Druidfab Variable Angle Rotator (VA-r) .. a bit of a project

[craig]

The finished build height of the hitch looks better than it was originally.

 

[Tintan28]

However long your time took…..£1800 is a bargain!!

Although if you were to put a price on the value of labour for such an talented designer & fabricator I’d go so far to say that Gra has duped himself as he’d of been better of buying an Engcon off the shelf & spending his time making simple stillages or dare I say it re-shanking spades for sale on EBay!

 

[V8Druid]

OK .. half hour 'fore tea ...... at least it was when i started looking for pix

Went to see Richard to use my old Kingsland punch/crop/shear -- would do 35 mil in 1" plate ... wanted to punch some holes to stops / jig set .. would also crop 26 x 450 / 600 x 20 etc and crop 50 square solid 115t of pressure available
sold it to him at the best dealer bid I'd had, so he got a good deal - on the proviso i could buy it back if he ever sold it - same deal. one of the best bits of kit i ever bought - had it new £15k .. paid for itself in about a year or so in time savings.

so I wanted 8 pieces of 50 x 12 flat all identical ... cropped to length on a stop ... then punched with 14 and 17 mil holes on jig stops so they were all identical, aside from hole sizes
17 mil going in

there's a centre point in the punch - set it to creep and bring the punch down until it centres on the centre punch mark - it will then stop - set the guides and stops and everyone after will have the holes in EXACTLY the same location ... as long as your setting piece is accurate they'll all be bang on

set to centre and going through like a hot knife through butter

rinse and repeat with the end holes using the same stops for each end ... these were off set from the centre line deliberately ... crop the corners off with the notcher with guides set and all the same

tap the 14 mil holes to M16

grind the corners to radius and Roberto's yer father's brother

belt grinder does a lovely job of corners
and it was January '16
one to amuse ..... found this in the post box ... Mr Kitchin's calendar

God knows what the posties used to think about some of the stuff that used to get sent to me

a gift from @Cyberprog

so new year
a.n.other 4 gallery Roemheld had come up on fleabay over Crimbo - very, VERY cheap and had to be had for a spare -- was brand new, in original sealed box and didn't cop for customs this time

 

[V8Druid]

looking through the pix I spent quite some time making up att. pick ups to suit the new Hill mod. and several att.s ... Grading beam,

more to go on this
made and added the roller

worked a treat

an adaptable set of forks for the blade and under the VA-r,

a new pick up set

for a block grab I'd mod.ed a while ago

with my now std bolt on set up and for use on all sorts

and I'd asked a mate to turn me some adapter bosses ........

..........to enable me to fit any 70mm atts with 50 mil pins and gotten the pins made up

also enabled 70mm cheeks to be used on there too

plus a few more 50mm pick up sets for various things

however ..... the Aux QCs were busy running the hitch and any hyd att.s had to be pinned on still

if anyone wants to see any of these various builds I'll come back to it .....
weather was good and 'digging season' was here again .... and the VA-r was getting used ...

 

[V8Druid]

now lets see if I can find the next stage of the game
so I'm pulling these sort of lumps out of the bottom level of my dig in pursuit of a flat yard

and give it a little too much, trying to loosen a big un from the clay bed they're sat in and .........
as promised ... here's a bit of a wart

I was very lucky not to do more damage ....... dropped the bucket where I stood and came down off the digging level to strip off and drop the hitch and then the bottom off onto the bench ... was lucky not to damage any plumbing

and inspect the damage

8.8 bolts ... 10.9,s might not have let go? .. 's what went back in ... these sure stretched to breaking

so . ring gear off for starters and park the remains on the bench

then clean off the lower plate wings

and cut off some of the welds (that I should've added to massively, but forgot to ) the stress on these originally was in a completely different plane .. 's no wonder they tore off when the bolts let go

next was beat seven shades out of the bent 20mm piece

having gotten it securely bolted down to a very solid bench top .... then get the cleaned off wings back in position and clamped down

ready to get welded back together - properly

 

[Diggerdavey]

View attachment 55044

now lets see if I can find the next stage of the game
so I'm pulling these sort of lumps out of the bottom level of my dig in pursuit of a flat yard
View attachment 55045

