making a mole plough

jd06

hi all, was thinking of making a mole plough. iv looked them up on done deal and they seem very exp. esp for a plough that hasnt much steel in it.
it must be that the steel is hardend or tough not your ordinary steel.
has anyone used parts of old ploughs or other old machinery. all advice or pictures welcome:)

Reggie.

jd06 wrote: »

hi all, was thinking of making a mole plough. iv looked them up on done deal and they seem very exp. esp for a plough that hasnt much steel in it.
it must be that the steel is hardend or tough not your ordinary steel.
has anyone used parts of old ploughs or other old machinery. all advice or pictures welcome:)

you would be better off just buying one for the hassle you would be inviting in. Most of the tips of the plough would be hard ox steel

cj maxx

Check back through boards
, seen pictures of a home made one in the labour & guntering thread

tim04750

made legs for a subsoiler out of a cutting edge for a loading shovel bucket , pretty hard stuff alright.

jd06

tim04750 wrote: »

made legs for a subsoiler out of a cutting edge for a loading shovel bucket , pretty hard stuff alright.

ya was thinking of something like that. needs to be tough

bbam

Bought a home made one of DD last spring.. got it for €80 !!
Kinda a cross between mole plough and subsoiler really..

No cutting disc on it nor room to fit one although one came free with it.. But we use it in grazing fields and in no time the marks are down...

Made a great job of any field we ran it on last summer...

st1979

I made mine. Probably took 2 days. Would make second in a day. Once you got the steel. Cost 350 in steel.
I could of bought a factory made leg. But they are standard steel leg with only a hardened steel front leading edge. So I bought a piece of 12" x 1" cutting edge that goes on digger buckets. Its got only one edge not a v shape but that doesnt seem to matter. But the whole piece of steel is hardened. And after 200 acres of use the wear is minimal. On the end of the leg I bought a piece of scrap 3" bar and cut it at an angle and welded it to the leg. Recommend you use a mig for this and lots of weld. Then on the back I got a 4 1/2" expander from my local machinery dealer.
I have my leg mounted that it can slide up and down and is fixed by a pin. It cant break back as it is fixed within the frame if you see what I mean. It means that I dont need to replace shearbolts.

jd06

st1979 wrote: »

I made mine. Probably took 2 days. Would make second in a day. Once you got the steel. Cost 350 in steel.
I could of bought a factory made leg. But they are standard steel leg with only a hardened steel front leading edge. So I bought a piece of 12" x 1" cutting edge that goes on digger buckets. Its got only one edge not a v shape but that doesnt seem to matter. But the whole piece of steel is hardened. And after 200 acres of use the wear is minimal. On the end of the leg I bought a piece of scrap 3" bar and cut it at an angle and welded it to the leg. Recommend you use a mig for this and lots of weld. Then on the back I got a 4 1/2" expander from my local machinery dealer.
I have my leg mounted that it can slide up and down and is fixed by a pin. It cant break back as it is fixed within the frame if you see what I mean. It means that I dont need to replace shearbolts.

sounds exactly what im intending to do, any chance of a pic tomorrow?

Sam Kade

st1979 wrote: »

I made mine. Probably took 2 days. Would make second in a day. Once you got the steel. Cost 350 in steel.
I could of bought a factory made leg. But they are standard steel leg with only a hardened steel front leading edge. So I bought a piece of 12" x 1" cutting edge that goes on digger buckets. Its got only one edge not a v shape but that doesnt seem to matter. But the whole piece of steel is hardened. And after 200 acres of use the wear is minimal. On the end of the leg I bought a piece of scrap 3" bar and cut it at an angle and welded it to the leg. Recommend you use a mig for this and lots of weld. Then on the back I got a 4 1/2" expander from my local machinery dealer.
I have my leg mounted that it can slide up and down and is fixed by a pin. It cant break back as it is fixed within the frame if you see what I mean. It means that I dont need to replace shearbolts.

Could you put up a few pictures of it?

st1979

Sam Kade wrote: »

Could you put up a few pictures of it?

