In my attempt to make it last, I wanted to cap off the ends to keep out

Drilled to match up with the hitch plate:

Support bars notched and fully recessed into the back piece that’s bolted to the hitch plate:

 

Got it all prepped for welding up (hopefully) tomorrow and pulled into the garage.
That’s it for tonight, have to clean up and shower. More to come.

 

So yeah, trying to make a thread with sequential pictures and comments is a YUGE pita on mobile. You’ll have to fill in the blanks some places, but you get the idea.

 

This is where I finished tonight. Thoughts and suggestions welcome!

 

That should be more than okay. Looks good so far.

Since you won’t take that part off the tractor, it doesn’t make any difference how beefy it is and it won’t get bent. Always nice to know you can just make something that will do the job. If my Cyclone Rake didn’t work so good, I’d be tempted to try that too. I just need more capacity.

Did you have to replace the cross pin?

 

Did you have to replace the cross pin?

No, it’s the original cross pin.

 

Did you cut matching square holes on the backside of that crossmember, to weld the square tubing on that side as well?

 

Thought about it but decided to be lazy and not to because they’re already pushed up against the top on the inside, so they won’t be moving anywhere. Was also considering a bottom cleat support just because.

 

Did you cut matching square holes on the backside of that crossmember, to weld the square tubing on that side as well?

Thought about it but decided to be lazy and not to because they’re already pushed up against the top on the inside, so they won’t be moving anywhere. Was also considering a bottom cleat support just because.

FWIW - I’d have cut them through as well. It’ll put a lot of stress on the welds even if the tubes are against the top. You could move both tubes 1/4” toward the tractor, weld the holes shut and redrill or just make them a 1/4” slot, or move the tubes more which would allow you to drill a second hole beside the first one. You could swap ends on the smaller tubes which would allow you to just drill new matching holes.

If the large tube were shorter, you might be able to reach the smaller tube and weld it on one side of the end and across the inside of the top.

If you drilled a couple holes on top the large tube near the end of the small tubes, you could then fill the hole with weld attaching the end of the small tubes to the top of the large tube.

Using a C channel would have given enough strength and left the small tubes accessible for welding.

Lots of options. Pick the one you like and go for it.

 

All good ideas!

 

It looks like the bottom of the round bagger tubing, is pressed against the hitch plate, so the force on those 2 arms is mostly outwards, and then sideways if the bagger hits anything while you turn the machine, so I wouldn't say it's critical, but I would have either not bothered with cutting the hole and just butt-welded it, or cut and welded it to both sides.

 

Went to continue the fab and weld it all up tonight. Was tig welding it while mounted to the tractor, I was in a really odd position. Got it tacked up but the welds were going all to crap. Moved it to the bench and realized I was out of gas 🤦‍♂️. So really, got nothing done. Going to fill my tank tomorrow. Also thinking about picking up a mig setup, those are super convenient for all around work.

 

That's frustrating!

You're doing good work, keep at it.

 

A fresh tank of argon and a 3 beers makes a grinder and paint the welder I ain’t. It also makes me the neighbor to hate grinding at 10pm.

Not pretty, but solid. Going to beef it up more tomorrow. With some gussets and bottom support.

 

The bottom of the tube appears to rest on the hitch plate, that will take the vertical load so you don't really need to add vertical gussets to those square tubes. Most of the force they take is horizontal.

 

I’m NO welder but I can make electric glue work to do what I want it to do. And yes, 90% of the load sits on the hitch plate. Adding some upright supports just in case, though. Also, hought yall might get a kick out of my tig cooler

 

Back bracket finished, minus paint. Solid af 🙌

 

Hitch pin/secure thing made and everything painted. Going to be away for the next several days so it’ll have plenty of time to cure. When I get back, it’s time to figure out the blower side.

Eventually I’ll get a real lathe and this chinese minilathe will be retired, but for now it does what I need it to do for misc hobby things.


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Here’s the completed and mounted bagger mount and hitch-retainter-positioner-holder-in-place-knob. I left enough threads on the bottom of the knob to put a nut on if needed but I think it’ll be good as it is, it’s a tight fit.

 

Not sure how I got lucky on this one, but I’ve got the perfect piece of round tube stock to fit on the zbar that the impeller mounts to

 

This is where I stopped earlier. Got the zbar mount welded up to a backer plate to strengthen up this area. I think this will take a decent amount of force with the power flow unit hanging off of it. Now just to figure out how to attach it to a pulley on the deck. There’s not much room at all under there, I’m 99% sure that I’m going to have to notch out the deck lift bar to make room for it.

 

For my Snapper 52" hydro walkbehind, that I attached a Gravely blower to, I added an idler to the deck to bend the belt around part of the mounting bracket. You might consider something like that

 

That’s a great idea!

 

Also make sure the chute trajectory is correct. When I first mounted the power flow to my custom 60, I was a bit off and had to adjust my z-bar mount to correct it.

 

How do you know if it’s correct without first using it? I’ve got it pretty square/inline with the deck, hopefully that’ll do it.

 

Ok, had a heck of a productive day on this sonuvagun. Picked up the weld on pulley, got that all fabbed up. Also decided to replace the belts, adjust the variator, sharpen the blades and adjust the brakes. This thing actually parks on a hill now! Cut, grind, fit, Cut, grind, fit, Cut, grind, fit, weld, grind, clean, primer, paint, paint, paint.

I’m hoping that all I need now is a longer belt 🙏

I

 

It’s alive! Picked up 5 different belts to try and the first one nailed it. This thing has some air flow! Deal of the year for me on this one 🤙

 

You’ve gotta LOVE a good deal!!! And then to have it work, Priceless!!!!! 👏👏👏
Well done.

 

How good was the deal? I bet the deals I came across were better

 

$75 😎

I bet with the everything I’m in it for about $150

 

Yup, I got you beat. I had a regular bagger setup on my 111 and squirrels got to the bags one winter. So the wife was looking on marketplace for me for a pair of bags. She came across a pair for $30. They came with a PF head and chute. Two or three years later, I went to an auction looking for an MCS cart. Found one and scored it for $25. It had a 60 PF head and chute in it. I sold that head for $250 since it wouldn’t fit any of my decks.
I added an electric actuator to dump, and changed the fan pulley to speed it up a bit, so I’m still way in the black.