rake/roller

[Andy Carson]

I made this combination rake and roller to cover and press cover crop seed. It was a fun and easy project and works pretty well. I think I’m going to tweak the bearing design, but other than that I think it’s a success. The shafts are pretty low, but it doesn’t take much to stop the thing and the field is pretty flat.

[Carl Russell]

Andy “John Deere” Carson!!!! Keep up the good work.

Carl

[Tim Harrigan]

Is that a concrete roller? Nice work.

[Andy Carson]

Ha! Thanks for the encouragement, but I’m hardly John Deere… Yes, it is a concrete roller. I poured it in a cardboard Quikcrete footing tube 12 inches in diameter. I read farmers used to roll fields with oak logs about 2 feet in diameter, which gives about the same pounds per square inch as a 1 foot diameter concrete tube (assuming 1/8-1/2 inch compression). Of course it doesn’t roll as well as a 2 foot diameter tube, and when it was “naked” sometimes pushed a little dirt starting off. I wrapped a small section of wire fence around the roller, which increased traction quite a bit and prevents the dirt pushing. The axle is 1 inch black pipe and was placed in the tube before pouring (so it’s fixed to and rotates with the concrete). I used a couple plastic plumbing attachments to act as bearings between the wooden shafts and the steel axle. They might wear fast, but they only cost 31 cents and I figure I can just replace them as needed.

PS. I estimate that this thing weighs about 500 pounds and with the increased traction, it’s tough to turn. I think that 4 feet wide (the width of this roller) is pretty much the limit for how wide these can be made in one piece and still turn OK. If someone wants to make a wider roller, I would highly recommend making several independantly rotating rollers. The old style oak roller I was using as a model had three rollers to span about 10 feet.

[Tim Harrigan]

Nice. You are right, if you had 2 half-length rollers side-by-side the inside one could roll backwards on a tight turn and it would pivot real nice. When do you sleep?

[dlskidmore]

If you wanted the larger diameter without more weight, you could do papercrete. Pure papercrete would probably be too light, weigh out the amount of sand you want for additional ballast and replace some of the paper pulp.

[Andy Carson]

After this roller only lasted about 15 minute before breaking, I pretty much redesigned it from the ground up and got rid of the wooden parts. Here’s a picture of what I came up with. I got rid of the rake function b/c it didn’t seem strong enough anyway and also removed the shafts. I definetaly overestimated how hard a roller pushes going downhill. It’s doesn’t really push very hard and with the tire placed where it is, that pushing force tends to push the tire down and create extra braking force. It’s plenty of friction from the tire to stop the roller on any slopes in my field. The “bearing” is a greased 1/2 inch pipe placed inside a 1 inch pipe. The whole things works very well now, and I’m happy with it. Just got done rolling a couple acres. The other change was wearing tennis shoes, as I get blisters walking that fast and that long in work boots.

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