[doorknob]

Bear with me. Say for some dumb reason, one wanted to flip the blades around on a quality disk, like a Landoll or something. A 9" spaced or narrower. No added weight, but just for a tool to do a specific job at a shallow depth.

Would the quality blades hold up in reverse action, or would they fold up? Not worried bout scrapers or bearings, just the blades.

 

[tbone95]

Huh.....probably work shallow....one way to find out!

 

[litefoot]

I would think that shallow would work, but if you put a lot of weight I think they would fold. Also, very different quality of blades around. there are some cheap ones at farm shows that are a waist of money when going the correct direction. good luck

 

[albertabuck]

I'm not sure there would be an issue unless it was a very heavy disc, as in high weight per foot with the blades. I think the convex shape would hold as well as in the normal direction as there would be less load on them IMO. I would think it would basically become a packer more than anything, not sure if it would really move much dirt around, think it would be more apt to simply float on top of the ground as the discs would tend to stay on top as they rolled along IMO. Would smooth things off a bit perhaps, only thing I can think of is when a guy gets stuck with a disc, they do seem to come out of the ground if you back up with the gangs in the dirt...

One thing that comes to mind that I suspect won't be an issue for you, is some bearing hangers are designed for load in one direction only, but only be if a guy was just to swap gangs around without disassembling them to try it, that could become an issue, though I think that's more so with older units. I know my 4000 Deere has hangers like that.

 

[Northern Farmer]

That concept reminds me a little of a Sunflower disk option they once had at least where they had a special blade called a conservation blade. I believe it had a very shallow dish shape and the idea was to cut into sod but not rip it out and have chunks rolling all over.

Lets say you wanted to reverse the disk blades, will the gang hangers allow for that as some gang hangers are offset/shaped on an angle so a disk turned around would hit the hanger in that one location.

I imagine you thought of this before and that is if a disk was set up to change the gang angle to a very shallow setting where very little side force was present when the disks entered the ground. Also perhaps the front gang only would have be modified and not the rear and lighten the rear with the linkage adjustment so it just tickles along the ground. Mind you I don't know the vision of what type of end job you are wishing to accomplish.

At one time we had a JD disk that had the cone style blades and were 3/16 thick, I don't know if they would have liked being ran with any backside force into them as they may have folded, definitely if they hit a rock. I'd think a 1/4 curved style blade without too much weight bearing down or sunk to china would stand the backside forces and it would be hard to get a disk blade with that lack of attack angle to sink into anything anyway other then previously over disked ground.

 

[stsdavew]

Just outta curiosity, what would one be trying to accomplish by turning the blades?

 

[SWFarmService]

Just outta curiosity, what would one be trying to accomplish by turning the blades?

Yes, I am also curious because I am wondering what conditions also, just thinking it would cause smearing or a bunch of compaction if conditions are wet, but maybe I don't quite understand what you are thinking as far as gang angle and blade dish, what I am picturing in my head would be the blade would wear thin quickly?

 

[doorknob]

Here, in my area of the world, just outside of Portland Oregon, we usually use what is known locally as a "culti-packer" to crush clods and roll things down for seeding. Most pull one in front of the drill. Factories call them a "culti-mulcher".

Trying not to bore you with detailed history, after many years of study as to what causes some of the small seed crop failures, I had been able to attribute it to this tool. I renamed them a "aggregate segregater". We sold ours a few years ago after several years non use.

Well, now, after a few years of dd and no-till, we ran into a few issues with rodent control and not being able to get the soils to dry. So we bought a disk ripper and a disk. I have several fields open now that are disk ripped then dried some, then disked.

Having been opened somewhat on the wet side, which is normal for the area, we set ourselves up for what I call creating a rock patch. The wet clods, when the spring winds come up, can turn into rock hard.........soil rocks. Again, the details about opening up so much and/or why not culti-pack it before it gets dry, are a long boring story.