I will try. Never put a picture up before

st1979

mole plough 1.jpg

mole plough 2.jpg

moleplough 3.jpg


hope these photos load up

ford 5600

A credit to you . A Fine bit of engineering. What length did you leave the leg and is it hard to bore the cutting edge? Mag drill/ rotobroach cutter?

st1979

ford 5600 wrote: »

A credit to you . A Fine bit of engineering. What length did you leave the leg and is it hard to bore the cutting edge? Mag drill/ rotobroach cutter?

Leg is about 40" long. It can go about 24" deep in the ground. Have mag drill which cut through easy enough with rotabroach

st1979

ford 5600 wrote: »

A credit to you . A Fine bit of engineering. What length did you leave the leg and is it hard to bore the cutting edge? Mag drill/ rotobroach cutter?

Leg is about 40" long. It can go about 24" deep in the ground. Have mag drill which cut through easy enough with rotabroach

st1979

ford 5600 wrote: »

A credit to you . A Fine bit of engineering. What length did you leave the leg and is it hard to bore the cutting edge? Mag drill/ rotobroach cutter?

Leg is about 40" long. It can go about 24" deep in the ground. Have mag drill which cut through easy enough with rotabroach

Conor556

Two I made on post 292,, rough out but sure they do the job

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=80345407#post80345407

Timmaay

Conor556 wrote: »

Two I made on post 292,, rough out but sure they do the job

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=80345407#post80345407

Whats the 3point linkage frame from? I got an old vicon wagtail fertilizer spreader frame here, I think it might just do the job for something similar, would only need one large section of heavy box section with a similar leg to that one down out of it.

GY A1

would that frame be strong enough

bbam

GY A1 wrote: »

would that frame be strong enough

I wouldnt think so..
It needs to be strong enough to resist the strain as it makes its way round rocks....

onyerbikepat

Guys what about a release mechanism for when you hit a large rock? I would be worried that you would do serious damage to the tractor or worst, have a piece of metal fail and end up coming in through the back window. Have to think about safety.

Reggie.

onyerbikepat wrote: »

Guys what about a release mechanism for when you hit a large rock? I would be worried that you would do serious damage to the tractor or worst, have a piece of metal fail and end up coming in through the back window. Have to think about safety.

Like a spring that a plough has

onyerbikepat

I was thinking more along the lines of the old finger-bar mowers or rotary mowers. These had a mechanism that allowed the mower to swing back if you hit something solid. Everything is protected then.

Reggie.

onyerbikepat wrote: »

I was thinking more along the lines of the old finger-bar mowers or rotary mowers. These had a mechanism that allowed the mower to swing back if you hit something solid. Everything is protected then.

Shear bolt was it

onyerbikepat

Don't know the proper name. It's like a slip clutch but works linearly. It has 2 bars that slide over each other and open against a spring force. There's one on the arms of the old PZ rotary mower.

Reggie.

onyerbikepat wrote: »

Don't know the proper name. It's like a slip clutch but works linearly. It has 2 bars that slide over each other and open against a spring force. There's one on the arms of the old PZ rotary mower.

Might not be strong enough for the pressure of a mole plough cutting edge tho

bbam

onyerbikepat wrote: »

Guys what about a release mechanism for when you hit a large rock? I would be worried that you would do serious damage to the tractor or worst, have a piece of metal fail and end up coming in through the back window. Have to think about safety.

Ours is solid with no escape plan at all...
The advice I got from a lad who has been mole ploughing for years...

Loosen stabaliser chains as far as they go, the plough will work its way round most obsticles. this works great.

We run it slow, low gear and hardly and revs, only once caught large rock and it was easy to see her coming under pressure and stop..




I'm having problems with image shack and am on the phone. I think this link should work to a photo of ours.

Reggie.

Very nice job bbam

Conor556

GY A1 wrote: »

would that frame be strong enough

It hasnt broken yet and it went through fair rocky ground aswell.

Timmaay wrote: »

Whats the 3point linkage frame from? I got an old vicon wagtail fertilizer spreader frame here, I think it might just do the job for something similar, would only need one large section of heavy box section with a similar leg to that one down out of it.

