In the absence of a Peerless reel grinder (AAC has a different brand temporarily) we need to perform a secondary post-grind cutting unit leveling process on the surface plate in order to ensure accuracy and consistency of adjustments. With the reel resting on a precision ground steel bar, the rollers are adjusted to within .001" of parallel.
I've been looking for a way to bring this concept to rotary mowers for some time, and it occurred to me that a welding platen would be an ideal surface to use, as we could measure up through the holes in the surface to the blade tips at several points and shim or adjust the decks to precisely dial in the cut. There are a couple of problems with welding platens - they are big, heavy pieces of cast iron, milled flat in huge surfacing machines, and they are expensive to buy and ship.
Northern Tool just started carrying the Stronghand brand of welding tables and after checking it out I purchased one right away; at $2,600 it wasn't cheap, but less than half the price of quality cast iron.
The table is 36" X 48", and the surface is 36" higih. It has a fabricated heavy wall tube base with the surface plates bolted to it. The legs are heavy wall pipe, and it is rated to hold 4,000 lb. Granted, it's not as precise as a milled piece of cast iron, but it is plenty accurate for the jobs I have planned for it. We will invest in the clamps, risers, and other tooling as needed over time, but we will be putting all of our rotary decks on it over the next week and dialing them in with new blades. It will be a snap to measure up through the slots and sight across to the tape.
I have also begun looking at how to organize the facilities at AAC for better safety and efficiency. I recieved permission to install Draftsight CAD software (free and highly recommended) on the work PC, and spent some time walking around with a measuring wheel. Here is the layout of the 90' X 110' "Upper Shop" at AAC, which contains the service area:
In the upper right is my office, complete with it's own half bath and coat closet. To the left is the restroom and locker area, and then two storage rooms for landscape tools. The shop area is below and is 50' X 70', or 3500 sq. ft. The four small rooms below are storage for parts, tools and lubricants. The rooms in the lower left are irrigation parts storage and a disused old office which we will brobably remove in order to free up storage space for walk mowers. I will be trying out different ideas and then we will reorganize the facility over the winter months.
The "Lower Shop" at AAC is basically just a storage barn, 110' X 120', with a 10' overhang on the South side:
Not much to look at, but if you imagine you are standing on top of the small tool storage room shown at the bottom of the drawing (@5:45am)...
What's really nice about CAD is that I can make block drawings to represent all the different types of equipment and then drag and drop them around the floorplan drawings until we come up with the best compromise between convenience and practicality.
Regards,
No comments:
Post a Comment