2021 - What Did I do?

I haven't made a post in quite a while here, so here is something for all my fans, "the Bots" to read....

2021 was largely spent on a tractor project.  I rebuilt and heavily modified a rotary broom to fit onto the loader of my tractor and engineered a hydraulic drive system for it also.  Here is a quick summary of that.  I started in Jan 2021, and finally wrapped it up in early Nov, just before the snow.  It was a BIG project.

So here is the mess I started with. I bought it off a farmer in MN that had it several years "meaning to get to it one of these days" but decided that was never going to happen. The previous owner had done some sketchy modifications to it also.  I wasn't even sure it would run but the farmer said it supposedly did when he got it...but sitting for years now.

I won't go through everything but I needed to fab a mount to make it fit the standard skid steer mount on my tractor.  But first I needed to add a Mid-PTO to the tractor and extend it to the front for the pump to drive this.  The mid PTO is a kit, so I drained all the fluid (and changed it while I was there as it was close to due), added the PTO and then worked out a way to extend it to the front with some shafts and some modifications to the basic design Kubota uses for their snow blowers and brooms.

This is the frame that mounts under the tractor to bring the PTO drive to the front all painted and ready to install.  Since this was basically all custom built, there was a lot of engineering and head scratching involved.  It is fairly easy to install solo.

And in place under the tractor, before it was painted.  The first photo below shows where the pump mounts on the front (the big hole with the shaft inside it)

So with the drive system done, I turned attention to the sweeper itself.  I removed all the old hoses and parts, tested a few things and then did another round of head scratching to figure out how to mount it to the tractor.

Here was after it was mostly torn apart. I had to cut off some of the previous mods that were done and then rework it to fit a skid steer plate.

I bought a mount plate (they are a standard item) and started laying out how to attach the sweeper to it.

After figuring out how to set this up I was here, ready for welding:

Working through where to place the diverter (which runs the angle cylinder), Got some hoses and fittings as needed to help lay this out better too.

I machined up a mount for the check valve mount that bolts to the shroud of the broom and clamps the valve and hoses in place.

I also had to design and build a tank for the hydraulic fluid.  When i finished it, it didn't even leak! A miracle! It was a very odd shape, necessary to fit, and I had a metal fab shop cut and bend the parts for me as I did not have equipment capable of bending stuff that big or heavy.  Then i figured out a baffle and how to mount it, and did all the welding.

So now it finally comes together after painting

All new broom sections!

Main broom frame parts put together and mounted

And finally hoses in place and ready to go!

And finally a little bit of an action shot: