Homemade box blade

[Daren Todd]

On the back I used a piece of 1/4" bent at a 22° angle for a smoothing edge. I ordered the cutting edge from broken tractor llc. It's a 60" cutting edge for a king cutter. Compared it to the cutting edge on my back blade, and it was an exact match right down to the bolt holes guess I know what to order if I ever wear out the back blade Later on, I may order a second cutting edge, but for right now, I'll see how this works out.

I still have to mount the pins for the hinged section on the back and make the brackets for the rippers.

 

[Tomcat]

Wish you'd hurry up and finish yours, then you can start on mine! Looking good Daren.

 

[Daren Todd]

Here's the good news. Left enough clearance on the lift arms to allow for the rippers. When I test fit it on the tractor I ran into a snag. My pin for the top link was too short

Not to worry though a couple whacks with a bfh and it fit.

Should have stopped there for tonight!!! But nope, got in a hurry mounting the brackets for the rippers. Was really proud of myself and got a good even spacing. But neglected to check the first one after I tacked it into place. Got a 1/2" gap on the sides of the rippers. Oops!!! So tomorrow night I get to grind the welds for the brackets and redo them

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[Daren Todd]

Here's a pic of it lifted

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[HickoryNut]

BFH = Fine Tuning Tool

Yes Sir, roger that!

 

[ShaunBlake]

... My pin for the top link was too short

... a 1/2" gap on the sides of the rippers. Oops!!! ...

DT, I get that the hickups bug you mightily (and I've got the same handicap) but I don't care 'bout all that, nor one of the the rippers not being plums, nor that they aren't perfectly aligned. No, what I marvel at is the awesome implement you've created!

Dewd, yew bee wan uv mah bess heeros! <spitting tobacco juice for emphasis>

 

[Daren Todd]

Lil foot, see what you mean about the corners. Caught one with my knee last night hooking it up problem will be fixed shortly.

Tooljunkie, the saw horses are going in the scrap pile when I clean out the garage. They are getting pretty rickety

Thanks guys for the support and praise Almost done now. Ran out of wire, so I need to make a trip to airgas, for a 10lb roll. They are 50$ cheaper on there welding wire then any other source in town. Plus I get an employee discount running it through the company account and paying cash

 

[coachgeo]

Will be interesting to see if the brackets for the rippers is enough. Im thinking the companies that build these add the expense of cutting thru the square tube to mount the rippers for a reason.

Maybe a double pin bracket will be wiser? For sure watch for the forces peeling the brackets away from top toward bottom. keep us updated.

 

[Daren Todd]

Will be interesting to see if the brackets for the rippers is enough. Im thinking the companies that build these add the expense of cutting thru the square tube to mount the rippers for a reason.

Maybe a double pin bracket will be wiser? For sure watch for the forces peeling the brackets away from top toward bottom. keep us updated.

That was a concern at first. But didn't want to pay for a whole stick of 1"x3" tubing when I only needed 2' checked out my dad's and his rippers are installed the same way and hasn't had any issue's. He's got twice the tractor with 4wd. And with the loaded tires and fel, it weighs in at around 4500lbs. Mines only 2wd and 1800lbs. I'll lose traction before something breaks

 

[Daren Todd]

Well, besides a little clean up and paint and primer, it's done mounted the back pins to keep the gate shut. And cheated on the rippers and just shimmed them with some washers for now. Supposed to storm the next couple of days, so I won't be able to test it out for a week or so.

I'll test it before painting just in case

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[ShaunBlake]

Oh, what a fine lookin implement!

 

[Tooljunkie]

Looking great!
With all my builds, i grind/radius all my corners before assembly. Then all is left is welds/spatter to clean up. Seems to get neglected otherwise. I gett too impatient near the end. Gotta run that Baby!

Be sure to post a list of coulda woulda shoulda after you done tried it. Im in planning stages now. Planning on finding a used one for cheap or getting all the steel together.

Good progress in a short period of time.

 

[Daren Todd]

Got a chance to test it out today. Biggest con was building it with a 110 volt welder. Can't really get enough penetration on the thicker stuff. It worked great for the hinges and attaching the smaller stuff. But couldn't get enough penetration on the thicker stuff. So I loaded it in the truck. And gonna spend a day at my dads grinding the structural welds down and going back over it with his old Lincoln arc welder.
Biggest issue was the rippers. Everything else held good. Did notice a couple of cracks in some of the supports. Hence going back over it and really putting the heat to it

Here's how it did on the road. Neighbor had tailgated out a couple loads of gravel earlier in the week before the rain.

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[skeets]

OK I missed it whats the hinges for??

 

[Daren Todd]

It's so I can loosen up the ground but not relocated a bunch of the material. Gravel will hit a certain height and then fall out the back, similar to a land plane

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[Tooljunkie]

Perhaps a block behind the lower side of the ripper,increasing distance from mounting pin to lower edge of bracket will lessen forces at pin. For example , if ripper was supported close to ground contact area, force against it would be less

Looking awesome, curious how hinge will work. If it was asjustable, it could trap larger stones,no?like a tailgate chain on a heavy truck.

 

[skeets]

Pretty cool if I do say so, and I will,,, pretty cool. I have never seen one set up like that before, but then I have been told I live under a rock

 

[Daren Todd]

The issue with the rippers was not enough penetration. Tailgate needs to be propped open in order to get any material out the back. So that's gonna be a piece of chain and a hook to the support in the center.

Skeets, saw the hinged set up on a high end model on everything attachments website. Stole the idea

Did find out some bad news though. Dads welder has the setting stuck on max voltage course it's 60 years old, so something's bound to give up the ghost so I may end up taking advantage of my sister in laws discount at lowes and get the Lincoln arc welder I wanted


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[BadDog]

Just don't forget to take the "mysterious foreign object" that's keeping it stuck on high out of his welder once your done...

 

[Daren Todd]

Brother had told me about the issue with the welder. He was actually confused. It was dads mig that was stuck on high. The old arc welder is still working fine. No new Lincoln in the near future


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