Home made lime spreader.

[Shovelhands]

New Leader spinner vanes from Kellands recently, under £30 each iirc, made of some hard stuff, not worth making them for that money imo.

 

[Zebbedee]

New Leader spinner vanes from Kellands recently, under £30 each iirc, made of some hard stuff, not worth making them for that money imo.

How many tonnes roughly would you expect with ground lime through a set thanks

 

[Shovelhands]

How many tonnes roughly would you expect with ground lime through a set thanks

Probably get a better idea from @Cab-over Pete, as I assume he spreads a more consistent product to me? And shifts more volume that's for sure, he always seems to be spreading, where as my machine is in hibernation for most of the year!

I can get a bit of debris in the lime I spread, it is a very finely ground product, but can have small stones in it, we try our very best to screen it as much as we can, but it's almost impossible to get every last bit, it is a recycled product after all, so this can give the vanes a hammering. The old New Leader vanes were poor, especially for the price charged by AgChem and then AGCO! Didn't seem to last five minutes! More recently, they have changed material, and are now well worth the money, even at AGCO prices, they hold their form and keep a nice edge on the top, and will do 7-8000 tonne at lest with me, in fact , I recon the ones on there currently have probably done 12-13000 tonne, and are still ok, but I'm going to have a bit of an experiment with the spinners this season, so will fit a fresh set

Couldn't fault Kellands price, and on the doorstep the next morning too, not bad at all

 

[Zebbedee]

Probably get a better idea from @Cab-over Pete, as I assume he spreads a more consistent product to me? And shifts more volume that's for sure, he always seems to be spreading, where as my machine is in hibernation for most of the year!

I can get a bit of debris in the lime I spread, it is a very finely ground product, but can have small stones in it, we try our very best to screen it as much as we can, but it's almost impossible to get every last bit, it is a recycled product after all, so this can give the vanes a hammering. The old New Leader vanes were poor, especially for the price charged by AgChem and then AGCO! Didn't seem to last five minutes! More recently, they have changed material, and are now well worth the money, even at AGCO prices, they hold their form and keep a nice edge on the top, and will do 7-8000 tonne at lest with me, in fact , I recon the ones on there currently have probably done 12-13000 tonne, and are still ok, but I'm going to have a bit of an experiment with the spinners this season, so will fit a fresh set

Couldn't fault Kellands price, and on the doorstep the next morning too, not bad at all

Thanks for that info tells me I need to look at trying a set.

 

[Cab-over Pete]

I can get about 30,000t of Cotswold lime over a set. Derbyshire is harder and I might get 20,000t done. Plus some Fibrophos and other bits and bobs too.

 

[john432]

Decided to try the low cost option for the spreading vanes for now,can allways grind these off and get proper vaneslater .Drive line to the discs is now sorted, got to make a fixing mount for the bed gearbox, mill some boards for the floor, fix the chains and slats, make the rear funnel to the discs, paint and plumb up the hydraulics!

 

[Cab-over Pete]

Looking very good.

Maybe put a run of hard facing weld down the vertical edge of the vanes? The tip where the lime leaves them. That's where they will wear first.

It looks a serious piece of kit though.

 

[Zebbedee]

View attachment 510828 View attachment 510830 View attachment 510832 Decided to try the low cost option for the spreading vanes for now,can allways grind these off and get proper vaneslater .Drive line to the discs is now sorted, got to make a fixing mount for the bed gearbox, mill some boards for the floor, fix the chains and slats, make the rear funnel to the discs, paint and plumb up the hydraulics!

Looking very good I must say, not looking to pick faults but on your first loads I would keep an eye on bed chain tension as I would worry that the lime will sit in the slots for the chains and make them ride up and or make them very tight? Only reason I say that is as I have seen it happen on older trailed fert spreaders with floor chains, hopefully it will be fine though. When is it's maiden voyage scheduled?

 

[Tomtrac]

We have a lot of tracks/;lanes on farms around us we had trouble with things catching the gear boxes etc for spinners it a bit late now how much clearance will you have

 

[john432]

Fair point Tomtrac, only have some 14"to 15" clearance under the rear gearbox, that was a concern of ours when we planned it. But hopping that the width of the tyres will mean that it will never sink much. Will have to be carefull and aware of that problem.

 

[tomlad]

it could be protected with a bash pan of some sort ?? @john432

 

[tinman]

View attachment 505650 View attachment 505652 what us poor Welsh hill farmers have to devise.... works well, cutting out the discs. Have only recently bought the plasma cutter, fantastic things, wish I'd bought one years ago.

if ya think that stick is good, then yal love this bad boy....
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Plasma-Cu...hash=item416ff6087d:m:mnZnMk7bm9hINAfxO5yq09A


re the job at hand, i must say, im not jealous at all,
not one bit........

she looks like a damn fine well planned out piece of work, i tip my hat sir.

