the bottom arms are fixed to the FEL frame you won't be able to adjust their attitude, or rotate them like you could with a set of pallet forks. This means you will have a bear of a time trying to stick the forks under a log since they will be locked in position, with only a vertical adjustment. Also, without rotation you have no way to roll them back and transfer the weight in.
IMHO, what you have to do is make the TOP frame close on the bottom, not the other way around.
If you already have a QT plate for your machine, mount a set of pallet forks to it. You then have the option of either going really cheap, chain or rope to kepp the logs in place, or fancy, hydraulically (or sprung like a mouse-trap) closing grapple on top.
Best of luck.
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Grinder, that's not a tough one, we've been dealing with leaves on golf courses in that manner for MANY years. It just requires a bit of co-operation from Mother Nature. Here's how it works.
Use a conventional rear finish mower, side discharge only, rear discharge doesn't work, put on the most aggressive mulching blades available. Make up some pieces of flat iron half the length of your blade and drill the same diameter hole in exactly the middle, twist each end up by about 25 degrees like a propeller. Install these bladesfirst then your mulching blades so that these new blades are ABOVE the others. Set cutting height so that the blades just touch the top of the grass.
Now wait until the leaves are a little cruvnchy, or at least as dry as you think they're going to get before snow or rain hits. Driving forward over them as at a speed of approx. half that which you would normally cut at will vacuum up and mulch the leaves. The air flow created by the aggressive mulching blades and the extra blades will create quite a stream of air coming out the outlet, enough to quite satisfactorily spread whats left of the leaves around without leaving any big clumps.
If you end up with more mulch than you desire left behind then clear a small area large enough to speread out a good sized tarp in. Use large nails as pins to stake it down well and then run your machine around in an ever decreasing circle constantly blowing the leaves into the center, when you get to the point where all the leaves are on the tarp just gather the edges and drag it of to the disposal area.
Best of luck.
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The first of the "Murf-Miester Do-Lots" line of toys, err, I mean TOOLS, is ready for field testing.
See my picture # 18.
It's not exactly a 'new' implement, but I'm certain it will prove itself VERY handy in the future.
I am in the midst of finishing up several more components of it but the first few components are done.
The base unit is a sort of quick-tach plate which in this version is designed to mate with the Kubota 4 pin system. Two pins are left in place all the time and only the bottom two pins need to be removed to swap plates or attachments.
A central part of the design is the Class 4 receiver hitch in the middle, as shown it takes a ball mount or anything else on a 2" square mount. I have so far added a snowplow mount and a 3pth adapter, both of which couple to the base plate via the 2" receiver socket. More pictures to follow. The forks are easily removeable by just sliding the round stock out to either side. The flat-back design of the forks allow you to 'dump' a load (such as a log) off without the forks swivelling and staying flat to the ground but does allow some slight rotation to conform to the ground to get under something.
This past weekend I mounted my 3pth push-broom on the 3pth adapter and quite quickly de-thatched a big area of grass. It also makes a real nifty mount for a 3pth logsplitter and the versatility of being able to adjust the height and angle was a real blessing. It is also a lot easier for two people to work around it when it is out front instead of nestled up against the back of the tractor.
It's hard to see in the picture but the paint is an almost exact match to factory colour, it was accomplished by blending 2/3 Tremclad Omaha Sunset Orange with 1/3 Tremclad Fire Red.
Best of luck.
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Beagle, some time ago I saw a position control device a fellow had made for a slightly larger tractor, but the concept would be the same. He did a lot of rural driveway maintenance and so needed a grader like apparatus.
His system used a pair of runners like a sliegh would have, one each side of the grader. A control rod ran vertically from them to a sensor mounted on top at each side, they in turn controlled electrically-operated hydraulic valves to maintain a set elevation. The runner served to even out small bumps and smooth the movements.
By merely adjusting a sliding collar clamped to the control rod he could adjust the finished elevation with nothing more than a screw-driver.
He told me he was working on a similar type of setup using a control rod on the rock shafts of the 3pth to do the same thing with the 3pth.
Best of luck.
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