Landscape plane questions

[bcp]

Why are wood plane blades set at 90 degrees instead of angled?

What we need is an objective report from someone with an adjustable angle land plane.

A road grader (angled) and the very long wheelbase land levelers (straight) work the soil in a totally different way, so they are not comparable.

Bruce

 

[MtnViewRanch]

Why are wood plane blades set at 90 degrees instead of angled?

What we need is an objective report from someone with an adjustable angle land plane.

A road grader (angled) and the very long wheelbase land levelers (straight) work the soil in a totally different way, so they are not comparable.

Bruce

Actually I have an electric planner for doors where the blades are helical. Muck better finish than the generic planners with the straight blades. I still say that the blades are angled to better deal with wash boarding.

Just my :2cents:

 

[MossRoad]

Actually I have an electric planner for doors where the blades are helical. Muck better finish than the generic planners with the straight blades. I still say that the blades are angled to better deal with wash boarding.

Just my :2cents:

I agree with the washboard comments. The angled blade would slice the washboard ripples very nicely.

 

[woodlandfarms]

Oh jeeze, does this man I need to build 2 of them?

 

[bcp]

Yes, one of each type, then we can trade back and forth to see which works best.



Bruce

 

[sandman2234]

Oh jeeze, does this man I need to build 2 of them?

The answer to that question lies in the amount of material you brought home from your neighbor's scrap pile, the size of the remaining pile, and his willingness to allow you acess to it again.
Other than that, angle them...at least for a tractor. A P/T in push mode could be different but as for me, angle gets the vote. Take a look at DuraGraders movable blades that you can change the angle on, and see if your skills can attain a movable blade. Best of both worlds I would think, though I haven't actually seen one up close.
MtnViewRanch has the right idea as far as the washboarding effect, hands down better than a straight boxblade because it doesn't fall into each rut as it cuts through them. I also use my angle blades for bring dirt back out of the ditch that gets washed down into it, that a straight blade wouldn't be any good at.
David from jax

 

[woodlandfarms]

I had basically planned in th beginning to go with angled blades. Adjusting the depth, though, was not in my skil set as I am lucky to drill a round hole and make a holding weld.

So if I go with angled blades, here are two more questions. Are the blades // or /\. I was planning /\

Second. I planned to put on a final straight blade at the back, at flush depth. But I see this in only one design. And I see /\ in only a few designs.

I am primarily looking to use this on washboarded road ( 1 mile in length).

 

[xtn]

I wonder if angled blades are, in part, used to provide a bit of cross bracing strength to what would otherwise be a rectangle.

 

[bcp]

I agree with angle blades if one of your problems is washboard.

Now, pick your pattern.

 

[sandman2234]

My first response is // but after looking at the nice asortment of pictures posted by BCP, I am more confused at what to to actually suggest than before (and I have one, lol). My hesitations are mostly in the area of P/T pushing versus tractor 3pt hitch pulling, and the capacities of each. There are some neat examples shown, and more on other posts on this board. Your best bet is to consider what the P/T will lift (don't max that out, since mine gets loaded with dirt for my tractor to pick up). I should have put a little more distance between the blades but that is hindsight. My reasons for putting both blades // is to be able to move dirt from side to side and also cover the ripples. ll as we all know doesn't do ripples in the road nearly as well, too much like a boxblade. I wanted to be able to pull dirt back out of the ditch and move it to the roadway, a feat best done by a angled tilted rear blade (runners of a landplane get in the way of this). Extending the blades further below the runners seems to help that, but even that has it's drawbacks.
The good thing in your case is the availability of less expensive metal, which is why mine got built. If you build it and it doesn't work the way you want, the good thing about metal is it can be cut and welded into many different shapes from the same original piece.
You have probably seen it, but here is a post on my build.
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/build-yourself/175396-dava-grader-process.html

David from jax

 

[SpringHollow]

i have seen youtube posts showing the angled blades definitely moving material towards the center.

Ken

PS Get some big mirrors and go in reverse. No way you want to push. But we do have that mounting point down low that you could consider using like mentioned earlier. I would still go in reverse because that point is not very strong and even if you strengthen it, stuff is much weaker in compression. Now, I know your track record shows that you baby these machines and never abuse them (ducks) but you can not be too safe.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

i have seen youtube posts showing the angled blades definitely moving material towards the center.

