Farm Equipment Question

[littlecanoe]

My dad and I have been rehab'ing a brush jumper bush hog. Trouble is, one of the blades keeps hitting the leading edge of the frame.

After we bought it at an auction, we realized that it had been banged around a bit more than originally thought.

 

The frame is square and the pumpkin sits square to the frame. The hitch was bent a bit but we straightened it and it measures out even.

 

We have noticed that the stump pan, the base that the blades attach to, runs high on one side where the one blade attaches. This is the blade that hits the front edge of the frame. This side of the pan actually sits closer to the underside of the frame at the point where the blade attaches.

 

My fix is to take the pan off, remove the blades and put it on a hydraulic press to even things out. The way I see it it is important to keep the arbor square to the point that the blades mount.

 

Question: How do we align it on the press to keep everything square and keep the mounting points for the blades even?

[sonic1]

this is tuff without seeing your setup....is the location where you bolt the blades flat so you can bolt a long straight edge piece

of metal across the whole base, out a couple feet longer than what the blades would be...this will give you somthing better to EYE as you bent it back..do you see where i"m going with this? like i said hard to say without seeing your problem

[Dr.Hess]

Levels and a carpenter's square are real handy here. A laser level with a line splitter attachment from Harbor Freight is real handy. I used it to set up the chassis on the car I'm building.

[littlecanoe]

 

Here is a rough sketch of the pan that holds the blades. The pan is designed to glide over obstacles. It is a round shallow dish.

 

A and B are mounting points for the blades. There are 2 blades opposed at 180 degrees. I've tried to show how point B is high, where the pan has been bent up just a bit. Probably no more than 1/2 ". This makes one blade run high though and that is where the problem arises.

(I may be over thinking this but I want to get this thing working without hearing that blade thump the frame. I really need to do some brush cleaning.)

 

C is the mounting point and is held in place by a large washer and nut.

 

My thought is to secure the pan to a press and flatten it back out. I'm just not sure where to put the pressure. Place the pan right side up? Upside down? I have to keep the whole thing relatively square.

[Horsefly]

I think maybe you could give it a good wash or clean all debris out with a air hose,lay a good,staight piece of angle iron across the blades,and using the staight blades as a guide,heat the bent part with a torch at the same time prying down with a prybar or piece of pipe until kinda close.Heat would be the way I'd do it.Sure be nice if you could turn in over.Jerry

[manureman]

Wow, thats a rough one. Finding a press big enough to get the the pan in and centered up on will be the biggest problem i'd think but if you can a straight edge is plenty good to check it for true. Put it in upside down and block the outside edge up and press down on it back torwads center is what I figure your thinking about doing,it would be trial and error but should work if you can find a press big enough,gonna be though thats a big chunk to handle and thick stuff too.And expensive to replace,last one I bought was for a 7 footer a few years back and it was 400.00 bucks,the center nut got loose and it spun the splines out of the jump pan,so when you get it going keep an eye on it they like to back off even when castle nutted and cotter pinned.Now heres how us hillbilly farmers do it in Missouri when we warp a jump pan to the point of one blade making contact with the frame,as long as its not bent to the point of making contact with the top deck of the cutter we just shorten both blades an equal amount to allow clearance and go on,not a perfect fix but it's

cheaper than replacing those jump pans every few years,and no one in this area has a press big enough to do what we're talking about.Don't know where you live or what size your cutter is but I'm in central Mo. I still have that pan off my model 272 with the bad splines and your welcome to it if you think you could make one out of two I'd give it to you if youd come get it. Good luck ,Jim.

[littlecanoe]

Oops,

 

Forgot to say that it's a 5 footer. I'm off to my dad's now. I appreciate the feedback. The fella that does some of our more difficult welding is a good old country boy with a lot of equipment. I'll let ya know how it comes out.

 

I didn't think of cutting the blades down. Hope we don't need to go that for but at least it's an option.

 

I wonder what Fritz's solution would have been...............................

[littlecanoe]

I didn't get to go to the shop but they fixed it. They put the pan right side up with the blades on the bottom and braced on either side of the blade. Then they put something solid on both sides of the spline shaft/mount. Then applied a 20 or 22 ton press to the pan. It came right down and didn't rebound and measured out right. Put it back on the hog and so far it works like a charm!!

 

We watched it as it spun down and it looks more balanced than it did yesterday. Nice thing............No whap whap whap.

 

Thanks for all the ideas guys!