[LRShooter]

I was wondering if anybody has tried this. Keystock grates and helical grates both look fairly simple. Ive heard of some making their own, but what do you all think? Im pretty good with metal working and could bend the flat iron around an existing grate for a pattern. The helical part would just have to be done in short stretches to avoid bending every single one. Keystock grates would seem even simpler. I guess the biggest obstacle would be metal hardness, so does anybody have any thoughts on that?

 

[doorknob]

Here's a thread with pictures of my helical grates.

Mild steel is fine, but you can have them surfaced with tungsten powder afterward if you like.

 

[LRShooter]

Here's a thread with pictures of my helical grates.

Mild steel is fine, but you can have them surfaced with tungsten powder afterward if you like.

Cool. What is the spacing width and helical degree on that? Is it just perpendicular to the flow of grain?

 

[doorknob]

Cool. What is the spacing width and helical degree on that? Is it just perpendicular to the flow of grain?

The spacing and angle were the same as a production Gorden Harvesting helical concave. I did not bother checking what that was. The shop I had do the work has a cnc plasma and they were able to cut the grate radius into the cross bars before installing.
Remember, as you turn the cross bar from parallel, or inline with the rotor to perpendicular or right angle to the rotor, you must begin putting a radius into the cross bar. The standard cross bars in a concave are inline with the rotor, but the concave cross bar support arms are rounded to the radius of the cage. So any angle from inline to across has to have the amount of radius taken into consideration.

After running mine for a while and noticing the wear pattern, I would not make the cross bars so deep next time. I think half that depth would be fine. Reason, though I did not see the action, in theory, in damp or somewhat green crops, the material exiting the grate in a rotational motion could be slowed enough by the extra metal to perhaps plug the grate or momentarily plug and release the damp grains.

I think the slotted grates have much more potential for improvement. I like the slotted grates for their tunability. But in your 14xx series cage, you might go with the keystock style to aid with separation capacity. IMO.