- Joined
- Jan 20, 2018
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- 5,615
Last summer, in an attempt to keep up with the wildfire fuel accumulation on my property, I bought an old (1978) Might Mac chipper for $200.
This year, because I regularly feed it things it was never intended to handle, the output screen failed completely. It was a piece of 10 ga. perforated with 1 in. holes. It fatigued and broke into several pieces. A replacement would have cost $135, but would have been no better than the original. The solution was obvious. I picked a piece of 1/4 x 10 HR flat that was big enough, then sat down and drew it up on Acad.
A couple of days (and a mistake or two) later, I had all the holes drilled.
After welding the mounting tubes to both ends, I had to form the radius. Lacking a press-brake, I had to improvise.
Yes, that's a wide-5 VW bus rim and a come-along. That got me close, but I still had to close it up a couple of inches to get the mounting tube spacing right. Back to the table vise on the mill to squeeze it tighter. Of course, it wanted to concentrate the bend in the middle. A tie-down stud solved that problem.
Fortunately, the "radius" was not critical, as long as the spacing between the tubes was right, it would work.
And it does.
It only took me about 12 hours.
This year, because I regularly feed it things it was never intended to handle, the output screen failed completely. It was a piece of 10 ga. perforated with 1 in. holes. It fatigued and broke into several pieces. A replacement would have cost $135, but would have been no better than the original. The solution was obvious. I picked a piece of 1/4 x 10 HR flat that was big enough, then sat down and drew it up on Acad.
A couple of days (and a mistake or two) later, I had all the holes drilled.
After welding the mounting tubes to both ends, I had to form the radius. Lacking a press-brake, I had to improvise.
Yes, that's a wide-5 VW bus rim and a come-along. That got me close, but I still had to close it up a couple of inches to get the mounting tube spacing right. Back to the table vise on the mill to squeeze it tighter. Of course, it wanted to concentrate the bend in the middle. A tie-down stud solved that problem.
Fortunately, the "radius" was not critical, as long as the spacing between the tubes was right, it would work.
And it does.
It only took me about 12 hours.
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