Farm 50 Projects and How I Hide From My Family

Model A Fan said:

This would be the time to get a powder coating setup to have more toys to play with!

I bought one off Eastwood for $99 or so shipped on a promo. Haven't used it yet . But it seems to be a better alternative after sandblasting than spray painting.

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It seems to be until you have to remove it.

It wont be confused with a Don Long restoration, but I think it looks much better than it did when I picked it up.

I got up early and reassembled the sander. Now the long wait for the belts and drive wheel that are both on order.

My wheel came today and my belts yesterday. I didn't waste any time installing it and trying it out.

It tracks perfect and runs great. This will get a lot of use around the garage.

Kalamazoo wanted $50 for the wheel and $26 to ship it. I found one online for $10 with $9 shipping.

Great save there! I think thats going to make you very happy ..maybe I should go finish putting my version back together lol

loganb said:

Great save there! I think thats going to make you very happy ..maybe I should go finish putting my version back together lol

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They are a ridiculously simple design but I'm already in love with it.

Is that drive wheel specifically rated for a belt grinder?

Link?

larry4406 said:

Is that drive wheel specifically rated for a belt grinder?

Link?

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I have no idea. It matched the dimensions and shape of the original.

Here is a link

Wheel

The wheel should be fine until it ages for quite a few years until the material starts to deteriorate as polyurethane tends to do. When it gets old it starts to crumble. If it can not handle the rpm it will let you know. Nothing critical here, just general info. I had to rotate out certain parts at work due to aging failure while on the parts shelf.
The refurb looks great. I built myself a similar style back in the 70’s from two factory wheels that got replaced because some genius at work could not get a sanding belt to track. Oddly, the wheels worked fine on my unit.

OccupantRJ said:

The wheel should be fine until it ages for quite a few years until the material starts to deteriorate as polyurethane tends to do. When it gets old it starts to crumble. If it can not handle the rpm it will let you know. Nothing critical here, just general info. I had to rotate out certain parts at work due to aging failure while on the parts shelf.
The refurb looks great. I built myself a similar style back in the 70’s from two factory wheels that got replaced because some genius at work could not get a sanding belt to track. Oddly, the wheels worked fine on my unit.

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Yeah, im not too worried about it. It will last long enough that I can justify $10 again in the future to keep it running.

Model A Fan said:

This would be the time to get a powder coating setup to have more toys to play with!

I bought one off Eastwood for $99 or so shipped on a promo. Haven't used it yet . But it seems to be a better alternative after sandblasting than spray painting.

Click to expand...

The eastwood gun *****, especially in Faraday areas....inside corners. I ended up importing a clone of a name brand gun, from china, that is all digitally controlled. Amperage and voltage can be adjusted separately and the different types of air feed are set digitally as well. It is a kfx2 or something like that and I think one guy who resells them here has called his a reaper.

I haven't used mine much as I still need to build a little spray booth to help the overspray, even for working outside. It certainly puts out a much better fan and gives more control. it was $1500 two years ago, so it may be higher now. There are plenty of bad or marginal reviews on the guns between these two. The powdercoating forum has a lot of information on making any of them work.

My wife rearranged our living room and im trying to convince her this is the perfect place for my Torpedo. She just keeps shaking her head and saying its not staying.

freudianfloyd said:

My wife rearranged our living room and im trying to convince her this is the perfect place for my Torpedo. She just keeps shaking her head and saying its not staying.

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I think she has forgotten about it. It is still there.

Ever get inspired to make something even if you don't have a use for it? I did yesterday and this is the result...

When we bought the old family farm, there was a Ford hitch in the barn that fit some old truck my grandpa had, and I had no use for. I knew it would come in handy, so I kept it out of the scrap pile, but it seemed to always be in my way. Well not anymore.


After doing a bit of figuring and cutting I ended up with this....

I then had to add some pins to the ends, but they needed to be parallel to the receiver itself and not the angle of the tubes...

So first I made some plugs and welded the pin nuts to the inside. This way, if I need to replace the pins, I can just unscrew them from the outside since I will no longer have access to the nuts...


Getting them nice and square and level

And welded up...

and a test fit

Then to figure out the top link connection. Since the hitch isn't straight, my original idea didn't work. I had two pieces of 1/4" angle so I tried a few things to do to line everything up.

but then decided straight up and down would be better, I would just have to weld them to the back side of the hitch and not the top.




I don't have pictures of the drilling process but it wasn't easy. I have a large drill press, but it wasn't wired to work in my garage, so I had to do that before I could use it.

I also wanted to add some gusset support to it, but didn't want to cut up a good piece, so I did this....(Don't look too hard at the welds, it was getting dark, and I was basically welding by feel instead of by sight. I missed the joint a few times because I was too impatient to wait for the sunlight again.) I also needed the extra bracing low enough not to interfere with the hook from the quick hitch.


