Wondering if anybody has any criticisms or advice on improving my rake design. I'll be picking up the tyne steel after Easter so thought I'd better see if my design is OK. It's for general use of any sort of raking to leave soil behind, mainly back yard type work, so roots, bricks, concrete or whatever is in the ground. The tynes will be made of 10mm AR400 (well its equivalent here in Australia) for strength and wear resistance. I know that's pretty thin but my excavator is a mini mini at 1.8 tonne, and I think with the round bits and the cutting edge bits between the tynes, it should have enough stiffness. I would certainly prefer no bits of metal between tynes at all but that would require a considerable increase in tyne thickness to have enough sideways strength. The spacing between the tynes is 75mm (3 inch) giving a total width of 435mm (17 inch). I was in heaven using the rigid thumb I built, having worked without one for a decade. No one should be without a thumb or grab LOL. I'll be in heaven all over again once I get this toy made. Keith.
Would using round rebar instead of flat steel assist in anyway?A round steel profile would shrug off larger pieces,,, send them further toward the rear of the bucket
Hi Robin, the flat bits are actually bucket cutting edges but they are mounted upside down so the picture makes it look like they are just flat peices of metal. A guy who has got several rakes said the cutting edges go well with the rake to give mimimal resistance slicing into the ground. I'll be positioning them so the "knife edge" of the cutting edges will be pointing directly in the direction I expect the rake tynes to penetrate. Thanks very much for your suggestion though. Keith.
:drinkup,,,,,,,good luck with the finished rake
I just got done burning and moving a mulch pile. It had tree limbs, grass clippings, broken up skids, etc. it sat for three years I thought the bug would eat it...but any ways it clumps together well I not sure if 5" spacing on the tines would seperate wood from dirtand mulch better. I burned wood and buried the rest because it was mostly soil. I still had to haul away some of the mulch mostly because it was taking to long to burn.
Bucket design Good day Sir We have some information which may have been overlooked which relates to your project, the file is large to post however if you would drop a email to bucketsense@gmail we would be happy to forward this to you. Kind regards Uffex
The spacing of the tynes is a gamble for me. I took that value from a guy with a 5 tonne machine who has two rakes, one with 150 mm spacings and one with 75 mm spacings which is his finishing rake. I went for the finishing size seeing as my work is mainly back yards. It probably won't be much use in clumpy clay type earth. Thanks for the input.