[TSIPP]

My old cable cat won't dig up hard yellow clay the 14 foot straight blade just rides on top, she dives into any thing else. I Think the cuting edges are in good shape, but not so sharp. Is there a way to sharpen it or maybe my angle is all wrong. Any advice would be much appreciated.

 

[TSIPP]

Had to take the hood of to fix a leaky frost plug, broom sticks work for now.

 

[TSIPP]

This old girl will usually dive into anything, but at six yards it's a lot of trips to get much done.

 

[albertabuck]

Might just be how it looks in the picture, but it looks like your blade is tilted forward more than it should. If you can lean it back past vertical, that will improve it's ability to cut in. No down pressure is the one fault of a cable dozer, not much else you can do in hard ground if you don't have a ripper or such.

 

[phantom970]

Wow, that grader is a beauty.

Tsipp have you made sure the cables arent catching or jamming just at ground level.
Is there a build up of clay or something under the blade keeping the edge of the soil??
Cutting excess steel off the back/rearward edge of the cutting edges with the oxy/acetylene is your only way to sharpen the blade so to speak. And i agree with Buck, try laying the blade back more.

 

[TSIPP]

thanks for the advice, I will lean the top back and give her a try, was thinking it would push a full load a little better that way also.


I tried the 7 inch angle grinder for sharpening but that was not going to fly. was thinking I might have to put a cylinder or to on her. the scraper is a Letourneau carryall G I am thinking its old enough it came with steel wheels??
I have an old pull grader little smaller then Bucks, and only back wheels and two cylinders to control the moldboard, I think its a Richardson.
with the high calf prices I was thinking of adding to my collection a cat 80 or something similar.

 

[makar]

If you need a sharper cutting edge welding grouser bar to it will help. Old catskinners tell me of a bolt on type of tooth they would put on the blade in the days before rippers.

 

[albertabuck]

Old catskinners tell me of a bolt on type of tooth they would put on the blade in the days before rippers.

Last set of those I saw was when they auctioned off the remnants of the Thorhild Coal mine a couple years back. Those ones were actual Caterpillar, had brackets that fit over the cutting edge and then pinned into brackets welded onto the top of the blade. Thought I had a pic of them, but can't find anything at the moment. I never made it to the actual sale, but it was interesting checking things out ahead of time, was some neat old stuff there. Wish that mine was still going:frown:

 

[TSIPP]

I bolted an eight foot grader blade to it, kind of like a wide frost tooth, but the angle wasn't right but it did help and its slowly breaking apart from rocks.
half the clay out here is no problem but the hard clay is almost water resistant and when you do break it up it acts like your pushing flour. it will run out of the scraper worse then dry sand.
when I get it close to the shop ill weld some iron under it.
snowing and blowing today so it looks like I have a few shop days now.

 

[TSIPP]

buck I think I know what brackets you are talking about, there is an old td 14 with an over shot loader and it has those on the top of the blade, but a little lighter for dirt I was thinking root rake?

 

[farmshop]

During one of our building projects we were trying to move some yellow clay we had to rip with the v ripper to push anything

 

[TSIPP]

looks like I will be building a cable operated v ripper in the near future. that reminds me that a few years ago I tried using an old cultivator with solid shanks, I left the wings up so it would sink in and drove real slow but then it broke most of the shanks off, heavy duty was not heavy enough!

 

[Dak]

We have got a D 6 31a looks alot like that, & it has rippers under the blade!
Are there any mounts for these on yours?
we are now running 4 rippers & that really makes a difference, also upended
the bolt on cutting edge that made a real difference!
Also run a letourneau scoupe bit more modern than that would say, cable
converted to hyd.
a good old farmers rig..

 

[aussie farmer]

Had to take the hood of to fix a leaky frost plug, broom sticks work for now.

Looking at that picture the blade needs laying back (top towards machine) playing with this setting can save a lot of lever pulling in different surfaces.

 

[TSIPP]

top of the cutting edge dose look new, and I had the blade tilted all the way back and started tilting it ahead before my first post. guess its time to play with it some more.

 

[Northern Farmer]

I don't suppose there is enough room on the backside of the blade to hang some heavy tractor wheel weights or some sort of heavy metal, if there was and you rounded up something that fit the bill you could either chain them on by welding a tab at the top back side or even welding the head of bolts onto the back of the blade lined up with holes in the weights. I know it sounds a bit ridiculous but I would think packing on some weight would maybe give just enough extra down pressure to get you penetrated in, perhaps that's being too optimistic.

I've done similar on a small scale by drooping sand bags over top a small 3 point hitch blade because of the same issue with no down pressure and sure made a difference in a case like that.

 

[R W]

Rip it properly first.