For those who know first-hand what it is to work in the field, grow your own potato crop, and even more so harvest it, understand what a difficult task it is. Okay, what the for a long time Following this practice, a man came up with a simple invention to facilitate potato harvesting - DIY potato digger. In this case, our grandfathers used an ordinary shovel, and this mechanical device was created specifically to automate the collection of potatoes. The function of a potato digger is to separate tubers from the soil and place them on the surface of the field.
Of course, there are factory versions of this device, but for more or less experienced gardener It won’t be too difficult to assemble a potato digger yourself, which will be little inferior to these samples.
Potato digger design
The simple design makes it much easier. It is based on a welded frame, which is assembled from a special corner measuring 63x40 mm, an iron channel number 8, and 8 mm metal plates. A ploughshare is made from the plates, which in principle can be made from ordinary circular saw. The ploughshare is attached to the elevator casing with 4 bolts tightened with nuts. Thanks to the round sharpening of the part, potato tubers are almost impossible to cut.
The tilt of the elevator can be changed by changing the fastening of the casing to the frame, and at the same time the angle at which the opener digs also changes. The editorial unit is made from two cylindrical metal bodies. They have the form of a glass and a bushing and connect two shafts made of steel - the drive and the driven. These shafts should rotate without difficulty, and special sprockets with welded hubs are mounted on prismatic keys. As a rule, they are made from a piece of gas pipeline measuring approximately 25 mm.
No one can do without a cleaning drum potato digger for mini tractor, however, creating it is the most difficult part in making a potato digger. Its design includes two roller chains with 94 links, mounted on rods. This design, due to its shape, was called the “squirrel wheel”. This wheel is mounted on two bent disks for strength. In some cases, a bicycle wheel rim is used instead of disks. The “squirrel wheel” is welded to the disks and fixed on two fixed welded axles, on which it then rotates. The shaft rotates on the bearings, and with it the driven sprockets rotate, on which the rotation of the drum itself depends.
The best material for a slider so that the chain-bar tape can easily slide over it is fluoroplastic. The tape itself looks like a “squirrel wheel”, but the rods on it are shorter and there are fewer of them. Sliders are also needed to protect the chain from damage and act as a support.
The easiest part of making a potato digger is its support and transport unit. Each person makes it according to his own calculations. Usually there are no special difficulties in creating it. By the way, similar mechanisms are used in .
As for the input axis of the digger, it is inserted into the left side hole of the casing. In appearance it resembles a threaded bolt. After the axle is inserted, the sprocket with bearing, spacer and intermediate bushings, and spacer ring are attached. Then the input axis is inserted into the right hole of the casing.
Now there are many methods for growing potatoes, one of which has its own unique specifics and allows you to get excellent potato yields even under unfavorable weather conditions. Modern methods, of course, suggest great savings in energy and time when harvesting potatoes, which is what a potato digger is used for.
Potato digger drawings
Many villagers will like a homemade potato digger for a walk-behind tractor with their own hands. It helps make people's work easier.
Pros and cons of homemade units
Nowadays, the labor-intensive process of tilling the soil and removing tubers is not carried out manually, because the industry has long been producing mechanized devices that help cope with the task quite quickly and efficiently. But they are expensive, and not everyone can buy them.
When purchasing such a device, it is impossible to predict how it will behave on the field, because it was developed by engineers and tested at an experimental site. Therefore, rather than overpay, you should think about building a digger for a walk-behind tractor with your own hands.
The advantages of such devices:
- Low price, because they can be made from any waste material, which is lying in the barn.
- You can make drawings and designs that fully meet necessary parameters, suitable for a specific piece of land.
- The unit is made “for you”, since the calculation is based on your own strength (mainly concerns devices where it is necessary to use hand strength).
- You can come up with various elements, making work easier, but which the engineer won’t even think about.
