Post Driver project

[Scruffywelder]

Glad to hear you collected your heavy bits of bar from Franklin.
Place I used to work ordered a 3m length of 450mm EN8 from them a few years ago. Our forklift had just run out of gas just as their wagon pulled into the yard and, rather than wait the 5 minutes it might have taken for the lad to change bottles, the driver decided to dump the bar over the side with a crowbar

Straight onto our newly laid tarmac yard.

It sank itself a good 3 inches into the tarmac and had to have holes dug under it to get slings under it to get it out.

Needless to say, Franklin received no further stock orders after that. They did, however, receive the bills for digging the bar out and repairing the yard...

 

[gav0994]

Glad to hear you collected your heavy bits of bar from Franklin.
Place I used to work ordered a 3m length of 450mm EN8 from them a few years ago. Our forklift had just run out of gas just as their wagon pulled into the yard and, rather than wait the 5 minutes it might have taken for the lad to change bottles, the driver decided to dump the bar over the side with a crowbar

Straight onto our newly laid tarmac yard.

It sank itself a good 3 inches into the tarmac and had to have holes dug under it to get slings under it to get it out.

Needless to say, Franklin received no further stock orders after that. They did, however, receive the bills for digging the bar out and repairing the yard...

Was almost a disaster when I got back to the farm with them. My mate, the farmer, was away at the Kelso Ram sales and had the JCB telehandler locked up so I've had to leave the bar sitting at his Dads farm after using their old Massey Ferguson 398 loader tractor and bale spike and a strap to lift them off the trailer is borrowed. Didn't fancy hand balling them off!

 

[addjunkie]

Hes not the guy who is now 28 k lighter after buying a tup at Kelso is he!

 

[armalites]

about £500+Vat a ton roughly for small scale customers at my nearest plant. The main frame will have a counter weight permanently attached so the main frame on its own will be approx. 600kg in weight before the mast and hammer are attached. All in it will be about 1200 - 1300kg. It's going to be painted Hitatchi orange I think. Not doing yellow, red or green as that's the colours other post driver manufacturers use.

Another problem with galv will be any excess in the slides or corners of the box section on the side shift. The tolerances are good at the moment and provide a good sliding fit. I don't want to run the risk of excess galv in places that I can't get it removed from.

As it's your first one I think painting is best that way if you need to make any mods then you can.

You galv place does sound outrageously expensive, either that or they really don't want that job.

£1k to galv?

wow is it not about 50-70p per kg.

Just dont galv the weights to reduce costs.

It's the weight of the galv you pay for not the weight of the item.

 

[gav0994]

Hes not the guy who is now 28 k lighter after buying a tup at Kelso is he!

I doubt it very much lol although not seen him since then.

 

[gav0994]

As it's your first one I think painting is best that way if you need to make any mods then you can.

You galv place does sound outrageously expensive, either that or they really don't want that job.



It's the weight of the galv you pay for not the weight of the item.

Paint is defo the right choice incase it needs modified - been caught out before with a galv'd item needing modified.

It's the final weight of the item that's been dipped you're paying for. so if it's 600kg after dipping you pay for 600kg - crazy way to do it really but it's the way all galv plants seem to work. Must be too much hassle to weigh the items before dipping and after to get the weight of galv used.

 

[gav0994]

Got the mast mounted onto the main frame this afternoon.

Hopefully be ready for testing on Monday. Plan for tomorrow is to get the counter balance weight welded on. Need a longer bit of rope before I can mount the hammer weight onto the mast.

Note: I have changed the mast design to a more simple set up as I was struggling to achieve a good fit up of the sliding design as found on the Bryce Suma machines.

 

[Sarto]

To weld such a monster thickness (conuterweight), will you have to preheat a lot before starting?

Have a nice evening.



Sart0

 

[gav0994]

To weld such a monster thickness (conuterweight), will you have to preheat a lot before starting?

