BX Brush Guard

[dlsmith]

I've been slowly working on the brush guard for my BX2230 this winter. It's been so d#$m cold and my shop doesn't heat very well, so I haven't made as much progress as I would have likes to by now. But I did get everything welded together and Monday night I worked cutting some metal screen material down to fit in the upper and lower openings. I also got the Kubota logo plates back from eMachineshop.com. They did a great job of cutting the logo into the 1/8" plate. Judging from the looks and smoothness of the cuts, it must have been done with a water jet. In any case they look great.
When we get another fairly warm day, I'm going to fire up the TIG welder and weld the screen material in place. Then I need to trim the logo plates down to fit in the center area and weld them in place also.
Then I'll get the guard and the mound sand blasted and either paint it or get it powder coated if the powder coater has a color close to Kubota orange.

 

[seanbarr]

Nice!!!


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[skeets]

What he said, very nice !

 

[jetattblue]

Very nice! Good job.

 

[dlsmith]

Got more done on the brush guard this weekend. Welded the screen in, cut down the plate with the Kubota emblem, fit it in the guard and welded in place. I also made a jig to hold the guard mount in a vertical position so I could drill holes for the clevis pins to hold it in place.
As usual, if I could screw something up I did. After I got the holes for the pins drilled, I discovered I had the guard mounted in the mount backwards, and the holes, which aren't exactly symmetrical, were off when turned around the correct way. So, I fired up the mig machine, welded the holes shut, ground the welds smooth, reassembled it and redrilled the holes.
Then I installed the mount with a couple of bolts and put the guard in place.

I may make a couple of small pieces of screen to fill the gaps on each side of the emblem, but I'll have to tack weld all the pieces together, as a piece that small just falls apart when you cut it to size.

Now to get it painted.

 

[William1]

I was wondering why until I saw your finished product. Makes sense.

Here is a dumb question, is it strong enough to deflect an errant log? The stocker on my BX appears beefy enough to be able to withstand a full speed ram into a steel 'I beam' and protect everything.

I have yet to remove my guard and hood because it is such a PITA (heavy and I am getting older every day). Instead, I contort. Your rig looks to make removal a walk in the park.

 

[dlsmith]

I'm not really worried about errant logs, just occasional working around brush and pine trees. The frame is made of 1 1/4" inch water pipe, and the mount is 1/4" steel plate, so it should withstand any abuse I am likely to give it.

Yes, I made it easy to remove, just remove the two clevis pins and it lifts out of the mount. Only takes a few seconds to remove.

 

[Yooper]

One of the nicest brush guards I have seen!

Search for Powder Buy The Pound. They will sell small orders of powder and they have a match for the new Kubota orange. Pumpkin is what they call it I believe. Nice people to deal with.

 

[William1]

I'm not really worried about errant logs, just occasional working around brush and pine trees. The frame is made of 1 1/4" inch water pipe, and the mount is 1/4" steel plate, so it should withstand any abuse I am likely to give it.

Yes, I made it easy to remove, just remove the two clevis pins and it lifts out of the mount. Only takes a few seconds to remove.

Makes lots of sense. Nice work! 1/4 steel plat is plenty strong!

My personal concerns is I am so damned careless sometimes. More so as I've gotten older. I can sort of afford nice toys but I am more klutzy so they suffer at my hand!

 

[D2Cat]

Really nice looking and functional. How did you roll the corners?

 

[dlsmith]

Really nice looking and functional. How did you roll the corners?

Thanks for the comments.

I had the local Amish fabrication shop do the bends. They had to make it in three pieces, the top and sides are one piece, the S shaped legs are separate pieces I welded to the top. along with the cross-bars.

 

[tealetm]

Doesn't it vibrate pretty good with just those clevis pins?

 

[Yooper]

Here is a link to the powder if you choose to go this route:

www.powderbuythepound.com/pumpkin.html

 

[dlsmith]

Doesn't it vibrate pretty good with just those clevis pins?

Vibrate? That little 3 cylinder engine vibrates?
I can't imagine it does.

Don't know, I haven't quite finished it up yet to find out.
If it does, I'll add a pinch bolt to hold it tight.

 

[dlsmith]

It was a nice warm day here, up in the 60's, so I went down this afternoon and got the guard finished up.
I decided to add another tube at the bottom, so I cut a piece of 1" pipe and fit the ends so it would lie in the area of the bends above the mount.
Got that welded in, then cut a piece of mesh to fit the area. I had to tack weld some of the wires together or some of them on the nds would have fallen out.
Got it fit up, then welded it into place.
I test fit the guard into the mount, and welding the new tube in pulled the tubes together about 3/32", so I had to heat up one of the legs and bend it a little. I fits better now that it did before.
After it cooled of, I put it into the blasting cabinet and got it all nice and cleaned up, ready for paint.
I blew it off with air, and wiped it down with thinner, and warmed it up a little with a heat gun. Gave it a couple light coats of self-etching primer and let it dry with I went to Subway for a quick bite.
Got back and gave it a couple coats of Kubota orange, looks pretty good for an amateur. I'll get it bolted on this weekend.
Still have a couple more little mods for my BX, a tool box mounted behind the seat and a couple of LED lights on the ROPS bar. I have them designed, I just have to load them into the 3D printer and get them printed out.
Oh, yeah, I also have a Tiny Tach to install too.

Here are a couple of pictures.

 

[dlsmith]

Here is a link to the powder if you choose to go this route:

www.powderbuythepound.com/pumpkin.html

Thanks for the link, I might buy some to have on hand if I need to refinish the guard after some use, for some other mod I make.

 

[dlsmith]

Went down to the shop and bloted the mount up to the front of the BX, slip the guard into place and installed the pins.
The hood doodad just touches it when it's open.

I think it looks pretty good.

And no, it doesn't rattle or vibrate when the engine is idling. Really.

 

[D2Cat]

Looks good. Where the do-dad hits the top tubing, you could put it in a press and with a round plug about 1 1/2' in dia. put a dimple in it for clearance!