Home made implements and tools .

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Jlaws
Posts: 1141
Joined: Sun Sep 05, 2010 10:14 pm
First and Last Name: Jess Laws
Location: Independence , Ky

Home made implements and tools .

Post by Jlaws »

My friends know that if I'm always making specialized tools or repurposing scrap or junk into something I can use .
A perfect example is when I bought my used tandem axle cub hauler that had a rather large 30 -35 gallon air tank installed on it . A nice ideal , except the previous trailer owner pulled a real bonehead move . Instead of fabricating a bracket / strap system when he fastened it to the tongue of the trailer , he welded it on . Now I'm not an mechanical engineer or metallurgist , but I know welding on metal changes its tensile strength . Plus when he welded it on ( Einstein wasn't much of a welder either as his welds looked like chewing gum ) he blew a small hole in one end of the tank causing it to leak and rendering it useless .

So I ended up cutting the tank off the trailer frame and repurposed it into a lawn roller .... :lol:
After welding up the hole Einstein put in it as well as the ones I put in the ends cutting it off the frame I decided to fill it full of sand .

I went with sand instead of water for two reasons , sand weighs more at 12.7 pounds per gallon where water weighs only 8.3 lbs per gallon . The other reason is I didn't want to worry about forgetting to drain it every fall , so it wouldn't freeze and burst the tank .
It rolls a 42" wide area and weighs a little over 500 lbs and it does a nice job on my mole problem .... :D
I made the entire roller out of scrap metal including the old Uhaul ball hitch that I had laying around and have nothing in it other than time and welding material .
I went with the ball hitch instead if the normal 5/8 pin setup because I didn't want to put excess wear on the cubs hitch plate .
The tongue was pre-bent and was part of a factory shelving system till someone ran a fork lift into it ... He must have been doing Mach 2 when he hit it as its fairly thick wall tubing. :lol:
The bend gets the geometry pretty close for the cubs ball hitch , a nice coincidence . :D
I may get around to painting it one day.....

Anybody have any home made tools or implements they'd like to share pictures of ??
Attachments
Lawn roller 001.JPG
Lawn roller 001.JPG (874.07 KiB) Viewed 1531 times
Lawn roller 002.JPG
Lawn roller 002.JPG (868.16 KiB) Viewed 1531 times
I see a lot of cub cadets while going down the tracks , its a shame I can't pull over and ask about them .

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Tom Scott
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Joined: Mon Sep 06, 2010 9:11 pm
First and Last Name: Tom Scott
Location: Bentley Springs, Maryland

Re: Home made implements and tools .

Post by Tom Scott »

Jess - You are dead on about the air tank being dangerous after being welded on! Probably would just leak where compromised, but not worth the risk.

It looks like it was factory made as a lawn roller now! What did you use for an axle and bearings on the roller itself?
1872, 46", 50C decks, Haban dozer blade, 450 snow blower
2182-1, Kwik-Way Loader, 3-pt & rear pto, 442 tiller
2182-2, 54" deck, 551 snow blower
Past tractors:  1541, 2135
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