one more land plane build

[Stokes760]

Found a I beam drop 16 x 5.5 x 5/16. Its 10'11'' long and 26 lbs per foot. So working on a land plane build just have a few questions.

blades angled vs straight. Seems like angled blades for gradeing and straight for leveling. So guys with straight blades do you wish they were angled while gradeing ? guys with angled blades wish they were straight while leveling?

If I cut my beam in half ill have 5' 5.5" skids if I back set the blades 5.5" and run them at about 22.5* it would land in the middle of the skid and I would end up with a 5.5' cutting width useing a 6' blade. Does that sound feasible.

I would like to have adjustable cutting depth. How are you tbn guys doing it and what depth increments?

 

[Gordon Gould]

I put my blades straight and to answer your question; no, I never wished they were angled. Then again, I may not know what I am missing.
The reason I put them straight was that I wanted to be able to run up and down the road in either direction and on either side or in the middle w/o worrying about blade angle and material flowing to one side. If angled blades really are a significant help in building crown then you would be forced to grade in only one direction all the time on a crowned road. But I am not sure if angled blades do that much for you anyway. Another reason I chose straight blades was that I also have some sections of road w/o a crown. Those sections are flat but pitched to one side for drainage. As you say straight blades make more sense for flat. So to me it seems straight blades tend to be more general purpose but those people with angled blades like them as well as i like my straight blades. That is why I think it might not make much difference which way you go.

I use a rear blade to set the shape or contour of the road then maintain that contour, what ever it is, with my straight bladed grader and this works well for me.

 

[jenkinsph]

Both of my graders are straight blade and work great. I agree with Gordon's assessment.

About the adjustable height, the easy way to do this is to have the blades mounted to a frame work and then attach the skids with a set of multiple holes. Could use some heavy flatbar to attach the blades mounts together this is then bolted to the skids. I would also recommend using 4x4x 3/8 angle for the blade carriers, the 4" dimension is needed to have enough room for proper blade mounting.

 

[Stokes760]

here is a couple pictures

 

[Stokes760]

here's a model I made in solid works. angle iron at about 20.5* weighs about 580 lbs could be off by +/- 10% didn't really spend time drawing exact profiles for the beam angle and tube.
should I mount the lift arms to the front of the tube or on the top of the front cross tube

 

[jenkinsph]

Here are the two I built with some pictures of various jobs I used the larger plane to do. Seems to work well for lawn smoothing, slab leveling and driveways with blades set flush and straight. When I built the patio on the house it originally was with more drop and the HOA wanted the concrete wall hidden. Added the retaining wall blocks and tapered the ground away from the patio extension. Gotta love the HOA's.

Something to consider when building a landplane is it needs to be very rigid you don't wan't it to flex or twist. I would use either good pipe or square tubing for the cross members. I rolled the ends together on my skids to allow them to roll over the ground easier and to stiffen the beams preventing bending or flexing length wise. You can use stiffeners instead if you prefer. I have had good success with the ski shaped skids on the smaller 4ft plane, rides over everything without hanging up and doesn't hold all the gravel the wide flange beam styes do. Dropping gravel on the grass or road is a pita.

 

[stuckmotor]

Jenk,
I like your house. Is it passive solar?

 

[MtnViewRanch]

I have angled blades on both of my LPGSs. While the material does move side ways, it is such a small amount that you might as well think of it as no sideways movement at all. I actually marked and watched material go over the cutting edge, and the sideways movement was less than 3/4". So counting both edges, less than 1 1/2" of sideways movement of the material per pass. As far as the blades being angled, I believe that the angled blades would-should cut out wash-boarding better, but do not no this to be a fact.

I believe that you would be happy with the blades in either position.

JMO, and we all know how that goes, everyone has one. :2cents:

 

[jenkinsph]

Jenk,
I like your house. Is it passive solar?

Those are customer houses.

 

[jenkinsph]

I have angled blades on both of my LPGSs. While the material does move side ways, it is such a small amount that you might as well think of it as no sideways movement at all. I actually marked and watched material go over the cutting edge, and the sideways movement was less than 3/4". So counting both edges, less than 1 1/2" of sideways movement of the material per pass. As far as the blades being angled, I believe that the angled blades would-should cut out wash-boarding better, but do not no this to be a fact.

I believe that you would be happy with the blades in either position.

JMO, and we all know how that goes, everyone has one. :2cents:

Brian,

I agree that either straight or angled blades should work well. I haven't seen where washboarding makes a difference using the straight blades either, it does matter when using a rear blade with increased angle. The only advantage I can think of for having an angle in the blades is to limit the dirt trailing off to one side of the plane instead of both sides. When you pitch the land plane with straight blades forward (shorten top link) to dig in the blade is still held in contact uniformly across the ground. When you do the same with an angled blade the side that is swept back is going to be raised higher than the leading edge. That is the only problem I have with the angled blade setup. Granted we are talking nuances here, I wouldn't worry too much either way. I am thinking about building a new 14'x8' land plane for a larger tractor with hydraulic blade adjustment and rippers. I am open to hydraulic adjusted angle on the new plane if I can see enough benefit.

 

[Stokes760]

I dont think sideways movement really happens unless an aggressive angle or a high moldbord. I was thinking angled blades would work better for averaging beacuse you have cutting edge traversing front to rear instead of a blade at first 1/3 and second 1/3.
My reason for useing a I beam is that it was cheep 1/4 the price per pound thab drops at the local steel yard. Was going to cut at angle when I split the beam but I didnt want to loose any length to the land plane. Was going to use flat bar for wear strips so ill use that for ramps on the front.

 

[jenkinsph]

Nothing wrong with the WF beam you are using imo. Just to clarify that isn't an I beam if it were it would be 40 to 50 lbs/ft with tapered flanges.

Might try to find some 4x4x3/16 or 4x4x1/4 box tubing for the frame, much better than using angle iron. Second choice would be 3x3x1/4 box tubing or 3 to 3.5 extra strong black pipe. Tubing resists twisting much better than angle iron so your skids maintain proper alignment. As long as the cross members are large enough bending isn't the issue here but flexing can be.

For the ends of the skids you could turn the edges up with a 3" radius bend and fill the balance in with a 10" piece of flat bar and not loose much for the skid lengths. Your 5.5 ft pieces for the skids would still wind up being about 5' 2 1/2" long end to end. That works out to 1.72" to round over each end and well worth it imo.

 

[Stokes760]

Yea its a wide flange beam not most people know the difference good call. 4in box 250 wall min 125 wall for the supports and 4x angle 3/8 for blade mounts.

 

[john40981]

My two bobs worth , I have angled blades ( about 25 Deg) and there is very little sideways movement of material. I don't regret making them angled but it doesn't make a crown as it just doesn't move enough material sideways but I think it does cut good. If you are going to pull it with a trailer type hitch instead of a 3pl then based on my experience you will need either a long pull or maybe a low attachment point to stop the rear lifting. I was going to set mine up with a chain top link so it would just hug the ground but the rear lifted too much no matter what setting I used, had to use sold top link to hold the back down. Mine is 7 foot wide and 8 foot long. Good luck with your build, show us lots of photos
link to my build: http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/build-yourself/287452-land-plain-blade-height-help.html

 

[EMB5530]

It seems if you cut your beam in half the plane would be a bit short. Maybe split it down the middle length wise so you can make it a little longer.

:2cents:

 

[bandaidmd]

I will ask forgiveness ahead of time if the following questions seem stupid..lol

As i see it the main benefit of a plane is the long runners/skids that allow it to bridge uneven surfaces and level them better than a regular 3ph blade ?

By bolting extended runners to the side of my box blade would i achieve the same benefit?

I could add a second cutter to the leading or trailing edge if having 2 is better than the existing one on the BB.

Opinions welcome

 

[EMB5530]

The material will not spill over the blade to be redistributed evenly therefore filling in holes and plaining the gravel but, it would help keep you from the washboard effect when removing material.

 

[jcummins]

I had a new gravel drive built recently, and from research I've done I want a land plane to maintain it. I'll buy or build...probably build since I already have 2 blades for it.

Question for those on this thread who have built one. How is your blades set relative to the sides. I've read on a different thread, one person had the front blade slightly lower than the sides, and the rear blade was flush with the bottom. And what do you do relative to wear of the blade. Have you build in adjustable ability?...or is it a factor?

 

[BukitCase]

bandaidmd, I have a few pix of mods like that, hopefully I can find the threads -

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/build-yourself/261068-roll-ur-own-land-plane.html

Sorry, that's the only thread I could find.. I also have some pix from TBN of another BB, poster added hydraulic gauge wheels and an optional LONG tongue, making it convertable between 3-point and a pull-behind.

I'll re-post them when I have more time, maybe the owner will respond... Steve

 

[RDrancher]

I had a new gravel drive built recently, and from research I've done I want a land plane to maintain it. I'll buy or build...probably build since I already have 2 blades for it.

Question for those on this thread who have built one. How is your blades set relative to the sides. I've read on a different thread, one person had the front blade slightly lower than the sides, and the rear blade was flush with the bottom. And what do you do relative to wear of the blade. Have you build in adjustable ability?...or is it a factor?

For 3/4" gravel and road base, and initial passes on dirt, I like to run the front blade 1/8" lower than the skids and the rear blade even. I'll change the front blade to even for final passes on dirt...if I'm not being lazy.

If the landplane is not equipped with scarifiers to loosen up hardpack, I can see where running the blades lower for initial passes would be very beneficial, especially with a nice heavy unit.