Building a subsoiler

[alancamby]

After looking at buying a subsoiler for some time, I finally decided I was going to build my own.

Just started making the lower cat1 3ph mount tonight.

high stress areas received 3 passes

You can see my jig, pipe and bolt, for holding the spacing at 3". It also helps keep the mounts somewhat parallel during the heat of welding.

 

[woodchipper]

Any reason for not wraping your welds?
You'r off to a good start. what will you use for the soiler blade?
Any provision for countering any immouvable obstacle that might be in the way of the blade?

 

[alancamby]

Do you mean weaving over the entire weld, like a cover pass? I don't have a reason really. I am not a trained welder. just a guy in a barn with a pile of steel and a welder

Yes it will have a shear bolt. It won't be a typical setup though. I will have a travel setting on the blade so that it will not be near the ground while not in use.

The blade is 3/4"x6" flat bar. Just like the Fred Cain, ETA, and a bunch of others that share that design that uses 3/4x6. Mine is 1018 in cold rolled instead of A36 though. I was looking at buying the ETA but was surprised that the blade was A36.

My subsoiler will be very unique. It will be a unproven design so it might work great or fail miserably. Of course I feel confident or I would not proceed with the design.

 

[Baby Grand]

My subsoiler will be very unique. It will be a unproven design so it might work great or fail miserably. Of course I feel confident or I would not proceed with the design.

I like your approach. Curious to see what you come up with. Looking great, so far.
I have a County Line that I'd like to rework to be shear bolt protected, and maybe I can steal an idea from your build.
Keep up the good work!

 

[FTG-05]

Tagscribed for when, not if, I decide to build one of my own.

I'm especially interested in the "great or fail miserably" results.

Good luck!

 

[alancamby]

couple of new pictures to show this afternoons progress.

Here you can get a better idea of my lower ripper shank holder. The idea is for the shank to float in this pocket. the upper mount will have a "in use" position and a "travel" position.
The shear feature is in this bottom pocket, though not installed in the picture. It will be a shear gate instead of the typical single shear bolt. I have seen damage done to implements as a single sheared bolt is pulled through a tight clearance. My plow, for example, has a lot of wear in the shear area due to this.

The shear gate will shear one of the bolts and the other will act as a hinge for the gate to slide out of the way. If for some reason both bolts shear at the exact same time, I will just have to look around for the gate. The gate is very simple and can be replaced if lost or damaged.

Here is the bottom view. You can see how I tied one side of the c-channel to the other side.

Here is the weld, in the center, that ties the plate in the last picture to the front (tractor side) of the c-channel.

 

[alancamby]

couple of new pictures to show this afternoons progress.

Here you can get a better idea of my lower shank holder. The idea is for the shank to float in this pocket. the upper mount will have a "in use" position and a "travel" position.
The shear feature is in this bottom pocket, though not installed in the picture. It will be a shear gate instead of the typical single shear bolt. I have seen damage done to implements as a single sheared bolt is pulled through a tight clearance. My plow, for example, has a lot of wear in the shear area due to this.

The shear gate will shear one of the bolts and the other will act as a hinge for the gate to slide out of the way. If for some reason both bolts shear at the exact same time, I will just have to look around for the gate. The gate is very simple and can be replaced if lost or damaged.

Here is the bottom view. You can see how I tied one side of the c-channel to the other side.

Here is the weld in the center that ties that plate in last picture to the front (tractor side) of the c-channel.

The hole just off center was a existing hole from this repurposed metal. It serves no purpose for this project.

 

[bullbreaker]

Yours looks like its comeing along just fine . Here a diagram and parts breakdown of one :Worksaver

Click on R-130.PDF go to page 9 and 10 ..............................

 

[parvodog]

That looks great!

And for a guy in a barn, with steel and a welder, you do nice work.