I ran out of time, but I plan on rounding over all the sharp edges and then giving it a pain job to either black or to Kubota orange to match my tractor.

Well orange really highlighted some of the bad welds. Should've gone with black.

Well made a bit of progress on a few things today and then had a very annoying set back on one.

I planned to use the trailer jack I bought last weekend at a yardsale, but it doesnt fit anywhere, so I found a camper stabilizer online for less than $30 shipped, and figured it was worth a try.


After a little cutting and welding, it works! A little yellow paint that doesnt match at all, and its done.




When it is positioned all the way up, it still allows the blade to fully rotate, so I call this a success.

Then I got the urge to paint my red quick hitch to match my orange tractor. I disassembled it first and then noticed a few concerning things. Apparently the shielding gas tank was empty at the factory. This thing had porosity all over the welds.

And this part cracked on me due to the porosity.

So i wound up grinding the cracked weld out and rewelding it before painting.

I then wirebrushed with an angle grinder the entire hitch, primered it with self etching primer since I was painting over powder coat and quickly realized that I was not going to have enough orange paint for the entire hitch. So I improvised and painted the moving parts orange and painted the hitch itself black. My new Land Pride implements are orange and black so it should look ok.

Anyway, I painted the hitch on all sides except the bottom. My son just bought himself a new car and wanted me to go for a ride, so we did, and when I got back, I set about painting the parts I missed. This was a mistake!

I didnt get back to painting within the recoat window however. I should've waited!

Krinkled everywhere the fresh paint hit!


So tomorrow, I will go sand it back down and try again.

freudianfloyd said:

< snip >

Anyway, I painted the hitch on all sides except the bottom. My son just bought himself a new car and wanted me to go for a ride, so we did, and when I got back, I set about painting the parts I missed. This was a mistake!

I didnt get back to painting within the recoat window however. I should've waited!

Krinkled everywhere the fresh paint hit!


So tomorrow, I will go sand it back down and try again.

< /snip >

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When faced with that time dilemma, I always have to force myself to believe it'll be better to wait than to have to fix it later. It's difficult but it's paid off.

rharman said:

When faced with that time dilemma, I always have to force myself to believe it'll be better to wait than to have to fix it later. It's difficult but it's paid off.

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Yeah, I knew better, but I wanted to get it done so it could dry all night and be reassembled the next day. Impatience is my biggest weakness.

Interesting Journey you're embarking on...thanks for the good read and sharing.

freudianfloyd said:

My wife rearranged our living room and im trying to convince her this is the perfect place for my Torpedo. She just keeps shaking her head and saying its not staying.

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You need a smaller TV...it makes your tool(box) look really small The actress looks like she is disapproving of the torpedo...

Can you please explain what the red attachment on the backside of your tractor is? Is it a universal mount for 3-point mount attachments? Is it basically a quick disconnect? I hate having to line up all my attachments and kick, muscle, curse, and dread mounting all my stuff by myself.

Model A Fan said:

You need a smaller TV...it makes your tool(box) look really small The actress looks like she is disapproving of the torpedo...

Can you please explain what the red attachment on the backside of your tractor is? Is it a universal mount for 3-point mount attachments? Is it basically a quick disconnect? I hate having to line up all my attachments and kick, muscle, curse, and dread mounting all my stuff by myself.

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Yeah, I couldn't have timed the oicture any better. Haha

You are correct, the red attachment (now black and orange) is a quick hitch for 3 point implements. It stays attached to your 3 point. In theory it works great, in practice, it is not a perfect solution but still useful, as long as you have compatible implements. Most old implements will not work very well with it unless you modify them, or use adapters. However, if your implements are compatible, it is just a matter of backing up to them and lifting your 3 point to connect.

However, the quick hitch does make it a bit harder to hook up a PTO shaft.

Well my hitch is painted and mounted back on my tractor. It looks a little bit too Halloween for my taste, but after seeing the newest paint scheme on Kubota tractors, this actually matches pretty well.

I have an Orange Kubota decal coming in a few days to make it official...




Kubota Blackout color scheme for reference...

I havent posted in this thread in a while. Ive been hibernating most of the winter, but I now have a new project on the farm.

The problem, I have a 2011 John Deere 410J backhoe and need attachments. This backhoe has the quick change bucket on the front that John Deere calls "Worksite Pro". Well finding anything that adapts to this is hard enough, finding any attachments that I can afford is another story.

I have found sets of forks for $4k and up, used, and that is more than I can justify. On top of that, if i want to use any other attachment, like a post hole digger, or hay spear, I will have to pay thousands for each of those attachments as well.