View attachment 55046 and give it a little too much, trying to loosen a big un from the clay bed they're sat in and .........
as promised ... here's a bit of a wart
View attachment 55047 View attachment 55048
I was very lucky not to do more damage ....... dropped the bucket where I stood and came down off the digging level to strip off and drop the hitch and then the bottom off onto the bench ... was lucky not to damage any plumbing
View attachment 55049
and inspect the damage
View attachment 55050

8.8 bolts ... 10.9,s might not have let go? .. 's what went back in ... these sure stretched to breaking
View attachment 55051

so . ring gear off for starters and park the remains on the bench
View attachment 55057 View attachment 55053

then clean off the lower plate wings
View attachment 55059
and cut off some of the welds (that I should've added to massively, but forgot to ) the stress on these originally was in a completely different plane .. 's no wonder they tore off when the bolts let go
View attachment 55060
next was beat seven shades out of the bent 20mm piece
View attachment 55061
having gotten it securely bolted down to a very solid bench top .... then get the cleaned off wings back in position and clamped down
View attachment 55063
ready to get welded back together - properly

Yes add in as many build threads as you can please

 

[V8Druid]

and left to go cold ... then t'other side's turn

and left to cool to cold

gave this a coat or two whilst out

time to deal with those pesky bolts ... took the seal out - wouldn't want to damage that

covered up everything I could

and dropped some thick washers (old 'slugs' from my Kingsland I kept and holed) and welded them to the bolt ends to persuade them out

came out sweet as - with a bit of grunt ..

and ran a tap into the holes to clean it all up and make sure there weren't gonna be any issues later

refitted the seal and we were good to go

I'm looking at this and thinking .... as I have it all apart .. be the time for some more mod.s

so grinder out and ........

would've been easier with the damned wings off

 

[V8Druid]

Yes add in as many build threads as you can please

this is either going to turn into another epic - or I'll start another one Davey

 

[V8Druid]

so cleaned these up

paired them up, set them out and piloted them

before banging some 14,s into 'em

oh a glove .. must've been hot - was June so ain't gonna be cold ... then

bolted the pre-prepared tags on and ... set up the first one

got that stitched in place then set up #2 squared to the pins, spaced and up-righted

and stitched that one too then added some braces

and consolidated it all

left to go cold

and whipped the cheeks off ..... having spent a fair bit of time creating them and still had a use for them, was damned if I wasn't going to set up an either or configuration ... as you can see the plate was well clamped down as needed to stay flat to bolt back onto the ring gear ... then welded the outside of the tags hit/miss/opposites til I'd gotten them all attached and left to cool again

then bolted their counterparts on inside the tags

ready for the next bit

 

[V8Druid]

but getting slightly ahead there ..... had to remove my 70 mil cheeks of this first and clean it up

then wrestled it onto the tags on t'other bench -- 'kin heavy lil' bar steward

then get it set up and aligned bang on centre of the rotator's bottom plate

and tack the tags to the hitch body well enough to be able to paly about with it ... did not want to attach this to any mechanical handling so ... left two bolts in one end

propped it whilst i put some spacer blocks in with the prop removed to bear on one block, then removed said remaining bolts and let it down

without the risk of upsetting the tacks I could then wrestle it back, t'other way up and get some braces on the tags and get some decnet stitches on them

then 'join the dots'

rinse and repeat for t'other end's tags

and run a tap through all the holes to clear any spatter/crud/whatever

next up -- I needed to attach the aux outlets so ...
Lopped the blocks out of the pin on plates in the centre of the length, suitably fettled and attached them to the rotator's plate - needed to be in this position if I wanted to re-fit the plates #1

#2

time to get it all cleaned up and a few coats of Firwood's best

next bit was a bit techy - ish

 

[JD450A]

I did say those welds looked a bit weak.

