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Windrower Rock Rake
If you're tired of picking up small stones by hand, take a look at this 12-ft. wide "windrower" rock rake that Wisconsin farmer Dave Lindstad built for $750, patterning it after an $8,500 commercial rock rake.
The pto-operated unit features a rotor shaft set at a 15? angle and equipped with teeth arranged in a "d
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Windrower Rock Rake ROCK PICKERS Rock Pickers 14-1-8 If you're tired of picking up small stones by hand, take a look at this 12-ft. wide "windrower" rock rake that Wisconsin farmer Dave Lindstad built for $750, patterning it after an $8,500 commercial rock rake.
The pto-operated unit features a rotor shaft set at a 15? angle and equipped with teeth arranged in a "double spiral" fashion to deliver rocks to side like a hay rake.
"I didn't want to spend the money for a commercial rock rake," says Linstad, who pulls the rig with a 55-hp Deere 3010 tractor. "I used odds and ends from around the farm and parts purchased cheap from a scrap yard. It can dig up rocks ranging from baseball to basketball size. It grooms the soil like a rototiller, allowing me to plant immediately without further till-age."
Linstad used 6-in. well casing to build the rotor shaft. He made the rotor teeth out of a 3/8-in. plate, bolting them to 5/8-in. steel lugs which he welded at 4-in. intervals in a "double spiral" around the rotor shaft. The teeth are removeable and replaceable.
The rockpicker frame is made from heavy 4-in. dia. pipe. A right angle drive gearbox, removed from a hay crimper, bolts to the tongue of the main frame. A driveshaft from the gearbox drives a fly-wheel from a Farmall F-12 tractor. It's attached to a clutch plate removed from an International 45 baler. The flywheel powers a 24-in. dia., 5:1 reduction drive sprocket and roller chain removed from an old Case tractor. The roller chain, which drives the rotor shaft, is bathed in oil inside a chain casing built from 1/4-in. steel plate. The chain casing is the same height as the rotor teeth and rides on top of the soil like a skid shoe to control raking depth.
"We usually make three passes to clear a 36-ft-wide swath, then we pick up the rocks," says Linstad. "One person drives a hay rack alongside the `windrow' while another person picks up the rocks with a front end loader or manure fork."
A 2 1/2-in. hydraulic cylinder is used to lift the unit for transport.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Dave Linstad, Rt. 1, Box 305, Porterfield, Wis. 54159 (ph 715 732-0793).
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