So I decided, im going to make a Worksite Pro to SSQA (skid steer quick attach) adapter. Here was my inspiration. Yeah look at that price.

I'm going with a design similar but heavier everywhere I can. The one pictured is rated for 7,500 lbs so mine should be plenty strong enough for what I am doing.


Yes I know the backhoe is way oversized for skid steer attachments, but I only use this around the farm, so it isnt going to get full time use, and skid steer attachments are cheap and easy to come by. Also, my dad lives next door and has a wide variety of attachments I can borrow.

First, I had to figure out how to make the plates that fit my backhoe. I found some that were close to the same pattern online for $950 and up but out of stock and not exactly what I needed, and would need modified. I also found a few drawings for adapters that were close and had a machine shop I use for work take that drawing and convert it to a .dxf file. After reviewing it and making a few changes and measuring about 30 times, I pulled the trigger on having them laser cut. Oh, did i mention the plates are 1" thick? The price they quoted me was around $300 for each plate.

However, the shop had some 1" scrap and wanted to dial in their laser, and since labor was low, and the owner is awesome, he gave them to me for free!

Each plate is roughly 3 feet long and 2 feet wide, and HEAVY. But I wanted to match what the bucket on my backhoe already uses, and the adapters Ive seen online also use 1" thick steel, so thats what I went with. They fit great!

Anyway, I did some digging online and found some ssqa latch boxes from Bell Precision. I upgraded to the heavy duty boxes and they weren't lying, these things are 3/8" thick and weigh a ton. They are rated for 7,500 lbs.


I was originally planning on just using my dad's forks, but since I saved the cost of the plates, I used those funds to buy a set of forks.

So I ordered a fork attachment with 60" forks. This attachment also doubles as a hay spear, which I have been needing and is rated for 4,000 lbs. Which is probably heavier than anything I will need to lift anytime soon.

The crazy part is, the forklift was delivered FedEx, and the bracket by itself weighs 148 lbs. The forks are double that and will be arriving by FedEx tomorrow. The driver will probably be pretty upset with me after that.



And here are the latch boxes in the fork lift attachment on my weld table. I will be welding 2x2x1/4"" square tubing between boxes once I get the spacing set just right (latch box manufacturer suggested 1/8" wall tubing, but you could upgrade to 3/16". I decided to go bigger still. Those tubes will then be welded to the large plates on my backhoe. Of course that seems a little weak to me, so I will be adding braces/gussets/and crossmembwrs where needed to add some strength.



After unloading all this stuff, and test fitting and moving them around the garage, I called it a night. I will probably get back on it tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Made some good progress today after work. I have a bad patience problem and usually rush through everything, but this time I took my time on literally every weld, making sure I clamp things down so they dont move, make sure everything is square etc. That's why it has been taking so long, but it will be worth it.

Started by cutting the square tubing and welding it to the latch boxes.





I made sure to weld fully around everything that I could. I dont want this thing breaking off.

Next, I got my plates installed on the backhoe and lined them up so the pins would pass through the holes to lock on.
It was a pain in the **** by myself, but used a little ingenuity and got them locked on. Then I welded on the stops so I wont have this problem again.




Then I set about putting in a crossmember on the plates to give them some rigidity, and maintain spacing. I used a 4" X 3/16" thick pipe.

The hoe wasn't level so I zeroed on the top of the hitch and set my pipe accordingly.




And here is where I made a rookie mistake and called it quits for the night. When I started welding these, they were locked in tight on the backhoe with nowhere to go. I made the mistake of running a bead instead of talking the backside of the pipe first. Needless to say, my bracket went from two perfectly perpendicular sides horizontally and vertically to pulling about 1/4" from front to back. I still havent figured put what I am going to do to remedy this, short of grinding the weld and redoing it, but I called it a night and went inside before I got too upset about it.

Made some more progress today. The two parts are married together and have a few welds holding them where they should be. I got a late start so I didnt make much progress unfortunately.



I was pretty happy with it, tested it several times and it worked great. Called my wife out to see how handy I am, and she asked "how hard is it to switch back to your bucket?" To which i confidently said "watch this". To which my backhoe said "no" and proceeded to bind and refuse to let go of the bracket I built. After putting my tail between my lefs, I proceeded to beating the pin back in, and was able to get it to let go. I guess tomorrow I will be reading the holes out. I think the problem is the forks were pulling down on it in a way to make it bind. Opening the holes should do wonders.

I also have several welds left to do, add some gussets and im probably going to put a second crossmember pipe near the top, there is too much open area for my liking.

I also picked up a couple chain hooks Im going to weld on the tops of the 1" plate uprights for strapping needs.