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Old Disk Frame Makes Great Field Cultivator
When the front gangs on Bruce Erdman's 15-ft. tandem disk wore out, he bought a new disk. But, he notes, "The rear gangs were still good on the old disk so I figured there had to be some way to make use of what was left of it."
He says he needed a light field cultivator and after thinking about it awhile, he
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Old Disk Frame Makes Great Field Cultivator CULTIVATORS Cultivators (58C) 25-6-4 When the front gangs on Bruce Erdman's 15-ft. tandem disk wore out, he bought a new disk. But, he notes, "The rear gangs were still good on the old disk so I figured there had to be some way to make use of what was left of it."
He says he needed a light field cultivator and after thinking about it awhile, he put together a plan to build one.
His first step was to take off the front worn-out disk gangs. Then he made a light frame of thick-walled 2-in. square tubing that holds three ranks of seven S-tines with duck-foot sweeps on them.
"I attached this to the disk frame in place of the front gangs. I had to calculate the spacing so the tines weren't in the way of the mountings, but it worked out well. The bars holding the three ranks are 18 in. apart and the way it worked out, there's about 18 in. between the tines on each bar," he says.
"With the S-tines in front of the single disk gang, it goes into the ground easily. In fact, I had to put gauge wheels on it to keep it from going in too deep," Erdman says.
For gauge wheels, he salvaged the hubs off an old hay crimper and made brackets to mount them in front of the S-tines. "I had to set them far enough back to make sure I couldn't get into them with the rear tractor tires in a sharp turn," he adds.
He bought new steel tubing and S-tines and brackets for his digger. Even so, he figures it cost him less than $600 to build it. He says actual shop time in building it was less than 15 hours, and that includes the time it took to put together the gauge wheel mountings. "I spent more time figuring out how to do it than building it," he notes.
"I've used it a couple of years now, mostly in oat and rye stubble. It does a good job of working the soil and the disk in back leaves a well-worked seedbed," he continues. "If I were doing it again, though, I'd probably put the digger on the back and let the disks cut up soil and crop residue in front. It will handle most residue conditions, but if there's a lot of loose straw on the ground, it sometimes plugs."
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Bruce Erdman, 6000 Stettin Drive, Wausau, Wis. 54401 (ph 715 845-5105; E-mail: brucee40@msn.com).
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