Creating a simplified Landscape Rake

[jinman]

Eddie, I used to know a machinist who went "nuts" the first time he saw me using oil to drill with. He yelled at me to get some cutting fluid instead. I've never forgotten what he said, "Oil is for lubrication and cutting fluid is for cooling." I don't know if he was right, but I have a bottle of cutting fluid I use on anything heavier than sheet metal. I'm always afraid he'll yell at me again.

 

[rswyan]

if there ever was a job that needed this tool!
might almost be worth $40 at the local rental center

Yeah .... thinking back on building my 80" rake I think there was around 80 or so holes .... can't imagine having to drill them without some kind of drill press.

 

[regor66]

Hey Mad... can you post a close-up of your gage wheel setup? Especially the up and down adjustment. I need to make one for my BB and for my landscape rake. Yours look very functional. Thanks.

 

[EddieWalker]

Timber,
I like to draw things out. I'm a constant planner and I realy enjoy figureing out all the details on anything I do before I start. For this, I used my Home Design program and pretend the walls are lengths of steel. It gives me the lengths I know, and then I can easily see the lengths I don't know like the angle pieces.
Then I use it for my materials list for shopping.

Schmism,
A friend back in California has one of those magnet drill press's. He uses it for drilling frames on big rig trucks, and I've been known to borrow it from time to time. Your right, it's exactly what I need, and I think about how much I want one with every hole I drill.

I did my ten holes yesterday, and that was just as painful as I expected. hahaha

Jim,
Thanks for reminding me there is a difference between oil and cutting oil. I'm going to the feed store this morning and I'll see if he has cutting oil. I'd heard the same thing, but forgot all about it.

Eddie

 

[Timber]

You can actualy use water in place of cutting oil to keep the metal cool. Just use a little spray bottle

 

[czechsonofagun]

Cutting fluid is an emulsion of oil and water - at least for steel cutting.

Here is a related article:

Cutting Fluids

Eddie, are you drilling it in one shot or do you predrill first? I have a floor drill press, one of the best tools I ever bought and I would still go in two steps to drill all those holes.

Also the drill press gives you the slow speed you need - unlike hand drill with two preset gear speeds.

 

[EddieWalker]

I rained 3/4 of an inch yesterday and another quarter inch today, so it was a good time to work on my rake.

I had finished drilling the 50 holes awhile ago, to that nightmare is over.

Today I cut some triangles to brace my corners and finished my welding on the flat part of the rake. Then I cut and bent some 3/8 x 2 inch flat stock for the top parts.

I had to figure out the angles and lengths, so I cheated and copied my other impliments to cut down on brain stress.

I even swept the floor and put my welder away!!!

First picture is of the rake on it's edge so I can weld the sides and put in the triangle braces.

Second picture is of one of the triangle braces.

Third picture is of the top mount for the three point attachment. To get the upright pieces lined up, I had to weld in a cross brace. This turned out to be a bit on the high side, so I had to notch it to fit the long pieces together.

Fourth picture is of the rake all welded together. I just have to finish drilling the holes for the three point attachments and then paint.

Eddie

 

[bx23barry]

I'm interested in how it works. Wondering if you miss the angle feature and/or if being so far back is an advantage. Looks pretty good so far.

 

[EddieWalker]

It's all together and even painted.

The tines look to have a good space between them, but I'll have to use it to know for sure. They are on 3 inch centers.

I need to finish draging and smoothing around my lake tomorrow, then plant some grass seed. When that's done, I'll put the rake on my little tractor and see if it works.

Eddie

 

[TxTom]

Looks good. You sure do go through some hydraulic fluid don't you.

Thomas

 

[Nat]

Eddie, I used mine some today and I'm real impressed with how it windrows the rocks. I found if I angle it, it doesn't throw rocks at me and seems to roll them out a little better. I sorta wish I had gone with the stiffer tines, it would have therefor been a little heavier and would not skip over some of the bigger rocks as it does some of the time. Yours appears heavy enough that it shouldn't be a problem. It looks good to me. Later, Nat

 

[EddieWalker]

Tom,

You noticed my collection of buckets?? hahahaha Yes, the dozer is all hydraulic. One pump for the blade and one for each set of tracks. Three hydraulic pumps and about a mile of hoses!!!! I get one leak fixed and another shows up. The real kicker is that they mostly only leak under load. Just running it parked doesn't show anything. I buy 4 buckets every time I buy 200 gallons of fuel. Sometimes I start to build up on how many buckets I have, but I always have a hose blow and need every bucket I have. Last time it was one of the boom hoses on my backhoe. What a mess. hahaha

Nat,

I have the stiffest tines they sell and as you can see in my pictures, one of them broke. Luckily I don't have much for rocks. I did find some concrete that the tines pulled out and made a mess of.

Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

I put the rake on my 35hp Century CUT yesterday and put a few hours on it. Since I've never had a rake before, never used one before and have never seen anybody else use one, it was a bit of a learning experience.

I had to get the angle ajusted just right. Flat didn't give me enough preasure or movement when I went over high spots. The rake would just lift off the ground and dump what I had in it. Too much angle and it was more of a plow then a rake. Just a bit above flat seemed to work the best.

The tines did a fantastic job of collecting sticks. It also doesn't collect dirt, but with the three point hitch pushed all the way down, the tines do dig into the ground niceley. I like that!!! It also thins out the weeds and really does a nice job of preping my dirt. Another nice suprise.

At 3 inch centers, I do loose a few smaller sticks, but nothing I can't live with. What's nice about the spacing is I can really knock down some of the dozer tracks and small windrows the blade makes. Just turning the dozer does a number on the ground, so it's nice to be able to quickly and easily smooth those rough spots over.

The length is nice to reach in under the trees and tough to get to spots, but it doesn't help in any way the amount of material I can collect. It just spills out the sides when it gets full. I'm thinking about putting some sides on it. Not sure how yet, but there are several options.

One problem I had was after about five minutes, a tine busted. It must have been defective because it was the only one to break.

I kept thinking about being able to swivel it and how that would help. For the life of me, I just can't imagine how it would. I pulled it straight and in big circles. I pulled it in figure 8's and sometimes tight circles. It holds everything in it except a little comes out on the inside of the turn. Not much, but enough to tell where the turn was. If I could change the angle, it would have to be done at every turn, and to me that is way more effort than loosing a very small amount of debri. Especially since I can pick up that debri on the next pass.

I'm extremely pleased and suprised at how nice it is to have. It's really turned out to a must have impliment!!!

Thank you to everyone who offered advice, both in this thread and in the older threads I read when researching this project.

First picture is of the rake on the back of my CUT.

Second and third pics are of the rake full of debri.

Fourth pic is my field after I raked it.

Fifth pic is of the busted tine.

Eddie

 

[Willl]

I kept thinking about being able to swivel it and how that would help. For the life of me, I just can't imagine how it would.

I look forward to that thread, something with hydraulics would be cool.

 

[mudcat]

You would be surprised how much more usefull it would be if it did swivel. Anyway it looks awesome and as long as it does what you want it to that's all that matters.

 

[bx23barry]

Kool! I may have to make something like this.

 

[RonR]

Eddie,

I'm not an engineer or anything, but I think any issues you have with your rake is IT'S TOO CLOSE TO YOUR TRACTOR.

You should take that back to your shop, cut it apart, and lengthen it about six more feet.

Just funning ya. Great looking implement. And if it works for ya, who cares what anyone else thinks!

Ron

 

[rswyan]

You would be surprised how much more usefull it would be if it did swivel.

Yeah, one of the things you could do is set it angled to throw everything to the center - with down and back passes you'd eventually wind up with a windrow in the center, which could be picked up with a loader. Dunno if that would be faster than than just hauling the debris to where you are dumping them or not.

But like mudcat sez, if it's workin' for ya and ya like it that's all that matters.

 

[EddieWalker]

What I've kind of learned to do is pull the material in a straight line to a place and leave it there. Then I do it again just next to the last pull and leave the pile next to the previous pile. After awhile, I havle a long line of debri all lined up in a straight line.

I first tried to pull the line with the rake, but it all fell out the sides and just made a mess. So now I'm going to try to pick up what I can with the loader and hual that to the burn pile.

It's absolutely amazing at cleaning small areas. But as soon as it gets full, it's effectiveness is drastically reduced. My burn pile is several hundred feet away from where I was working, and as I progress on my land, I'll be even further away, so hauling the piles with the loader might be my best option. I'm just wondering about how much dirt I pick up versus how much material I miss with the bucket.

My guess is I'll get better in time. hahaha

Thanks for the replies,
Eddie

 

[Nat]

Eddie, I also found that once the rake is"full" it's best to "unload". I found that if I angled it and made a couple passes out and back I had a pretty good windrow os rocks and sticks. I would then take my son's Bobcat , sit it at the end of the windrow, then turn it around and push the debris into the bucket, that way I wasn't getting much dirt. I could then carry it and dump it off a terrace. at least you have the backhoe sitting there anyway, I have to wait till he has his Bobcat at home which is mostly on the weekends. A skeleton bucket would be nice for that so I wouldn't have to push the debris into the bucket, I could just scoop it up. I guess we will never have the perfect tool, so we keep on plugging along. Later, Nat