Root Rake Build Part 3

Added: 2026-06-01

[00:00:00]Well, it's the next day and I'm going to try to work on this rake a little bit.

[00:00:04]It's a little bit slow in the shop and uh I've been noticing probably for the last couple days it's been a gradual slowdown. Um about the only business we're getting right now is uh the companies that we service. I think people's trying to you know cut back on their spending which you know with the price of gas and food and stuff right now I can understand that.

[00:00:32]>> [music] [music] [music] >> So, it's had overnight to cool down, and uh what I need to do now is cut these little bars off that I put on it to uh hold my spacing while I was welding.

[00:00:59]Uh, got to get them off. And then I'm probably going to cut some uh some tubing to put between these teeth for, you know, support so they don't bend, you know, from side to side.

[00:01:15]And I was going to put some uh 2-in uh bar across the front and the back to uh give it support so it won't twist. But I don't think I'll need that. If I put the uh tubing between these teeth, it should give it plenty enough strength to keep it from, you know, torquing. But I'm going to get these off and then uh decide what I'm going to do about the tubes between them and we'll go from there. I welded it with my Vulcan Omnipro 220 welder and uh I love this thing. I've welded for hours before with this thing and never could get it to uh exceed the duty cycle.

[00:02:02]So, I'm real happy with that thing. But, I'm thinking I may uh dig out my stick welder and uh do a final pass on all these uh welds on it.

[00:02:16]I haven't used it in six or seven years, so I don't even know if it works.

[00:02:21]So, I'm going to use my Lincoln AC225 uh to do it. I also have a uh AC/DC one of these two, but the cooling fan and it's not working.

[00:02:42]Like I said, I haven't used this thing in probably six years.

[00:02:48]I haven't even stick welded in about six years.

[00:03:02]So tell them what this is going to look like.

[00:03:39]Well, it came on.

[00:04:01]Heat. Heat.

[00:04:23]Heat. Heat.

[00:05:16]Well, it's obvious it's been a long time since I weld with stick welder cuz I'm definitely out of practice.

[00:05:23]That looks awful.

[00:05:28]I'm going to turn the amperage up on the welder and try this again. I think I may have had the amps too low.

[00:06:09]Heat. Heat.

[00:07:06]I'm going to try a different welding rod. See if it makes any difference.

[00:07:11]All these rods are probably 8 to 10 years old anyway. So, I'd say they've got moisture in them.

[00:07:23]Yeah, that weld's got little pin holes in it. You can see all in it. So, those rods have uh drawn moisture. So, if I'm going to stick weld this, I'm going to have to go get some more welding rods.

[00:07:38]Yeah, I was wrong about how old those rods were. I found the date on them and uh those things are 14 years old and the uh flux on the rods you can just squish it with your fingers and you know break the flux off the rod. So I'm going to go get some more get some new ones and I'm going to finish this thing and I'm not going to record it. It's just taking too much time to record it and uh weld too.

[00:08:03]So I'll finish it up and then I'm going to start putting those uh tube bracing in.

[00:08:12]Well, I got my new rods and I got it welded up and it's ugly as a mud fence, but I can guarantee you one thing, it's not going to break.

[00:08:22]And this thing's so hot you can't even touch the uh things up here.

[00:08:27]So, I'm going to let it cool down and then I'll start working on those cross braces. I've got some uh I think it's 2 in tube I'm going to cut and I'm probably going to put them about right about right in here I guess all the way across and I'm hoping that'll be enough to brace it. I mean this is 3/4 in hard steel so it shouldn't be a problem.

[00:08:58]Well, I'm back on this thing again today. I didn't get to work on it yesterday because my wife had a doctor's appointment about her hand and uh she's actually got one tomorrow, too.

[00:09:10]So, I'm hoping that I can get this thing done in time to get the uh last video out on this, you know, on Sunday. But, I don't know. I may have to make a part three to this.

[00:09:23]Well, I'm gonna try to get back on this root rake and see if I can get something done. I didn't get to work on it yesterday because my wife had a doctor's appointment on her hand. And she actually has one tomorrow, too.

[00:09:36]And today at work has just been pure, it's been hell, to say it mildly. I jinxed myself the other day saying that things were slowing down a little bit. It's 7:00 right now and just now getting off work.

[00:09:51]And I know now why I quit stick welding.

[00:09:54]Look at this mess.

[00:09:59]That's why I hate stick welding.

[00:10:02]It's all over the place.

[00:10:06]That uh that flux just makes a mess.

[00:10:28]Anyway, let's get back to work on this thing.

[00:10:34]And I'm going to try to put my uh tube bracing in. And uh I'll probably have to use the skid steer and flip this thing over to uh put the ears on it.