I'll be borrowing your ideas, unless it's the miserably failing part. I do enough of those on my own!
Tim

 

[alancamby]

Here is what I ended up with for the top mount. Please excuse the mess in the background, today I will start cleaning the mess. This photo was taken before the top mount went in the blast cabinet for the last time. Once this top is welded to my base there is no fitting it in my blast cabinet.

Here is the close to complete frame. I still have a few gussets I want to add. As can be seen, the ripper is not done.
I ordered the ETA ripper point that fits their subsoiler along with almost every other manufactures. That set me back $28

Picture of how the blade connects to the top of the frame. I will be adding a second hole in the blade for a travel setting.

Here is what the shear gate will look like if it shears one of the bolts. Think I will try 3/8-16 grade 2 to start out with. If that breaks to easily I will move up to 7/16-14.

If the ripper hits something that is solid and overloads the shear setup, the blade will swing back and get stuck on this ladder :confused2:. It will swing much further if need be.

 

[k0ua]

It looks like you have done a great job on building a "heck for stout" implement. I am looking forward to seeing it completed and tested.

 

[FTG-05]

Why a shear gate vs. a simple shear bolt? What is the top/swing bolt?

Thanks,

 

[alancamby]

Sorry for the poor nomenclature. What I called the top swing bolt is the hitch pin that acts as a pivot for the ripper if one of my shear bolts break. It is a standard cat 1 top hitch pin, 3/4" diameter.


I tried to explain the shear gate thing earlier. What I don't like about the single commonly used shear bolt is that when it shears, the ripper shank is going to drag the remaining piece of the bolt through the ripper holder. The sheared bolt can damage the ripper or the ripper mount. With my design, I feel, that less damage will be done when the unit is overloaded and shears.
Just a idea I am trying. I could always go back and drill the angle steel and ripper for a single shear bolt.

thanks

 

[woodchipper]

Good progress here! There is no doubt in my mind that it will work just as planned. I see it as a simple and effective desing.
For the tip, you could simply use another peice of 3/4 x 6 x10 inches long, so you weld that peice perpendicular to the bottom of the main plate, and give an angle around 45 deg. to form the tip.

 

[FTG-05]

Ok thanks Alan!

Good luck!

 

[alancamby]

I have the frame painted up, you can see I have added a chain hook and some square tube on the ends for a parking stand.
Did not spend much time on the painting of the point since it won't last long in the ground.

I have built the parking stands and just need to paint them.

 

[otlski]

That looks great! Hey, do us a favor. Weld some kind of rotation stop on that thing to prevent it from hitting you in the back of the head. What i worry about is that it can load up on something close to the surface, shear, then unload upward in a 200 degree arc. Not sure if it could happen or if it could articulate that far.

EDIT
Nevermind. I looked at the previous page and you look okay.

 

[alancamby]

That looks great! Hey, do us a favor. Weld some kind of rotation stop on that thing to prevent it from hitting you in the back of the head. What i worry about is that it can load up on something close to the surface, shear, then unload upward in a 200 degree arc. Not sure if it could happen or if it could articulate that far.

EDIT
Nevermind. I looked at the previous page and you look okay.

Thanks for the concern. Yeah it will swing, from vertical down, about 100 degrees before it binds. I do think it is a good idea for the ripper to not be able to swing all the way around. I find it very hard to believe that a 3/4"x6" piece of steel would load up like a leaf spring though. It will be interesting if it jumps or does anything weird if or when the shear function gives.

It is chilling thought of a 50lb hunk of metal swinging around like a guillotine.

Anyhow...
I used it a little tonight and the ground is just way to wet around here. I was only in the ground for about 40 feet before I gave up due to the mess my tires were making. It did pull, but the tires were slipping to much.

 

[k0ua]

That is a good looking rig!... Now go get it in the ground, and get some of that paint off of it!:thumbsup:

 

[Marveltone]

Nice design and excellent fabrication skills! Can't wait for things to dry up so you can give it a real test.

When are you going into production? ptimist: