3 Way Blade

[North Idaho Wolfman]

I wanted a heavy 3 way blade for grading, road work and for snow removal, but buying one at approx. 3K was out so I did the next best thing and made one. it's been a 2 week project because of weather delays.
I started with a 6' wide x 18" tall moldboard and 4" X 4" square tubing for the frame. I made it quick hitch compatible and it's set up to get 3 cylinders to run the angles on the blade, right now it just has pipe holding it in angle.
It's also waiting on the last piece of support for the rear of the blade (has a pipe supporting it for a temp) and it still needs it's jack stand installed.
It's going to have to wait till spring to get spiffed up and painted, too wet and cold right now to do it.
I'll be adding a mount off the rear for a 2" receiver to be able to quickly move trailers around and it will also be the mounting point for the rear float wheel for grading new roads.




Blade tilts for ditching

Pipes will be replace with cylinders for angles

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

Blade can be offset right or left



During testing, it did great forward, but spinning the blade in reverse to push it had one week point, the two 5/8" bolts that held the angle could not take the stress, so I reworked the pivot to use four 3/4" bolts in 3" long sleeves to give it shear strength.

 

[m32825]

Nice work!

What thickness 4x4 tubing did you use?

In the last picture you have a piece of square tube welded to a round pipe. All of my experience has been on "make the pieces fit as seamlessly as possible before you weld" joints. What do you do differently to bridge the gap between the tube and the pipe?

-- Carl

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

Carl,
Most all the steel is 5/16" except for the pivot points which are 3/8" or 1/2".

When I attached the round pivot sections to the square tubing I cut the notches into the squares very accurately then bevel the edges on the square tubing, weld heating the pipe and letting it flow back to the bevel on the square tube. I also use a long section of pipe to keep it square to the 4 x 4 tubing and then cut it down it size.
I didn't do too bad on this one it's with-in a 1/16th of an inch across 6 feet.
I'm no where near a professional welder but I can make things hold and get things setup pretty well.
This blade should serve me well for many a year at a fraction of the cost of buying it factory made.

 

[m32825]

Carl,
Most all the steel is 5/16" except for the pivot points which are 3/8" or 1/2".

When I attached the round pivot sections to the square tubing I cut the notches into the squares very accurately then bevel the edges on the square tubing, weld heating the pipe and letting it flow back to the bevel on the square tube. I also use a long section of pipe to keep it square to the 4 x 4 tubing and then cut it down it size.
I didn't do too bad on this one it's with-in a 1/16th of an inch across 6 feet.
I'm no where near a professional welder but I can make things hold and get things setup pretty well.
This blade should serve me well for many a year at a fraction of the cost of buying it factory made.

I get what you're describing, but I left you in the dark on which joint I was asking about, sorry.

Here's the one I meant:

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

Awww I see.
That little piece of 2" tubing is just tack welded in place just to stabilize the temporary pin that hold the blade in a flat plane till I fit the cylinder for the tilt.
When I fit the cylinder I will knock off the 2 inch tube to clean it up.

 

[gpreuss]

Great project! You are going to just love having those 3 adjustments! Lets have more photos when it is done.