Chain Guards

[njrqs]

Tony

I got some made up for me. Suspect I was ripped off but I didn't get a proper quote first so what could I do.

Cost me about $300 for front and rear = $150 US but if you can weld then you would save most of that.

Mine are bolted on so they can be removed if required.

Front chains are spaced a bit too far apart but rears are hard up against each other.

Dodgy pic attached. Will take better pics if you want.

Cheers

 

[JohnS]

Should be getting a 5' KK rotary cutter soon. Since the cart is in front of the horse (tractor won't be here till June) have time to make the chain guards, vs spending an additional $200. If someone can post some more pictures of their solution it would greatly be appreciated.

Thinking of a non-welding type project. Has anyone just used bolts to attach the links to the angle iron? or possibly using those screw together links for the first link in each chain. Will cost a little more, but still will be less than half of the purchased complete ones.

How well do the chain guards work? Has anyone launched any projectiles with chain gaurds on? Just wondering how careful I need to be, even with chain guards on. I know you can't be too careful, but would like to have a confedence level to work with in my head. Thanks.

 

[TonyC]

Neil,

I wouldn't mind seeing a closer pic of the chain guards. It would help as I prepare to make some. Thanks!

 

[Bird]

John, have you got a drill press and lots of good drill bits? I've thought about taking angle iron, then clamping a piece of flat stock onto it, and drilling holes in them the same distance apart as the width of a single chain link (of whatever size chain you want to use). Then you would put a bolt through the angle iron (from underneath), through a chain link, and on up through the flat stock with a nut on top. No welding required, and you could change individual sections of chain if necessary in the future, but it would take a lot of drilling.

 

[EdKing]

I am not sure where you would purchase it, boy you can get predrilled angle, its 1"X1", 1/8 thick, with holes aprox. 3/16 apart. The different electronics companies I worked for used it for setting up componant racks.

 

[JohnS]

Yea, its allot of holes. I don't own a drill press, but do have access to one. I will stop bye the local auction yard to see if any of theirs have chain gaurds. I don't recall seeing any the last time I stopped. For such a critical safety item, I haven't seen many rotary cutters with them installed.

 

[JohnS]

I think 1" would be too small. I have some scrap angle iron that was planning on using. I should stop bye the local metal scrap yard, to see if they have something with predrilled holes. You never know what goodies you can find at those places!

 

[Bird]

I wasn't able to find any angle iron with the pre-drilled holes, except for some very thin, light weight stuff, but someone undoubtedly makes it, if you can find it./w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif And I used 2" angle iron; don't forget that you want the chains hanging far enough from the deck that the blades can't get to them even if something pushes the end of chain all the way toward the blades. Of course, you can use smaller sized angle iron and not bolt it directly against the deck; use several washers as spacers to keep it farther out from the deck.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

<font color=blue>...angle iron with the pre-drilled holes...</font color=blue>

Home Depot has it... ~~ $3-4 for ~4-5' sections...

 

[kyoders]

Try Home Depot. They have the light duty stuff with the other metal supplies, but if you look over where they sell electrical stuff (I think), they also carry a product for building heavy duty racks, tracks, trays, etc. for infrastructure. There they have square tubing and I believe angle, all pre-drilled. It's pricey compared to regular angle, but it would save a ton of time on drilling (and probably at least one drill bit).

Kevin