Building a tyne machine will be easier.
I build one out of a John Shearer cultivator with hydraulic tines.
Works a charm and cost 1/4 of a new one. Switch out the c-shank for a flat shank and fitted a parrollegram with independent seedboot with presswheel.
good luck on the job

 

Would you have any photos of the set up?

 

I would build the drill to match your conditions.

Couple questions.
1. Are you flat or rolling?
2. What crops do you normally plant?
3. Are you after independent opener depth control?
4. Are you no-till or conventional?

I was looking to do the same thing and found a way bigger and nicer drill than I would have built for less $ than the tank alone was worth. One of those right place at the right time moments.

 

I went to a disc drill this year. Will never go back to a hoe.

 

Dan, The ground I work is mainly flat, however in saying that if I get more sharecropping opportunities there may be some quite steep ground as well. The main aim of this seed drill is to seed oats ( forage wheat, barley) with vetch or lucerne and possibly some rape for finishing off lambs etc.

All drills i have used so far have been a straight combine across, mainly Inter 24 runs with finger tyne harrows behind. A good one i have used is a Inter combine with a 16 run Johns direct drill undercart underneath it, knife openers with tungsten tiles on the leading edge. While its a great drill in the paddock, it cannot sow annual ryegrass mixes at heavier rates, the metering rolls crack a lot of the vetch seed and being 12' 2'' is a right pain in the arse to do any contracting with as everyone has 12' gateways.

I would be very interested in independant depth control for each unit as i think it will give the seed a much better chance of growing well, which for sharecropping I depend on.

I have gone nearly completely away form conventional till, too much time, fuel and unless the paddock is rough, rips up too many stones.

Alex

 

I'm not familiar with the term "straight combine across" or "undercart". If you're looking at a shank machine here's an interesting idea came across a while back.

Seeder Shanks | Orange Innovative Farm Ideas

They look fairly simple and are fairly independent.

If you're looking at a disc drill might be able to find some Barton openers off a Flexi-coil 6000 drill. There's a lot of guys converting the frames to other openers like these.

Pillar Disc Hoe Opener

Not sure if that's happening in your part of the world.

I have to say like shugrnutz I'm impartial to a disc drill just because of my rocks and the field finish.

I know up here the smaller drills 25-35' and tanks 150-300bu bring good money because of the smaller field sizes and being in cow country.

 

Often wondered about a walking beam with a press wheal leading and a depth wheal following. Best depth control I have seen is to have the mounting bar for openers roll with a turnbuckle. That pushes disks deeper and lifts depth wheal, with no individual stops to hammer out of adjustment.

 

Build a single hydraulic bar across the width of drill with solid mounted frame wheels ahead and behind. Mount Pillars 12" apart on that bar. Perfect seeding tool. Like a pillar drill except only a single row of them. Compact, follow the ground, seed anything.

 

We used to run inter combines (box drills) and then progressed to a john shearer trash culti drill then to an afm bar/simplicity cart airseeder and now on gason bar/flexicoil(jd777) aircart. 7.2m wide sowing width and 4.2 transport width on 6" spacings. Just ordinary c shank edge on tynes with 7mm knife points. It sows everything from ryegrass/clover, wheat, oats and even rape/turnip/millet mixes. I have a thread on the build of my machine. If you want to go less then 4m fold it will be pretty tough.

What soil types?
how many hp you have to play with?
What row spacings are you wanting to go?
What are your seeding rates for the different crop varieties?
Are you putting fert down the tube as well? If so what type and at what rate?

 

Around here old drills aren't bringing much better than scrap price with everyone going to air seeders/drills. It would be cheaper to buy than build one here. We used a 150 IHC hoe drill (3 7 ft's hooked together) for years, and it did a good job for the technology available, but not suited for zero till unless you used eagle beak shovels in very sandy soils.

 

Hi farmer Alex,

How's things progressing with the drill building process? Have you worked out your row spacings, hopper sizes and opener arrangment? You want to have it ready for next season or sowing crops in the spring?

Just a tip, it will take longer than you will plan or expect (speaking from experience).

Cheers
Mark

 

Here are some pictures of my seed drill I built, worked really well, sowed at a consistent 37kg per acre, did 10acres so far so quite happy with it's performance. Going to upgrade it to electronic raise and lower.

 

Looks good Alex. The field finish looks like a disc drill.

How do you vary the rate? Sprockets or a slider over the metering wheels?

How do you adjust the depth?

What row spacing did you go with?

How is the seed spacing uniformity?

Are you going to use an actuator for the raise and lower?

Nice job. :54: