Cutting down a back blade - good idea?

airbiscuit · Mar 25, 2017

Oldoak said:
Wow! I'm glad you explained what you were planning to do with the chain saw. Thought for a second, you were going to cut the back blade with it.

U-tube title, "Don't Attempt This".

YouTube Title - "Here, hold my beer while I ........."

ovrszd · Mar 25, 2017

BukitCase said:
"You'll probably want a shower after this."

Richard, he lives in western Washington; if he stands there another 5 minutes he'll GET a shower :laughing: ...Steve

So true!!!!! Still has a great view between rains!!!

BukitCase · Mar 25, 2017

"between rains" - Yup - back in the late '70's I ended up commuting to that area from my home in mid-Oregon for a little over a year, til I found a local job that kept me interested AND in pretty good "toy" money - I've seen it rain hard enough there you wouldn't be able to tell there WAS a sound (or trees, or...) Liked the area, but don't miss the commute much - a little over 4 hours one way

(Needless to say, I stayed with a cousin in Tacoma during the week, cut the commute back a teensy bit :thumbsup:

Dragon's OTHER project (you remember, the one that STARTED this thread :laughing

reminded me I have that same size rear blade, not a great design and at least a foot NARROWER than I'd prefer for either of the smaller tractors - THAT piece of "inventory" is slated someday to get cut NOT so easily into two HALVES - but those cuts will take a bit more to figure out. It'll end up in a Vee shape, point of the vee forward, mounted to the back of my 6' tiller with receiver tube and hydraulic lift - goal is to make one pass with blade UP to get some tilth, then a pass with blade DOWN to scrape off a 4' wide "aisle" and make raised beds on either side of each pass.

We're looking to get more serious on garden size, and that seems like a good way to subtract some of the "labor" from the term, "labor intensive"... Mrs. Bukit wants aisles wide enough for either of her two favorite garden carts plus a bit of "overgrowth" - She understands my "tool addiction", and therefore I understand her wanting to actually SEE something from it, kind of a "win-win" for us

airbiscuit · Mar 25, 2017

A cheap laser level (the type for hanging pictures) would project a nice straight line on your blade (at whatever angle you prefer).

BukitCase · Mar 25, 2017

Yup, got one of those AND a 400 foot radius rotary, either would do - now if I could just get that rotary to PRINT an elliptical?? physical guide (or one HECK of an AMPLIFIER for the laser :laughing

Actually, using the rotary at the correct angle but first clamping a piece of 1/4 ply over the area, I could just TRACE the laser path onto the plywood and cut THAT line - flip the pattern 180* to plasma cut the OTHER half, and I should be in the ballpark (oops, I mean "garden"

)

Code54 · Mar 25, 2017

If you happen to have a white soapstone pencil they your really well for marking lines you need to cut with the plasma. They are cheap if you don't have one around.
Forney Soapstone Pencil Flat Carded | eBay
Mostly they have them locally and maybe cheaper but figured that would give you an example.

dragoneggs · Mar 25, 2017

Ha ha... yeah I derailed my own thread but plasma project got bumped. To put a close to the hot tub project... I did get a little tractor time in hauling the sections of the tub that I threw off the deck. I used the hot tub cover as the cushion and to minimize the mess. Here is the load going to the dump tomorrow.

Okay back to the back blade! Thanks all for the ideas. I do use soapstone pencils for marking metal. I think I will bend and clamp a piece of plywood but I need pull the blade out of resting place and move it to the shop and take a good look at what I'm dealing with. I ran out of daylight today.

Yeah today was a cool cloudy breezy day but the sun popped out a couple of times. Tomorrow's forecast isn't so good so it should be a good day for some garage time. I guess I will hook the blade up to the 3pt and maybe cut it vertical down while installed?

BukitCase · Mar 26, 2017

If you're cutting in the garage, I wouldn't recommend that - you've got around 100 psi air blowing thru molten steel, going SIDEWAYS? Is everything in your garage fireproof? If not, unless that blade's too heavy to handle I'd rest the blade on a couple sawhorses, convex side UP - see my earlier description, no point in re-typing...

At this time, I do all plasma cuts over gravel (got a covered area that's 12x12 - then, any time I make SHARP metal trash, I run the magnetic sweeper over the whole area and dump THAT into the metal trash. Eventually I'd like a grate with a water tray under, and people in he77 want ice water

If you're gonna remove the cutting edge before trimming the blade, most are held on with Plow Bolts - basically a flat head version of a carriage bolt, regular nuts on the back side come off easiest with an impact wrench... Steve

ovrszd · Mar 26, 2017

To reinforce Steves comments about sparks, I never use my cutter and mediately leave the shop. I hang around for at least 30 minutes. While intently watching your cut you miss seeing all the places sprayed by sparks.

kebo · Mar 26, 2017

Just a thought here, but if the OP has not yet cut the 6ft blade down to a 5ft blade, you might advertise on craigslist and other internet venues of that nature that you are willing to swap a 6ft blade even for a 5ft one, assuming that interests you. I know you're chomping to use that new plasma cutter on it, but it seems to me that if you can find someone to swap with, that would save some time and effort so you can do more important things like finish destroying that hot tub. :laughing:

texasranger556 · Mar 26, 2017

Rather than clamping a guide, I picked up one of these from Harbor Freight:
http://www.harborfreight.com/18-in-magnetic-tool-holder-62178.html

On my power max 45, the torch rides along the edge pretty nicely. Only thing is if you're maxing out the machine and cutting something like 5/8" plate it will get warm and the paint gets a little gummy. I've threatened to wire wheel the paint off to fix that, but it hasn't bothered me enough yet. It will collect metal grindings, but I wipe it with a chunk of 2x4 to get the heavy stuff off, then wipe the rest off with my glove. One of the better $5 I've spent.

Funny enough, the project you're describing was the first project for my plasma cutter too. Picked up a cheap 7' blade which was too long for my JD (couldn't spin it all the way around without hitting the rear tires), so I cut about 5" off each end. Plan was 6, but the bolts at the edge would have interfered. I didn't remove the cutting edge and it was a bit of a pain getting through both layers of metal, but nothing a flap/grinding wheel couldn't dress up. Now I have a 6'-2" rear blade!

Awesome view by the way. I used to live in Renton and a coworker lived on the water in Samammish (sp?) with a view not quite as nice as yours. I remember toward the end of winter you could snowmobile in the morning and ride jet skis in the afternoon. Absolutely loved the PNW.

texasranger556 · Mar 26, 2017

kebo said:
Just a thought here, but if the OP has not yet cut the 6ft blade down to a 5ft blade, you might advertise on craigslist and other internet venues of that nature that you are willing to swap a 6ft blade even for a 5ft one, assuming that interests you. I know you're chomping to use that new plasma cutter on it, but it seems to me that if you can find someone to swap with, that would save some time and effort so you can do more important things like finish destroying that hot tub. :laughing:

I find dealing with flakes on Craiglist way more time consuming than what this project would entail. With that said, buying/selling farm implement stuff tends to be much better to deal with than car stuff or tools. My vote is cut it!

dragoneggs · Mar 26, 2017

Status... Pouring rain solid all day. Looks like I will have to wait until next weekend. Might try making a template though. Looks like it will be 5in off each end. The blade is welded to the sliding carriage and I'm limited by the cutting edge bolts.

dragoneggs · Apr 2, 2017

Okay help! Started the cut and hoping I could do it without taking the cutting blade off. Guess not. I started taking the nuts off with the impact wrench but only 2 of 6 came off. The rest are spinners. How do I keep the bolts from rotating?

.

airbiscuit · Apr 2, 2017

dragoneggs said:
Okay help! Started the cut and hoping I could do it without taking the cutting blade off. Guess not. I started taking the nuts off with the impact wrench but only 2 of 6 came off. The rest are spinners. How do I keep the bolts from rotating?

View attachment 504382. View attachment 504383

I would tack weld the heads to the cutting edge.

Code54 · Apr 2, 2017

airbiscuit said:
I would tack weld the heads to the cutting edge.

Exactly what I was going to say!

dragoneggs · Apr 2, 2017

airbiscuit said:
I would tack weld the heads to the cutting edge.

Code54 said:
Exactly what I was going to say!

Stupid me... simple but great idea! Thanks... moving on. Since my welder is on the same cart I am pretty much ready to go.

Code54 · Apr 2, 2017

Lol - sometimes it is easy to miss what is right in front of you. Today I was looking for a weight bracket for my BX so I could run my tiller. looked all over the shop, checked the barn, couldn't find it anywhere. Then I went to get on the tractor and noticed it was on the front..... Funny thing is I already put the tiller on and refueled it........

dragoneggs · Apr 2, 2017

Job done! Took longer than I thought only because my welder, plasma cutter, and air compressor are all sharing one 220v outlet. What a pain! I really need to put in a sub panel and bring more juice to my shop.

Plasma easily cut the 1/4in but struggled with the 1/2in. Got some ideas why but think I will start a new thread in the welding forum because I don't think it is a simple solution due to the tapered thickness of the cutting edge.