Have a nice evening.



Sart0

I'm hopefull that by running a really hot root pass it will get plenty of heat into it and it'll stay hot long enough to get the next welds down. I'm hoping that'll be enough as I welded on the bushings on the mast with the pin in place to keep everything aligned and the 50mm dia pin stayed hot for over an hour afterwards.

 

[armalites]

Some lovely fab work there.

How did that concrete get dry in Ayrshire? Guess it must be the heat from the welder

 

[gav0994]

Some lovely fab work there.

How did that concrete get dry in Ayrshire? Guess it must be the heat from the welder

Cheers

It's an optical illusion on the concrete. it was mildly damp most of the afternoon. Not been the greatest of summers here. More wet days than dry, which has resulted in the ground being too wet to plough now for grass re-seeds. Will make post driving a bit easier though

 

[gav0994]

Got the counter weight welded on today. @armalites you'll note there's no dry concrete today

ran a nice hot root pass to get plenty of heat into the joints. 2 cover passes and the whole billet was dry! I don't think it'll be going anywhere soon. Also got the slider welded onto the hammer weight. Just need to fabricate the lugs to put the pin through for the rope and I can get it mounted onto the mast.

 

[Sarto]

If possible, with what kind of settings did you weld the counterweight? You must have a big welder!



SARTo

 

[gav0994]

If possible, with what kind of settings did you weld the counterweight? You must have a big welder!



SARTo

I run an R-Tech ProMIG250. Had it up full whack to weld it on using 1mm wire. Knocked the settings back a bit for the up vertical welds - ugly but plenty of bite into the metal was achieved.

 

[gav0994]

Didn't get any testing done today. Discovered we were a hose short in the order so can't plumb it in to the tractor . Supplier has been notified and hopefully it'll appear tomorrow. So if all goes to plan tomorrow it may get hitched up to the tractor for a test run.

 

[gav0994]

Been a week since I last updated this thread. The hose never arrived on the Tuesday as hoped. It was a productive day however, as I fabricated a new axle for the mobile sheep pens. The original must be at least 20 years old and had well and truly rotted through.

Back to the Post Driver today though. Got the lever valve block fitted on and all the rams plumbed into it. Hooked it onto the tractor 3 point linkage and tested all the functions out. Had to tighten a few hose connections. Glad to say it all works as it should. Will get the 400kg hammer weight fitted onto the mast tomorrow and get a couple of straining posts knocked in to test it all out before it gets painted. I'll get some actions shots of it working and maybe even a video if we get time.

 

[Wendelspanswick]

Been a week since I last updated this thread. The hose never arrived on the Tuesday as hoped. It was a productive day however, as I fabricated a new axle for the mobile sheep pens. The original must be at least 20 years old and had well and truly rotted through.

Back to the Post Driver today though. Got the lever valve block fitted on and all the rams plumbed into it. Hooked it onto the tractor 3 point linkage and tested all the functions out. Had to tighten a few hose connections. Glad to say it all works as it should. Will get the 400kg hammer weight fitted onto the mast tomorrow and get a couple of straining posts knocked in to test it all out before it gets painted. I'll get some actions shots of it working and maybe even a video if we get time.

Yes please, following this thread with interest.

 

[addjunkie]

Be interesting to know on a me and materials basis how it compares to the bought equivelant

 

[gav0994]

Be interesting to know on a me and materials basis how it compares to the bought equivelant

Money wise it's worked out about 8-9k less than the nearest equivalent manufactured one. Got about 2k in it - over half of that is the 400kg hammer weight and 360kg counterweight. About 50hours in it time wise (over half I'd say were me having to rework things due to making errors etc).

It's certainly not as slick and polished as a Bryce Suma or Vector Powerdrive machine but it'll certainly make the fence repair jobs easier around the 3 farms.

 

[addjunkie]

So with your time at 15 quid an hour your breaking even then...fencing is hard work no matter what you do.