Direct tine drill build

[Wombat]

As a number of you have seen i thought i would post some pics of my direct tine drill build.

Firstly some reasons behind it,

1. I wanted to have a go at direct drilling, having done some scratch till for the last 15yrs our soils are so much better than trying to plough then ph 2 or 3 time. So wanted to take another step.
2. I looked at some older moore etc but a lot were more than I wanted to pay for a try.
3. Tine have historically been ok for us, we have some fairly snotty clay that his really high mg index, pretty much everything we farm is 6-9.5 index
4. I work full time and wanted to make things a little more timely, especially in the spring where the clays can go from snot to concrete in a few days.
5. I like to have a tinker when time allows

 

[Wombat]

So i decided to have a go, I liked a few tine designs but found Weavings brilliant so the whole build was based around their sabre tine. My orgional plan was to go 4m but thought i would need to have 2x2m frames on a pivot and to be honest that was a bridge to far this year.

I decided to go front hopper, rear toolbar as atm we only have 115hp tractor and wasn't sure we could lift a fully mounted sabre tine rear drill.

 

[nick...]

Looking foreward to this.keep thinking about the same thing
nick...

 

[Wombat]

So first job was to get all the parts together, the front hopper came from @Clive and was kindly delivered by @chaffcutter once we were out of lockdown (I think he was glad to get out for a bit )

The seed elbow and distribution head came from Andy Guest, they built the elbow and supplied with distributon head and 24/18 plate. The also supplied a new accord drive shaft after Hermes managed to provide a comedy moment one sunday when they delivered me a cardboard tube empty of contents from Chafcutter so if anyone sees one for sale on a hermes parecel sale its mine

The steel i got from a local stock holder (weavings kindly told me what i needed for the main box frames)

I then drew up the 4 plates i wanted laser cut to hold the box and make the implement pin connections and the following harrrow brackets.

Weavings provided the complete sabre tine assemblies including air bleeds, jubilee clips, bolts etc. A really comprehensive kit, I also got some other hoses and the following harrow tines from them. In fact at times late in the workshop this last few weeks i did think i should have asked them to make me a full 3m sabre toolbar (it never really crossed my mind at the time to see if they did)

Various fastners, clamps, hydraulic parts came from local suppliers

A frame for the hopper came from Agri linc

 

[bobk]

Any photos ?

 

[Wombat]

Any photos ?

Patience just uploading the first ones

Edit bare with me a few mins as the website doesn't like the new iphone HEIC format

 

[Wombat]

So the first 3 are some setting out then tacking of the main box into the laser profiles and the end plates. The laser profile plates are 15mm and I wanted them to form the basis of the toolbar so all the load went through them to the link arms, they also made assembly much easiers as i just slotted everything in and then levelled up in all directions before tacking. With a little bit of tinkering they also made the hangers for the following harrow frame.

Edit yes it is on the worst bit of floor I own but waiting for the electrician to couple up one of the new buildings with power

 

[Wombat]

The only slight issue with the 2 full length rails was the fact they would mess up the tine spacing so once everything was fully welded, I needed to cut one to go around the tine hanger. I had to do this outside as I couldn't get everything lifted endways and in a build with electricity to do undercover, fortunately it was about the only evening in Oct that was nice

 

[Wombat]

They came out fairly well in the end.

 

[Wombat]

Next was the toplink brackets and frame, this was very much a made up as we go along but it worked fairly well out the bit I had left and a couple of plates with the magdrill for toplink holes

 

[Wombat]

Added some angles and some fillets as the brackets where a little longer than needed but I wanted clearance round the back of the tires for the front tines

 

[Wombat]

Then a mounting for the distribution head

 

[Wombat]

Tines on and some depth control, the painting was done by my kids as they wanted to help so they got suited up and picked hammerite green

The depth control was a bit of a how do we do it in the time available so robbed some wheels of our flatlift, they just bolted on with a couple of extra holes. I put new wheel bearings and tyres on them.

Tine layout was really a bit of a guess to start but dictated by the two tines that had to go into the spacings in the frame, plus i wanted the outer 2 behind the wheels so they ran on stubble

 

[bobk]

I'll have to put me jarmies on , we're in for a long night

 

[Wombat]

The day before i got all the brackets and plumbing from front to back

 

[Wombat]

All done and running, pretty happy with it. Litterally fired it up and went to the field. Done about 14 acres straight into stubble so far before it got too wet. Had about 35mm since drilling the weekend before last, bit of slug hollowing but will see how it comes.

 

[Wombat]

No major mods so far but going to add a small cooling rad to the return pipe from the fan just to help the tractor.

 

[snarling bee]

Looks great. You should be proud of yourself.

 

[Wombat]

I'll have to put me jarmies on , we're in for a long night

Hahah you can change the channel if u want

 

[bobk]

No major mods so far but going to add a small cooling rad to the return pipe from the fan just to help the tractor.

What spacings , assume you're sowing wheat