[00:10:49]So, I guess I'm probably going to use this 3 and 12 inch tubing. It's 3/8 wall. It's probably overkill and it's going to add extra weight to it, but the only thing I've got here right now other than that is this 2 in. And it's a 3/16 wall. So, it's really too thin.

[00:11:09]And I've probably got about 8 ft of this stuff here.

[00:11:14]I'm just really afraid of adding too much weight to it.

[00:11:18]We'll just have to see what happens. I'm going to go ahead and cut these braces off and start cutting me some pieces to go in there.

[00:11:48]Whoa.

[00:12:06]Whoa.

[00:12:23]I don't know if you seen that kick over when I cut that weld loose, but look at that tooth. How it warped when I welded it. Man, it warped it bad.

[00:12:36]I don't know if I can pull that back over or not.

[00:12:40]God, I hope the rest of them didn't do that.

[00:13:34]That one did it, too. They're both warped that way.

[00:13:53]See, that one stayed right in the middle where it's supposed to.

[00:14:16]That moved about half inch. So that's not real bad.

[00:14:23]Actually, this one is the one that moved.

[00:14:36]So, it's this one, this one, and that one.

[00:14:45]So, I'll probably start putting the tubing in between these two since they're the straightest ones.

[00:14:57]And I'll just have to manipulate the rest of them. Try to get them back in place.

[00:15:07]Okay. So, the middle one and this one is the only one that didn't move.

[00:15:12]This one pulled in and these two pulled to the left and this outside one pulled really bad.

[00:15:21]I I don't think you can see it, but So, probably what I'm going to do is I'll start out with my brace between these two and I'll just have to try to force the others to go back where they're supposed to be.

[00:15:41]I tell you what, it's going to be hard to move 3/4 inch hard steel.

[00:15:49]See, I messed up. I should have put this in my bracing in before I welded, you know, the final welds.

[00:15:57]That's my screw up.

[00:16:00]So, I'm just going to have to figure out a way to fix it.

[00:17:13]Heat.

[00:17:16]Heat.

[00:17:43]All right, let's see how far this is off.

[00:17:48]So, I cut it to fit the bottom.

[00:17:55]It didn't move too bad. [music] This one is out that way just a little bit.

[00:18:08]But what I'll do, I'll put a C clamp up here and pull this one over.

[00:18:15]And then I'll weld it in place.

[00:18:18]Get it uh tacked in real good. I'm not going to weld it solid until I get them all in. And then I'll just start working out to the ends.

[00:18:29]Okay. So, I put a C clamp up here to try to pull it together once I get this in place.

[00:18:37]I think what I'm going to do, these teeth are 30 in long from this tip to right here. So, I'm probably going to put the this about halfway at 15 in.

[00:18:52]Yeah, that should work.

[00:19:43]All That should be okay there.

[00:19:54]We'll find something to put under this so I don't have to measure every time and I can get them all the same height.

[00:20:12]Actually, this might work right here.

[00:20:19]That's going to be perfect.

[00:20:24][bell] I really wish I had something a little bit smaller than that, but I actually thought about just cutting some 3/4 in bar and put in there and weld across it.

[00:21:23]But I guess the tubing would look better. But let me get set up. I'm going to tack this in.

[00:21:35]I forgot to hit record. You know, I told you it's been a long day. I'm tired. But I just realized something. All the rest of these have to be pushed out instead of pulled in.

[00:21:48]So, I'm going to have to find some way to push these apart.

[00:21:53]And it's going to be really hard with that hard steel.

[00:21:59]I may have to uh try heating these bottoms with the torch and see if I can get it to pull over.

[00:22:08]I don't know. I've never done it on steel that thick, but thinner metal, you can you can heat the metal on the side that you want it to move to, and it'll it'll gradually pull over.

[00:22:20]But that may cost more in uh oxygen and settling than trying to make something to push it over.

[00:22:31]I think I've come up with a solution here. So, I found this one in bolt.

[00:22:38]And I think if I tack weld it in here and then put me a little space there and then turn that nut like I'm going to turn it off the bolt, it might push this away. I mean, I may have to even put a little bit of heat on this bottom, you know, down here.

[00:22:57]But that's the only option I can see. I tried putting a little spacer in there and using a pry bar and I couldn't even budge it. So, I think that other than a really small hydraulic jack is my only options. I have a hydraulic jack, but it's it's about an inch too long to go in between there. So, I believe this is my only option.

[00:24:02]Now I need to find a thin piece of metal to go in between the bolt and that plate.

[00:24:29]I don't know if this is going to work or not, but we'll see.

[00:25:05]I think it's working.

[00:25:14]Yep.

[00:25:29]Okay.

[00:25:56]It's bowed in just a little bit right here on this center.