Design features and types
Very often, villagers purchase or make a potato digger themselves, which works in conjunction with a walk-behind tractor, using its mechanism as a drive. This tandem is also used in field conditions, and on the home site with the same performance.
There is also a manual potato digger. Many are happy with it, but large field it cannot be used: cultivating the soil or removing tubers will take 5-10 times longer than with mechanized work.
Any potato digger for a minitractor or manual is designed for extracting potatoes, cleaning them from the ground and laying them on the ground surface. Typically, the design of a homemade potato digger for a walk-behind tractor is quite simple; it is not difficult to make.
A DIY potato digger connected to a petrol unit comes in 3 types:
- Vibrating (screening) installation.
- Transport option.
- Lancet view.
Many people have no idea how to make a potato digger and what parts it consists of.
Vibrating (screening) installation. The main parts are a vibrating sieve and a ploughshare. The principle of its operation is simple:
- the earth along with the harvest is picked up by a ploughshare and thrown onto a sieve - a vibrating grid;
- the tubers do not fit into the cells and remain, and the soil falls down.
This vibrating potato digger for a walk-behind tractor is very productive, but the manufacturing process is quite complicated.
The transporter version can be freely connected to any walk-behind tractor. The conveyor potato digger consists of:
- driving belt - conveyor with special device for hooking, holding on the platform, and clearing soil from tubers;
- plowshares.
This type is much more practical than the screening (vibrating) type, but on loose soils it works much worse, and its effectiveness is low. It is not advisable to use it on such soils.
The pointed type is the simplest potato digger for a mini-tractor, because it has no moving elements or components. It is freely attached to any motor unit. The main working devices are a fixed ploughshare and several welded rods.
It works like this:
- the soil with the harvest is cut with a ploughshare;
- all this falls on special splayed inclined rods;
- the potatoes do not pass between the rods and roll down along them to the surface of the soil, and the earth falls down.
This digger is effective on not very dense soils, where it is inappropriate to use other options for such devices.
Homemade potato digger for walk-behind tractor (video)
What you need to know when making homemade potato diggers
Before starting construction, it is necessary to accurately determine the density and type of soil being cultivated where the digger will be used. In places where such a conveyor-type device works ideally, the lancet type will function with difficulty, or even get stuck.
In a small area, it is not necessary to use a device designed for working in the field - a medium-sized digger that can easily be attached to a walk-behind tractor is sufficient. It is advisable to make an adapter that would fit many models of gasoline units.
Usually, homemade design calculated and applied in areas with low and medium density. To carry out such a design, which works on heavy and complex soils, you need to know physics, agronomy and mechanics.
Materials and solutions for insole and vibration devices
To make such devices, you need to get:
- steel channels
- opener cast from 5mm metal (high quality). Or you can make it from any tool, for example from a circular saw from a woodworking machine
- metal corners 40x40 and 63x63 mm.
- steel rods 8-20 pcs. (depending on the complexity of the design)
Some elements depend on the walk-behind tractor used. For example, a vibrating potato digger consists of a frame with an interface to a petrol unit and the following elements:
- pendants:
- chassis;
- various vertical rods for adjusting the vibrator.
And in order to create a design for a specific potato unit, you need to know the exact dimensions of the adapter. For example, a potato digger for an MTZ walk-behind tractor (mounting hole of the interface unit) may not dock with the Neva mini-block.
A simple homemade potato digger (video)
Manufacturing of a screen-type digger
It is not so difficult to construct such a device, but sometimes a homemade potato digger for a tractor with your own hands leaves much to be desired. You need calculations, an accurate diagram, drawings of parts and knowledge of the assembly procedure, which you cannot do without.
First you need to purchase following materials and tools:
- profile (square) pipes 40x40 and 30x30 for the frame;
- pipes with a caliber of 30 mm;
- metal sheets 100x100 cm, thickness 3 and 4 mm;
- 10 mm rods;
- bolts, screws, nuts;
- grinder (angle grinder);
- drill;
- welding machine;
- engraver.
In order for a homemade screening potato digger to work reliably, all work must be performed sequentially:
- The frame is the main element. To do this, you need to divide a square 40x40 pipe into 4 pieces. 2 parts are 120 cm, and 2 others are 80 cm each. From all the sawn pieces you need to weld a large rectangle.
- Jumpers are necessary to install vertical rods on them for control. They are strengthened at a distance of approximately 20 cm from one end of the frame. On the other side, 15 cm of 30 mm caliber pipes are welded to strengthen the axle and wheels on them.
- Vertical racks. From the edge of yours new frame(from the side where the jumpers are attached) 5 cm is measured. In this place, two 50 cm squares welded from 30x30 pipes are welded or screwed. Having retreated 40 cm from them, it is necessary to install second racks of 30 cm each from the same material. Be sure to connect them with a 4 mm metal strip.
- Ralo is made from 3 mm sheets. Take two 40x40 cm blanks and secure them on the racks below (welding or screws), one on each side. Then prepare a 70 cm square from a 4 mm sheet, butt weld it to the first one and bend it with a sledgehammer or hammer.
- The grille is made of 10 mm rods. They are welded at one end from the bottom of the rafter so that the other ends protrude slightly (about 10-15 cm) beyond the base of the frame in the direction of the motor unit.
Wheels, rods and other elements are installed on the completed device. The potato digger is ready for the walk-behind tractor.
For village residents and owners summer cottages The problem of harvesting crops, especially potatoes, is very close due to its labor intensity. A small area can, of course, be dug out with a shovel, as is most often done. However, it is much easier and faster to harvest potatoes even from two or three acres using a potato digger for a walk-behind tractor.
There is a wide selection of models of industrial potato harvesters that can be purchased in specialized stores. However, using your technical skills and our recommendations, you can make your own potato digger for a walk-behind tractor with your own hands.
Main types of potato diggers
Any potato digger is designed to loosen the soil under potato bushes and transport tubers using teeth to the surface, where they can simply be quickly collected by hand.
There are several types of potato diggers for walk-behind tractors, which you can make yourself for digging up crops in your garden:
- simple (lancet single row, fan type) - like a plow;
- vibrating, or roaring;
- conveyor type (they are also single-row);
- universal.
A simple potato digger for a walk-behind tractor is a plow to which guide rods (booms) are welded. When the plow cuts into the ground, the soil along with the tubers rises along the rods. In this case, the excess soil is sifted, and the tubers remain on the soil surface. This potato digger can be installed on a mini tractor or any walk-behind tractor, for example, Neva, MTZ, Salyut.
Vibrating (vibrating-screening) potato digger- this is a design that uses a ploughshare and one or more screening grids supported on wheels. The plowshare loosens the soil, which, together with the tops and potato tubers, falls onto the grates. During the movement, the soil is sifted, and potato tubers, separated from the tops, are poured onto the surface of the treated row.
Vibrating
Conveyor potato digger for walk-behind tractor represents more difficult option, where the soil from the ploughshare falls onto a moving conveyor belt equipped with a hooking device. This allows you to hold the tubers on the belt while simultaneously clearing them of soil. This type of digger is more practical than a vibrating digger, but its use is only advisable for heavy soils.
Conveyor
Universal potato diggers combine several devices from the listed types - it all depends on what functions you want to give to your potato digger, made for your site.
How to make a homemade potato digger for a walk-behind tractor
Before you start making a potato digger for a walk-behind tractor, you should decide what type of digger you want to have on your farm. This largely depends on the density of the soil, since, for example, a simple lancet digger will easily cope with light soils. In soil with a dense structure, a simple digger will not help you much - a design with a conveyor mechanism is more appropriate here.
Making a simple potato digger is quite easy - it does not require special knowledge or skills.
Drawing of a fan potato digger for a walk-behind tractor
A bipod for the lancet type can be cut from an old shovel, and fork teeth or reinforcement are used as guide rods.
