Harvesting potatoes is not easy.For a long time people have been trying to find ways to ease this matter, make it more enjoyable. And the output was found in the form of a mechanized device designed to automate the process of collecting potato tubers. People began to call the device a potato-digger. And, of course, the inquisitive mind of craftsmen has found a way to create such a mechanism with available tools.
Everyone knows that the simplest and most commonpotato-digger collected by itself, is based on a scallop with a pull from the motor block. The device does not have any ingenious details and it is easy to assemble at home, and with such a "machine" the damage and loss of harvest will be minimized.
The potato-digger himself assemblesbased on a self-made frame, the design of which is welded. The main material used in this process is the iron channel # 8. The remnants of Channel 5, the metal plates (8 mm) and the iron corners, measuring 63 * 40 mm, are used. To make the opener potato-digger take the steel (5mm). Also very common is a potato harvester for a motorized unit, made by hand, in which the opener is made of a damaged circular saw. And it works no worse.
This element is attached as far as possible to thean elevator casing made of rigid material, using 4 bolts and nuts. The part has a rounded grinding, which allows not to deepen deeply into the soil, thereby almost completely eliminating the cutting of the tubers themselves.
The crooks also envisaged a change in the slopeelevator (and hence the angle of digging the opener) by changing the place of attachment of the casing itself to the base frame. In addition, you can fix the reduction unit (which is also completely done by yourself). The potato digger, made by hand, includes the above-mentioned construction in the form of cylindrical bodies connected together. Two shafts rotate in them: a master and a slave. In each there are prismatic keys in the form of asterisks with welded hubs, which can be made from the remains of a metal gas pipe 25 mm in size.
The most difficult thing at home wasthe creation of a drum-cleaner, which provides any potato-digger (with their own hands) to the motor block. It consists of two roller chains of 94 links, which should be located on the rods with a sheath of protection in the middle. The design was called "squirrel wheel." To keep it firmly, it is fastened to two bent discs. Instead, you can use the rim of the wheel of a bicycle. The mechanism, sandwiched between the asterisks, revolves on two compound axes and a shaft. The axles are stationary, as they are welded to the support plates. But the driven sprockets on them are spinning. This is because each is put on the outside of the ball bearing and the axles are welded only after performing this action.
The input axis of the potato digger looks like a bolt withthread on the end. It is inserted into the hole made in the casing from the left side. Then, a spacer sleeve, a bearing with an asterisk, an intermediate bushing, another bearing and a spacer ring are attached. Only after all this, the axis is inserted from the right side.
The chain-and-rod tape of potato-digger is similaron the squirrel wheel, only a little stretched. The number of rods is smaller, and they are shorter. To ensure that the tape slides well, the sliders are made of PTFE. They still serve as a support for the links of the chain and a way to protect it from external damages.
Each potato-digger is made byconscience. The simplest part of it is a support-transport junction. Its creation does not cause difficulties, since each master performs it according to his calculations. The exploitation of this created machine by its own hands greatly saves energy and time in the struggle for the harvest of potatoes.