But once dry enough to plant, the soil rocks can not be broken with the roller. But IMO, after using a disk for many years and also using some vertical tillage tools, I think a disk with the blades backward may be the ticket to cut thru the larger soil rocks and firm the surface some, but not segregate the fines from the smaller soil rocks. This is what is needed to retain seed to soil contact in less than idea conventional tillage situations like this.
A crow foot roller would also be of great help, but are unavailable and for the 30' size, are very rarer to even find new. I can find 30' disk all day long in great shape for less than half the money and the rollers are usually 18-20" diameter where the disk can be up to 26". Or if one needed to buy new blades, and since it is not for cutting, if the frame had clearance, a 28" blade may work. IMO.

So in a nutjob,.....er,....I mean nutshell, that's what I wish to do. I can then also use this tool for seeding using my air carts.

 

[stsdavew]

It has been my experience that discs dont really help with those soil "rocks" no matter what you do they seem to just get moved around. The only thing that helps is a good soaking rain and/or really heavy frost and then heavy harrow. Ive never used one but those brillion pulverizers claim to be able to smash up those "rocks" leaving a nice seedbed. That might work better for you. to answer your question though
I dont think the disc blades would fold over. They dont fold over when you drive over a big rock and one blade carries the whole disc so i doubt they would fold over just from pulling around in soil. If you do do this please post pics of the disc and the job it does in the field.

 

[doorknob]

I think I'll have to take the Landoll out and push it backward for a bit to see how it looks.

 

[SWFarmService]

I think what you are looking for is a Phillips or Phoenix rotary narrow? Maybe something to consider

 

[Northern Farmer]

Of course it would depend on how hard the dirt lumps are but we found that the flexicoil tine harrow with the coil packers definitely improved on a situation where lets say we got onto the land a little bit too late in the spring and it had baked down a bit or that there were lumps created during the fall when we applied the NH3 because it was too dry. I would imagine a crow foot packer would do the better job but the coil units certainly have some ability.

Does your landoll have rolling baskets as I was wondering how well rolling baskets work on these lumps you have ?

 

[lynas]

I think what you are looking for is a Phillips or Phoenix rotary narrow? Maybe something to consider

X2
Doorknob. A rolling spike tooth harrow, as above, would be ideal for smashing those soil rocks, particularly after a shower of rain and some drying first.
IMHO the reversed disks will smear and press or push lumps aside but won`t bust them up.

 

[ray54]

I have seen enough to know you look for new ideas,and outside of the box things.In this case would a old idea of a drag style disc you adjust the angle of blades by adjusting the gangs do what you want?It can be closed so blades have no angle so no disturbance of soil. Still common in the Sacramento valley not that far from you.Or the Smizer roller where the rings are much larger than the center shaft they are mounted on,or is this what you called a crows foot roller?

Disc blades should be plenty strong to do what your thinking of.In the rocks I farm you can put a lot of the discs weight on just several blades and they never bend only break from shock,so if we slow down we don't break many in a season.

 

[doorknob]

I have seen enough to know you look for new ideas,and outside of the box things.In this case would a old idea of a drag style disc you adjust the angle of blades by adjusting the gangs do what you want?It can be closed so blades have no angle so no disturbance of soil. Still common in the Sacramento valley not that far from you.Or the Smizer roller where the rings are much larger than the center shaft they are mounted on,or is this what you called a crows foot roller?

Disc blades should be plenty strong to do what your thinking of.In the rocks I farm you can put a lot of the discs weight on just several blades and they never bend only break from shock,so if we slow down we don't break many in a season.

Yes, I think, now that you mention it, an old adjustable disk would do the trick. Thanks for the tip.

Today I did back up with the Landoll. It looked really good. Wish I had my camera with me, but I was'nt expecting to be able to get to the field yet. But an adjustable gang disk, may be just the ticket. I think I saw a wider Towner brand adjustable i the Growers Guide somewhere in eastern Washington. May have to look for it again and see if it is serviceable.

 

[Diesel Dan]

Do your secondary tillage when the outside of the clods are dry but the insides are still moist.

We have clay around here that's too wet one day and too dry the next.

 

[ray54]

Doorknob I see a auction on 3-14 has 4 drag discs for sale.Putman auctioneers,Auctions - Louis Putman Auctioneers.

 

[J farm]

I would recommend trying a compact disc harrow they work really well for breaking up lumps behind a chisel plow in clay.