The most effective ploughshare for a potato digger is shaped like a “dovetail”, also called an “active dolphin”.
Required tools and materials
To make a vibration-type walk-behind potato digger, you will need a little more time and skill, as well as special tools and equipment.
So, we need at our disposal:
- welding machine;
- corner Grinder(Bulgarian);
- electric drill and metal drills;
- a set of keys;
- sledgehammer (heavy hammer);
- level, caliper, square,
When everything is in stock, you can begin manufacturing the unit.
The following materials will be required:
- U-shaped metal profile (channel No. 8);
- sheet steel about 8 mm thick;
- steel or iron rods 10 mm in cross section;
- iron corner (rolled metal);
- metal pipe for racks;
- fastening elements – plates and steel bolts with nuts No. 10;
- roller chain;
- wheels - metal or rubber.
Making and assembling a potato digger
The design of a vibrating potato digger for a walk-behind tractor includes:
- base frame;
- plowshare for digging;
- suspension system;
- adjustment rod;
- lugs or wheels.
We will start assembling the walk-behind tractor with the manufacture of individual components.
- The frame is welded from an iron channel No. 8 and a corner 63x40 mm. The length of the frame should be approximately 120 cm.
- We weld one channel at a distance of one third from the beginning of the frame, and the second - at a distance of approximately 1/6 from the front edge. The channels will serve as the basis for attaching the regulatory part of the digger.
- We weld to the side edges of the frame on both sides vertically to the ground at a distance of 10 cm from each other. metal racks of different lengths, starting from 50 cm (hereinafter - 40, 30, etc.). The base for the grill bars will be welded to these posts.
- Weld the remains of the channel to the short posts on both sides of the frame. As a result, you should get two rigid triangles on which the ploughshare will be attached.
- We cut out a plate of the required length, approximately 30 mm wide, from sheet metal and weld one end of it to any of the resulting triangles. Let it cool, then bend it with a sledgehammer and bolt it to the second triangle.
To bend a metal plate, preheat it with gas burner. To add rigidity after achieving the desired shape, harden the product.
- To make a ploughshare, metal plates, an old plow, or a piece of pipe with a diameter of 200 mm cut lengthwise are suitable. We bend it like a plow and make a rounded sharpening of the part so that when working we do not cut the potato tubers. We fasten the plowshare to the elevator casing with four bolts, tightening the nuts securely.
- We cut the reinforcement into rods of the required length so that one end can be welded to a metal plate, and the other freely protrudes beyond the frame of the walk-behind digger. We weld the rods to the metal plate, leaving the other end free, at a distance of 4-5 cm from each other. Sheet metal strips can be welded onto the sides of the elevator over the rods to prevent the tubers from falling out on the sides.
- The free ends of the reinforcement are welded onto a metal bracket made from a strip of metal or a small cross-section pipe. The mobility bracket is attached to the end of the frame using hinges.
- We fasten the connecting bridge rod using sprockets. We weld metal disks onto it at both ends and attach the wheels.
- Attaching a potato digger to walk-behind tractors different types similar to fastening other equipment.
Whatever type of digger you choose, in any case, homemade potato diggers for walk-behind tractors significantly facilitate agricultural work and at the same time help to significantly save on the purchase of an industrially produced digger.
Nowadays, almost no one digs by hand garden plots, because modern technology for caring for country houses and personal plot became available. Now widely used new technology and often a homemade potato digger for a walk-behind tractor is made for them; below we will describe several manufacturing options.
Many people who work in the fields know firsthand what a difficult task it is to grow and harvest your own potato crop. To make potato harvesting easier, man came up with a special invention - a potato digger. Our ancestors used a shovel for this, but a mechanical device for automatically collecting potatoes was specially created for us. The purpose of a potato digger is to separate tubers from the soil and place them on the surface of the ground.