 

[Damomc]

if its paint, im no aficionado on it but after some trial and error ive hit on this stuff.
http://www.jotun.com/pt/en/b2b/paintsandcoatings/products/jotamastic-87.aspx
its not dear, its a 2 pack, its a high build, it dose exactly what it says on the tin and seeing since its good for the hull of a ship, i reckon if it can do that then it ill cover my stuff ok.
paint is only colour.

I work in the oil industry and we use Jotun paint and provided the metal is prepped properly you'll never get any rust coming through . alternately you could look at Thermal spray aluminium, we have just started using it in work and they recon its good for 50 years !!!

 

[Courier]

John, on the subject of floor, why not go BOC (belt over chain)? Fixing belt to the slats.

Brings to mind our old 40' "New Idea" chain and slat elevator which had clip on rubber mats for shifting potatoes into store circa 1967. Worked well particularly after we made the wheels 90 degree adjustable.
Doesn't need to be a continuous belt, just overlapping like roof tiles at each slat.

 

[feazel]

Calibrating? Initially will have to work on calculating the theoretical amount spread. The floor bed will be driven by a 200cc/ rpm hydraulic motor. Through a 30 :1 reduction gearbox. An adjustable flow regulating valve is going on the motor, so the bed can be adjusted for speed from say 2 rpm up to 8 rpm. The floor will move back 31 cm with evry turn of the floor sprokets, the bed width will be 60cm and say a door opening of 5cm.
Weighing a litre of the lime will give a tonnes per cubic meter value, deciding on a forward speed and width of spread , and rate per hectare will give a figure for the weight needed to spread per minute. And then the volume required per minute. This all sounds complicated, but it's just basic maths.

Just on the subject of calculating theoretical output, the lime is highly unlikely to spread at 100% rate, due to the material slipping on the conveyor, getting held up by the door and other random things, so you might have to move the belt further than you think to obtain the correct output, for example:

door size 1m x 1m, floor moves 1m = volumetric output of 1m^3

in reality due to material slip etc the belt will actually need to move, maybe 1.2m to attain the desired output of 1m^3

I've heard numbers bandied about anywhere from 120% floor speed up to 160% to get "100% spread rate" from different manufacturers (this is usually a setting hidden away in the control system) so you might just need to have a day or two fiddling to get it right.

PS - I design spreaders for a job, and this project is awesome!

 

[Courier]

Just on the subject of calculating theoretical output, the lime is highly unlikely to spread at 100% rate, due to the material slipping on the conveyor, getting held up by the door and other random things, so you might have to move the belt further than you think to obtain the correct output, for example:

door size 1m x 1m, floor moves 1m = volumetric output of 1m^3

in reality due to material slip etc the belt will actually need to move, maybe 1.2m to attain the desired output of 1m^3

I've heard numbers bandied about anywhere from 120% floor speed up to 160% to get "100% spread rate" from different manufacturers (this is usually a setting hidden away in the control system) so you might just need to have a day or two fiddling to get it right.

PS - I design spreaders for a job, and this project is awesome!

Good point and would you not expect the slippage to be lower on a slat based delivery system than one based on a smooth belt ?

I would also expect higher rates of slippage at higher application rates.

 

[feazel]

I have worked with cleated belts and it still happens

 

[Shovelhands]

But once the material is through the door, and assuming the door/opening is full, wheres the slippage?

Yes the belt or trace is slipping under the load, but if the material is moving through the door at full capacity, then I can't see how there can be any slippage the other side of the door/opening, that crucial last bit of the belt, the bit past the door, just before it drops to the spinners, imo there is no slippage there, as there is no restriction, therefore the application rate should be able to be calculated from the belt speed.

 

[dannewhouse]

to calibrate it say the 1st time back onto a nice workshop floor and allow say 5 or 10 rotations of the belt(only of the drive gear not literally the whole belt) count on your rpm meter and then weight that.

you may have to do it on a couple of door settings just to get the idea then you will pretty much be able to have the reight setting from the off, nothing worse than running out half way through a field!!!

 

[feazel]

you've answered your own question there Shovel hands, the slippage happens between the belt and the material, look at the video on page 4 at around the 5min 30sec mark. The lime coming out after the door isn't a solid block, there's a few wee cavities and such.

The material that is past the door, first must go through the door, and the door size is what you are basing your calcs off.

It'll be pretty damn close calculated from belt speed, but just a heads up if after a while you're thinking hmm, this machine is always a certain percentage heavy or light compared to my calcs