A Quick Fabrication Project for Tonight

[DanielW]

This isn't anything fancy, but I was rather pleased with how it turned out. Last year I bought a Gleaner F for $390 that hadn't run in 20+ years. It was shedded for all that time though. I threw a carb kit in, replaced the alternator (which had stuck brushes) with a Delco single wire that I had kicking around, did a hasty tune up, and drove it the 4+ hours home (including a long stretch along the Trans Canada Highway on a busy tourist weekend - I didn't make too many friends that day...). Maybe not my wisest adventure, but all ended well.

The combine is surprisingly solid. Every auger and bin bottom was stored open, clean, solid, and tight (it would have needed to be maintained tight, as they used this combine for clover seed back in the day). All except the clean grain elevator, which they had somehow forgot to open, and which had sat for 20+ years in a dirt floor shed with a pile of crapulence in it. The clean-out door was rusted out and looked like a cheese grater.

Drew the pattern up in CAD, had the profile burned on the laser table at work, formed it at home (rather crudely) with a vice and using the drawbar of an old Cockshutt 540 as an anvil. And it fits like a glove. Still have to stitch he seams closed. I was out of MIG gas. I suppose I could have pulled out the stick welder, but 28 short stitches on thinner 16 gauge material is really more ideal for MIG. And I still have to stick a hinge on it. But it looks like it will work out dandy.

 

[gmccool]

Some of you guys can do amazing things with metal. I'm a wood guy and very proud of my talents but if I were to work with metal I would have a scrap bin full of junk. Keep up the good work DanielW

 

[DanielW]

Some of you guys can do amazing things with metal. I'm a wood guy and very proud of my talents but if I were to work with metal I would have a scrap bin full of junk. Keep up the good work DanielW

I'm quite the opposite, and have lots of respect for good woodworkers. I'm a pretty reasonable welder/fabricator, and I can hold a couple thou tolerance on the Bridgeport mill or old Colchester lathe I have at home. But I never had any patience nor skill with woodworking. Which is a little odd: We have six old circular sawmills between the two farms and do a fair amount of milling (though not nearly as much as we used to 20+ years ago). And I work for a company that makes industrial sawmill equipment.

You'd think with all that sawmill and hardwood access I'd have developed some woodworking skills. But not at all. I can frame up a wall or pole barn ok, but when folks start talking about fine woodworking joints and their home woodshop projects, my eyes glaze over. If you asked me to build a table or bookshelf, it'd probably have the structural integrity of an Ikea product that was stored at the bottom of a swamp for five years.

 

[SkipperII]

You're a brave man, to drive a combine on the Trans Canada. I drove it from Delta to Abbotsford, BC, and vise versa, in a semi, for several years, and questioned my sanity.

 

[drsportster]

Wow that worked out nice !

 

[Welding man]

This isn't anything fancy, but I was rather pleased with how it turned out. Last year I bought a Gleaner F for $390 that hadn't run in 20+ years. It was shedded for all that time though. I threw a carb kit in, replaced the alternator (which had stuck brushes) with a Delco single wire that I had kicking around, did a hasty tune up, and drove it the 4+ hours home (including a long stretch along the Trans Canada Highway on a busy tourist weekend - I didn't make too many friends that day...). Maybe not my wisest adventure, but all ended well.

The combine is surprisingly solid. Every auger and bin bottom was stored open, clean, solid, and tight (it would have needed to be maintained tight, as they used this combine for clover seed back in the day). All except the clean grain elevator, which they had somehow forgot to open, and which had sat for 20+ years in a dirt floor shed with a pile of crapulence in it. The clean-out door was rusted out and looked like a cheese grater.

Drew the pattern up in CAD, had the profile burned on the laser table at work, formed it at home (rather crudely) with a vice and using the drawbar of an old Cockshutt 540 as an anvil. And it fits like a glove. Still have to stitch he seams closed. I was out of MIG gas. I suppose I could have pulled out the stick welder, but 28 short stitches on thinner 16 gauge material is really more ideal for MIG. And I still have to stick a hinge on it. But it looks like it will work out dandy.
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Excellent Job. I have a shear, a brake and 2 sets of rolls, but I could not have made it any better. The Cockshutt drawbar is what made the job work out so well. HA! By the way, I collect Cockshutt's too.