New disc

[Andy Carson]

My new disc. In the wood and bolt frame, there are 6 20 inch heavy thick notched discs and greasable tractor-style heavy duty cast box bearings. I like the bigger discs, because they seem to roll better than the small ones. The frame is built around the discs and bearings (rather than over) to keep the weight low and to prevent tipping. The width of ground that will be worked is 40-42 inches, depending on depth, and in my experience it is best to keep the weight low on these narrower discs to prevent tipping or lean on sidehills, or when rocks or trenches are met. I have a threaded rod in the back and a bolt in the front to hold concrete stepping stones for ballast, and the weight is adjustable fore and aft. I have 10 stones on it in the photo, and room for a few more, but I doubt I will need them. The angle is not adjustable, but I found that I never adjusted mine anyway, I just set it to maximum and if I wanted something more gentle I used a different tool. I don’t think my new ox team can pull this yet, and am not going to ask them for a while. I bet this is the hardest pulling tool I have. I know it’s narrower than alot of discs designed for two horses, but it’s designed to dig in and it’s got the weight to do it. I will have to see how deep it rides in practice. I may end up putting skids on the bottom of the disc, but uless it goes deeper than 6 inchs, the frame shouldn’t drag. I am not shooting for a depth of 6 inchs andway, I want substantially less penetration.

[Andy Carson]

I went out with this new disc for the first time today. I really wasn’t sure the boys could pull it very long, but thought I would try and switch fast if it was hard. I was sure they could budge it at least, so I thought it was time to try. They actually pulled it quite well. Harder than the spring tooth, for sure, but not as much harder as I would have predicted. Boy, this disc really rips up the soil. It doesn’t need the extra weight either. They could only pull it for about 30 minutes, but I think this is a good start and I bet they work into longer times soon enough. I have been trying to drag photos over here from facebook, but for now I’m just going to post the links. One is of the disced soil, the other is of the boys in the pasture after working. I have been trying not to race, but I always in a subconscience race to be able to pull this thing for spring work. Race over… I also wanted to show a photo of my team. They have really gained so much muscle and quality weight in the last month or so.

PS. I figured out how to post the photos from another site now. My comp does let me just drag them over and I had to something slightly more complicated. I am glad I can post more photos now…

[Ed Thayer]

So how did it go Andy?

Ed

[Andy Carson]

It went well, Ed, see above. Sorry, I was having technical troubles for a while.

[Ed Thayer]

I wondered what the test post was alla bout 🙂

Nice work with the steers. Glad the disc worked out. Ready to plant soon?

Ed

[Dylan Keating]

looks great, how much ground did you get done in 30 mins?

[Andy Carson]

About 1/4 to 1/3 of an acre. I don’t have any sections more than one acre. I think they’ll work into this nicely. They pulled the disc for closer to an hour. They pull this disc really slowly. It is an effort for me to walk this slow, but i let them pull slow because this is hard work. Are you thinking of making one of these, or are you just curious?

[Kevin Cunningham]

Andy,
I am curious about how you built this disc. It actually looks quite simple although I can’t see the axle set up. Why did you opt to build a new disc rather that renovate an old one? Is your goal to use this as primary tillage to replace a plow, since it seems larger than most small discs I’ve seen? I might want to make something similar once my boys are big enough to pull it as I can assume it is a hard pull.

[Andy Carson]

It was a prett simply build, really. It has box bearing that are simply bolted top and bottom to 2x4s. These 2×4 were then bolted at an angle to the frame and a chain was attached to the front. This is a tool that I use instead of a plow. It penetrates a bit more than my springtooth, and is heavy enough that is ripps through grass that the springtooth moves around. It also doesn’t plug up with grass. I choose to make this tool (rather than modify), as most small discs I would have modified were designed for secondary (rather than primary) tillage. They are often too wide, have smooth (not notched) discs, and many have weak bearings. I like the greasable super strong tractor-style bearings. Also, many small discs can be “tippy,” which this disc is not. By the time you get new disc blades, modify the width, get new bearings, and make the frame low to the ground, you might as well just make a new one. I can take more pics if you want to copy. I think you want to see how the bearings attach to the frame. This is kinda burrying in the frame, but the boards over and beneath, so doesn’t photograph really well. I put a link to teh type of bearing I used below, though, and you can probably imagine the bolts going through the bottom 2×4, the lower bearing half, the upper bearing half, and the top 2×4. I like this style of greasable bearing because you can tell when it’s greased and you can also take it apart to inspect if need be. I doubt I will even need to do this, but who knows.

http://www.agrisupply.com/Bearing-Half-For-Axle-Spool/p/28211/&sid=&eid=/

[Vicki]

Wow. On the fabrication of the implement…on the steers’ muscling…on lots of forethought and work…Wow.

Are you using the disc plow on previously-cultivated plots? If so, what was grown in them and what was the condition of the plot this spring?

[Kevin Cunningham]

I really like the simplicity of the the design. It makes a lot of sense to use new parts and innovative technologies so that we can best utilize draft in the 21st century. I live about 10 miles from the ocean and in a rainforest which means that rust has gotten anything that might have been of use from the horsedrawn era. I could go and find implements and spend tons of time to restore them, but I would rather be farming. I find it very interesting to live on the edge of old and new. I love the old timey feel of farming the way we do but I find it not very progressive (not political) to be anachronistic. So yes I would like to see some more pictures and I might try to copy your design. How wide of a swath does the six discs cut? and how did you determine the angle to set them at? My tractor disc has similarly sized discs but set tandem. I love it for cutting up cover crop and breaking sod in the spring. I will have to get used to a slower pace as I transition to draft, but I won’t miss the fumes.

[Andy Carson]

I’ll get you some more photos, and measurements for you, Kevin. The only thing I would change about this is that the notched discs do occasionally drag just the right size of rock into the frame which stops the disc from rolling. I put the frame close to the disces to shed mud. Not much mud this spring, but a rock the size of a plum is just about the right size to clog the thing. I have been toying with fixing this, but haven’t gotten around to it yet. It much not be a big enough problem. The boys wait patiently for me to get the rock out, and its not that hard.

I answer to your questions, Vicki, the field was disced (well, mostly disced -I kept breaking down with my old disc) in early fall and i planted a cover crop of triticale and oats. I had tried a cover crop of rye the year before, but it was too strong. This mix seems a little weak. Probably better too weak than too strong, but i think next year I’ll try a cover in between these two in vigor. This mix was not enough competition for perenial grasses, so I am taking the opportunity to till shallow and often in this plot. I am pretty disappointed with the triticale… The disc pushes more dirt over the top of the perenial grasses, which looks good, but I’m not sure if this is really going to kill it or just make it look good short term. It does make the soil fluffy, though, so perhaps the grasses will desicate somewhat if the weather cooperates. Last year I went through with a hand shovel and inverted the grass that was strong enough to clump. That seems to work well when you don’t have that many clumps. I’ll probably do the same thing this year. It seems sometimes you just get around inverting the soil, ESP in trouble spots.

[Andy Carson]

i had a few rainy days and the team got those days to rest up. Went back to discing today and they pulled great. Normal speed (not the slow creap) and did about 3/4 of an acre in an hour and a half of work. They weren’t even that tired when i put them away. Now they’ve got more power than I need!

[near horse]

Andy – you never cease to amaze me with your vision. Nice work. Have you looked at that “other” multi-tool (not the homesteader)? Any thoughts on its design?

I think that there’s always “the right sized rock” out there waiting to plug up tillage equipment. I had a potato sized rock wedge between my rolling coulter and my plow point. Trash accumulated quickly and the plow was actually forced up out of the ground (with me on it). Darn rocks.

[Andy Carson]

@near horse 34198 wrote:

Have you looked at that “other” multi-tool (not the homesteader)? Any thoughts on its design?

Thanks for the compliments, Geoff.

When I started farming with animals, I was really interested in a multi-use tool, but have become much less interested as time has gone on. My feeling is that there are small differences in how exactly you would want to hold, use, turn, and otherwise manipulate any given tillage tool. A frame that is designed to hold everything seems to be somewhat or a compromise between what is ideal for each individual tool. Sometimes this would matter, and sometimes not. In a rough way, I think you “save” in this system by using the same frame for each tool. The thing is, in my mind, the frame doesn’t have to be complex and might be the cheapest and easiest to make part of an implement. Having a separate frame for each tool means there is no change-over time and you don’t have to go chasing down some part or other. Also, by having different tools each with thier own frame, if one tool breaks, you can switch tools (and possibly jobs), but you don’t have to just go back in the house. These are what has kept me in single use-type tools.

[Author]

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