Both frames came off 2 old finger bars we had, All the steel I had around the place so all they cost was the price of welding rods and 2 days arsing around making them,

onyerbikepat

What do you reckon would be the minimum HP to pull one?

st1979

I used a shearbolt mole plough and it sheared bolts. Became a pain. So used a friends one that he bought from okeefe eng. And I based mine loosely on that. In that it is solid. If you hit a rock the tractor spins the wheels. I use it on a 150hp tractor and have hit plenty of rocks. 100hp at 18" is just enough in marly clay as long as you got enough grip. There are no worries on safety as you are only travelling at 3-5 mph and if something were to happen it would be metal bending not flying shrapnel.

enricoh

make it yourself, they're no hassle.
for the round bar on the bottom that makes the drain we used the inner stage of an old trailer ram - its about 2" in diameter, dunno if its hardened steel or not but it never wore down

bbam

onyerbikepat wrote: »

What do you reckon would be the minimum HP to pull one?

We're pulling with a CaseIH 885, is that 70HP ?
It has ample power.. and as you can see from the photo she aint that well shod either

Zoo4m8

This thread very interesting, have a spot that badly needs doing, reckon I'll make a plough but sent a trailer load of scrap to the local school who were doing a fundraiser last year, probably sent all the bits I'd need, bugger!

Any thoughts on distance between runs? Ground not boggy but badly panned so water comes to the surface at various places and can't soak away again.

st1979

Zoo4m8 wrote: »

This thread very interesting, have a spot that badly needs doing, reckon I'll make a plough but sent a trailer load of scrap to the local school who were doing a fundraiser last year, probably sent all the bits I'd need, bugger!

Any thoughts on distance between runs? Ground not boggy but badly panned so water comes to the surface at various places and can't soak away again.

Travel wheels marks touching. Some like to travel on top of wheel marks but I reckon you will increase wheelslip

You really need an expander trailing behind the point

Deepsouthwest

st1979 wrote: »

Travel wheels marks touching. Some like to travel on top of wheel marks but I reckon you will increase wheelslip

You really need an expander trailing behind the point

Didn't realise there was so much use of mole ploughs going on. Have ye seen impressive results after using them?

st1979

Deepsouthwest wrote: »

Didn't realise there was so much use of mole ploughs going on. Have ye seen impressive results after using them?

Works well in clay soils that can hold a mole. Dont bother in sandy or peaty or silty soil as they collapse.
Very handy to pull in water pipes. Dont know why people hire those tracked moleploughs to do it

Conor556

onyerbikepat wrote: »

What do you reckon would be the minimum HP to pull one?

Pull the smaller 1 with a 65 no bother about 14 inches down

ford 5600

Have an [EMAIL="R@M"]R@M[/EMAIL] one . Happy with it,well built and disc does a sweet job, not many sods left sitting up. I find when I get to the end of a run if you stay going forward and rising the lift at the same time because the disc has come out of the ground it pulls up a big sod, so now I stop, reverse while lifting and no damage to the field. On the expander thing it had a 3.5 inch one when I got it and I got a 6 inch bit of 4 .5 inch bar from local engineering firm[ 25 euro!] and find mole stays better but maybe it was the better conditions in 2013. Pull it with 85 hp 4 wd and less would do but not a lot less . You do not want to be scrawbing around trying to pull it or rising the lift a little to give yourself traction. The rule moling is , top of the ground dry enough for tractor to pull it without tearing and subsoil wet enough to hold the mole. They suit ground with marla subsoil very well.

reilig

R&M here as well (after Muckit's recommendation). Great investment. Did 60+ acres with it last year. Ground has daub or marl at 3 to 4 inches at most. 100hp 4wd is under pressure pulling it in our ground. Need to invest in weights for it. Some of the mole ploughs shown here would not last in our type of ground - serious pressure when you pull them through the marl. The tractor would bend them into a hoop!! No chance of that happening wiith the R & M.

st1979

This summer I pulled some underground fence wire under the cow lane in a few places. The ground was that hard the mole drainer was so hard to lift that it just reared the tractor. Couldnt go forward as not enough traction. Didnt want to reverse as was pulling the wire. Had to kind of rock back and forward to get the leg up. Tractor is about 6ton. Welds didnt break so reckon that was good test.

st1979

This summer I pulled some underground fence wire under the cow lane in a few places. The ground was that hard the mole drainer was so hard to lift that it just reared the tractor. Couldnt go forward as not enough traction. Didnt want to reverse as was pulling the wire. Had to kind of rock back and forward to get the leg up. Tractor is about 6ton. Welds didnt break so reckon that was good test.