Now there is big choice factory versions of this device. But if the gardener is more or less experienced, it will not be difficult for him to independently assemble a potato digger that is not inferior to factory models.
Homemade potato diggers for walk-behind tractors
First of all, we assemble a welded frame from metal plates(8 mm), iron channel (No. 8) and a special corner (63x40). Using the plates we make a ploughshare. We install the manufactured plowshare on the elevator casing using four bolts and tighten it with nuts.
We make an editorial unit using two cylindrical metal bodies.
They are made in the form of a glass and a bushing, connecting the driven and driving steel shafts. They should be easy to rotate. Special sprockets with welded hubs are mounted on prismatic keys. They are made from a pipe whose size is 25 mm.
To avoid cutting the potato, the sharpening of the part should be round. If you change the fastening of the casing to the frame, the tilt of the elevator and the digging angle of the holes will change. To make a homemade potato digger, you will need certain skills. No potato digger would be complete without a cleaning drum.
Creating it is quite difficult, but if you use the right approach, it will take quite a bit of time. The main structure contains two roller chains with 94 links, which fit onto rods. Because of its shape, this design is called a “squirrel wheel”. This wheel, for greater strength, is fixed on two bent disks. Instead of disks, you can use a bicycle wheel rim.
After the “squirrel wheel” has been welded to the disks, in order to rotate it, it is attached to two welded fixed axles. The shaft rotates on bearings, along with which the driven sprockets rotate, driving the drum.
To make a slider, it is best to use fluoroplastic. In this case, the chain-bar belt will slide easily. In appearance, the tape is similar to a “squirrel wheel”, but there are fewer rods and they are much shorter. Sliders serve as support and protect the chain from damage.
The easiest potato digger to make is a support and transport unit. Based on the method of processing and planting potatoes, anyone can make one. There should not be any particular difficulties when creating such nodes. Similar mechanisms are used in potato harvesters.
Assembling a potato digger
The output axis of the digger is inserted into the left side hole of the casing. It looks like a threaded bolt. After installing the axle, we begin installing the sprocket with the bearing, the spacer ring and the intermediate spacer sleeve. Then insert the input axis into the housing hole on the right.
The most popular method of growing potatoes is the Dutch method. It is characterized by high yield and extreme versatility. You'll get good harvest potatoes, even if weather were unfavorable. The methods used today significantly reduce time, effort and costs through the use of an automated potato digger for walk-behind tractors.
Drawings and diagrams of a homemade potato digger for a walk-behind tractor
Homemade potato digger for walk-behind tractor video collection
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For people who live in rural areas, harvesting grown potatoes remains not an easy task. Of course, today there are not many who do such work manually, using a shovel. Most began to buy specialized mechanical devices: walk-behind tractor and potato digger for it. And some, who have “golden” hands, the so-called “Kulibins,” invent and make such devices for the garden and dacha with their own hands, thereby saving themselves from hard work.
On the YouTube channel of Yuri Leskov we saw interesting model homemade potato digger of the screening type.
Here's what he says and shows about her:
DIY drawings of a potato digger for a walk-behind tractor
Today we will start making a potato digger with our own hands for the Neva walk-behind tractor.
We have such materials: these are the remains of a bicycle, figure eight wire, an old Wagner from which we will take wheels, a corner, sheet metal, profile, tie rods, tips.
Tool: grinder, drill and welding machine.
Potato digger design: frame, coupling device with a walk-behind tractor, a knife from a steel saw is riveted onto the ploughshare.
Operating principle: let's start from the engine: from the engine, drive to the pulley, from the pulley through the eccentric, to the rod (steering rod from the car) and then to the device, which is fixed on ball bearings through the rods, connected to the share, so the share has a reverse forward motion that is necessary for digging and sifting potatoes. The principle of rumble. WITH reverse side Potato diggers wheels that are adjustable. There is also a belt tensioner, which is made from a regular bearing.
Do-it-yourself potato digger for a walk-behind tractor: video from Yu. Leskov