 

[V8Druid]

locating this took a lot of thinking about and then creating

not a lot of free space - big enough

getting those bolt holes in the right places was interesting

and now to make the crud cover go back in place

I'd been putting this together in doors one evening, as doing it in a vice made life easy -- and all me spanners were in there too

and then it was time to get it back together where it was going to live

as the hitch was always intended to be removable it made sense to put it on some 1/4" FF QCs and would be an easier method of coupling/uncoupling it as and when
I'd put the 70mm cheeks back on to give me something to stand the lower section on to get it back together as I was going to have to lift the upper sections back onto it in one lump, as it came off

 

[V8Druid]

getting this back together on my own was fun

got some grease packed in there ..... the observant will have noticed i changed the rotary's drive pins .. no more heads on them after the close shave it'd had from getting over-enthusiastic

then it was time to offer them together ... must've been in/out the cab a dozen times lining things up, juggling the hoses, rotary's drive pins, grease guard, and finally the dowels in the ring gear

and then this happened fortunately just as I'd gotten it sat

talk about a cloud burst

new 10.9 bolts fitted and all dogged up

as said .. t'was tight in there for getting it back together

aux banjos reconnected to the manifold

had to modify the crud cover as I'd had to tee into the T line

and the P line

needed some oil for the QH valve
couple of gash hoses installed for length-ing up to get some made up

rubbery bits next after a visit to the boys in Raglan

 

[V8Druid]

 

[V8Druid]

thought I'd put that up for anyone who's never seen a ferrule crimper .... apparently it will do 2.5" NB six wire ... fittings are an astronomic price

so as said, ''rubbery bits'' sized and made up
one pair for the hitch ... two more pairs to feed the hitch valve and from there to the rotary coupling to feed the QCs under the VA-r to feed the hitch

was now going to get a lot more crowded in there --- P line

and T lines in to the valve on banjos - only way to get 'em in there

then it was the A & B to the rotary ... had to pull a few bits out to get in there

so having plumbed it all up it was time for a try ......
took the 70 mil pick up plates off

then very carefully put the VA-r over the hitch on the bench

got everything lined up and got some bolts into it all ... didn't have any M16 x 28 and didn't want to lop these off so nutted them

caught it on the one end first, so I could tilt it and get the 1/4" FF QCs coupled up ... not a lot of room in there otherwise

for anything, let alone hands

and it was on ...... and functional AND I'd now got my Aux QCs back to use

 

[V8Druid]

so that's about it guys .. don't think I've done much to it since and done a lot with it ... forks and grabs is where it really comes into its own for me

came off the pile on the left.. the whole pile was a bit much so split it to move it

bit of trimming

these would've taken some handling without it ... do-able but a lot more faff

handy for odd shapes and bit you just couldn't get at ..... new water supply tank set up Sept. '16

filled all the ditches then recut them after i'd got it all tidied up

 

[Mick-the-fitter]

so that's about it guys .. don't think I've done much to it since and done a lot with it ... forks and grabs is where it really comes into its own for me

View attachment 55206

came off the pile on the left.. the whole pile was a bit much so split it to move it
View attachment 55207bit of trimming
View attachment 55208 View attachment 55209
these would've taken some handling without it ... do-able but a lot more faff
View attachment 55210
handy for odd shapes and bit you just couldn't get at ..... new water supply tank set up Sept. '16
View attachment 55211View attachment 55212View attachment 55213View attachment 55214
filled all the ditches then recut them after i'd got it all tidied up
View attachment 55215View attachment 55216View attachment 55217View attachment 55218View attachment 55219

I did think the tilt did look a bit heavy on the Drema, but at least you have a few granite sets to park her on!

 

[V8Druid]

I did think the tilt did look a bit heavy on the Drema, but at least you have a few granite sets to park her on!

the week I sold and loaded out my boulder pile .. two very busy days

 

[V8Druid]

just found some pix of the wilderness I started with for the tank move above

bit of the foliage dealt with

the barn's owners were intending to extend it and'd asked about / discussed moving the original holding tank set up ... easiest solution was a DIY job and know it'd be right ... pretty finnicky system here for our spring to get the head right ... and put in an extra tank, all well out of the way of any future extension, (which as yet- hasn't happened)

 

[Davedb]

Nice seeing these pictures again tidy work, I did save a centre pivot of that Volvo dumper I had of @Mogman with a idea of making a tilting hitch probably never happen