Ken

Not saying that it flat out does not happen, but I think that conditions have to be just right for the dirt to be moving sideways very much. I have countless miles of grading with these grader blades and as far as my conditions are, the dirt does not move to any side enough to make any difference at all. Many others here on TBN report the same.

 

[woodlandfarms]

David, thanks for showing me how a pro does it.... Mine will never look like yours... Ever.....

Ken, I am in agreement... Going to make it a puller.... but I am going to start looking into building a rear 3 pt.

Mt view and everyone so far thanks for the insight

What I find so interesting is how wonderful everyone finds it but how non-universal it is in regards to blade direction and placement position from front to back. Love to hear more ideas on angles and how far back to place the blades.

Carl

 

[MtnViewRanch]

Here are some measurements for my 7 footer.

sides are 84"x22"
lip on the sides is 2 1/2"

blades are 21" apart

front blade is 11" back on the left side and 29" back at the right

front 4"x4" cross tube is 6" back from the front

2nd 4"x4" tube is 31" back from the front.

 

[bcp]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72QystIwd3k]Skid Steer - YouTube[/ame]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeNuCAVbHdo&feature=related]Skid Steer Grader by DoMor.flv - YouTube[/ame]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIed2lzfQ-g&feature=related]How To - Tractor Land Plane - Gravel Road Maintenance - YouTube[/ame]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0siHL7EPJXM]Road Graders For 3-Point Tractor - ABI Attachments - YouTube[/ame]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWxjMwJuH4c&feature=related]Priefert Road Grader - YouTube[/ame]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDMwTKeDLQU&feature=related]Manual Adjustment - YouTube[/ame]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0RYsqcSoXk&feature=related]Spreader Grading road grader - YouTube[/ame]

 

[sandman2234]

Dirt will move sideways on my grader. I went out and ran it down the road just to make sure, and sure enough it does. Seems to also move to the lowest point faster, but always sideways. If you have a low spot (ie wheel track) and you want to fill it level, then angle blades are the way to go.
David from jax

 

[woodlandfarms]

Thanks guys, all I can say is thanks, looking at the videos as I write.

David, Three questions for your build

Why are there so many holes? Clearly you had other plans, would love to hear what you were devising.

Second, how deep is your blades set for? I am hearing 1/2" to 3/4" max...

finally do you wish you did the /\ design instead?

Oh, and a 4th, do you raise one side of the blade higher than the other?

I am working on a way to do all 4 ll, //, \\, /\ hopefully without over engineering the darn thing. I am dropping the idea of a third straight blade at the back as I have only seen one manufacturer do this, all the others use a 2 blade design.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

I watched the 3pt videos, I guess that I am just blind, because I just don't see all this material getting moved to the side. What I see is material getting cut-picked up and going up and over the blade. The blade is at an angle, so yes the material moves over an inch or two, The material is actually going over the blade in a straight motion and falls a short way to the side because of the trailing edge of the angle iron that the blade is mounted on. Wouldn't the rearward side of the blades be all full of material if the material was moving to the side? As I understand how you guys describe the dirt movement, when looking at the implement there should be more material at the side in the implement that the cutting edges slope back to. I just don't see that happening.

Doesn't really matter I guess, this style of grader works great, that much I know.

 

[xtn]

Seems to me that the height of angled blades would contribute to any sideways movement of the dirt/gravel. Higher blades would carry the material along further before it finally got pushed up and over. The further you carry the material along with you, the more time it has to be moved over sideways by the angle. If you let the material immediately go over the blade back to the ground with a very short blade, the angle isn't going do much.

xtn

 

[cqaigy2]

I thought i'd chime in on the cutting blade angle discussion as well. :laughing:

My thinking is the angled cutting blade primary function is to cut the material in the road bed, and any sideways movement is incidental to the process. One would think the angled blade would have reduced cutting pressure then a straight blade. Imagine cutting a carrot by pushing straight down on the knife as apposed to pulling or pushing a knife like is usual.

Another function the angle might provide is to make the apparent length of the grader to appear longer then when compared to a straight blade. That might result in less wash board effect by reducing the frequency of the vertical motion when applied to the longer horizontal length of the blade.