[00:26:02]So, what I'm going to have to do is go a little bit past where it needs to be up the top. I'll just measure right here.

[00:26:10]Got an eighth inch more to go. I hope I got enough threads.

[00:26:31]There you go.

[00:26:33]It's moving up here at the top, but not right there. So, a little bit more.

[00:27:02]I should have put this down a little bit further right here.

[00:27:08]Okay, that's it right there.

[00:27:11]So, I'm going to get me another piece cut to put in here. And I'm not going to record it. So, when I get it cut, I'll stick it in there.

[00:28:14]I think that'll work.

[00:28:17]Let me get it tacked in here.

[00:28:22]We'll start on the next one.

[00:28:27]This is working out pretty good. So, I believe I'm just going to keep moving on just like that.

[00:28:39]Okay. So, I've went ahead and cut this one and uh the next one, too. So, try to get this done.

[00:28:57][bell] top.

[00:29:46]That's right.

[00:30:11]Still got a half inch to go.

[00:30:14]So, I'm going to have to find something to space this out so I can put a spacer in between the nut and the tooth.

[00:30:28]So, it won't take much. So, I just use this little piece of square tubing Oh, that'll work.

[00:31:10]If it'll stay in there, it is.

[00:31:16]Heat.

[00:31:20][music] Heat.

[00:31:38][music] Heat. Heat. N.

[00:31:47][music] >> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> I think it looks pretty good.

[00:32:23]I was afraid I wouldn't be able to get them level and straight, but that uh bandsaw don't cut the straightest in the world, but that'd be plenty good enough for that.

[00:32:36]And I think I'm not going to fully weld these in until I do some testing on it because uh I looked at a whole bunch of these things on the internet and on YouTube and some of them were, you know, had it half and half like this is and others had it a little bit further down.

[00:32:57]But I think this will probably work out. But I'm not, like I said, I'm not going to weld it in permanently until I do a little bit of testing on it.

[00:33:11]See, another thing I'm thinking about doing is just putting this uh set of ears on it right now cuz it's on a plate. I made this to uh put into my jackhammer that's for the skid steer.

[00:33:25]And uh that way I could use it on the excavator cuz see it's got the pins in it for my excavator.

[00:33:32]And uh I may just put that on temporarily until I see how it does and that way if it's too big I and I have to cut it down, you know, I don't have to worry about the ears being permanently welded on.

[00:33:47]Like I was saying the other day, if this thing turns out to be too heavy, I'll just cut it down till it only has four teeth instead of five.

[00:33:55]And uh that'll cut probably about 40 lbs or well a little more because of that plate. That'll cut that off of it. And you know cuz if it if these are welded on permanently, they're going to be sitting about right here.

[00:34:11]And if I have to cut it down, then I'm going to have to cut them off and move them over. And it just be a big hassle.

[00:34:18]Or may may even have to cut new ears.

[00:34:21]But if I use that plate out there, I can just temporarily weld it on and uh just to do some testing and if it works out, I'll just take it off and put these ears on it permanently. So, yeah, it'll save me some time, too, because I still have to make bushings for this.

[00:34:43]And but I don't I don't want to waste those out there because that goes to my jackhammer.

[00:34:50]I may even try to sell that one to somebody that's got a bigger excavator if nothing else and build me another one. But I'm hoping this thing's going to work. I mean, I like the design and it's turned out really good. But we'll just have to see what it does.

[00:35:10]I don't know if you could see the other night when I was recording this, but this plate right here is what I'm going to cut off of this thing. I built that uh just temporarily to use to tamp some dirt down in a hole and it worked really good. I put it on the excavator and it uh I just tacked it on so it'll be easy to get off. But I'm going to use the skid steer and pick it up where I can get to it and uh grind this thing apart.

[00:36:00]Heat. Heat.

[00:36:06]Heat.

[00:36:25]Heat.

[00:36:37]Just that part there alone is going to be pretty heavy. So, I'm definitely going to be pushing the limits on the excavator.

[00:36:54]I'll get this weld ground off here so I can get it on the claw or root rake.

[00:37:08][music] Heat. Heat. [music] [music] [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat.

[00:38:04][music] >> [music] >> Heat. Heat.

[00:38:39]>> [music] [music] >> Heat Holy cow, that thing is heavy. So, now I've got to get the uh top plate up here and see where it's going to hit and uh grind it a little bit and get it tacked on and I'll be ready to test this thing out.

[00:39:16][music] [music] Heat.

[00:39:29][music] [music] [music] [music] Heat. [music] Heat.

[00:40:06]Heat.

[00:40:08][music] [music] Heat.

[00:40:18][music] [music] Heat.

[00:40:30][music] [music] Heat.

[00:40:42][music] Heat.

[00:40:51][music] >> [music] >> Well, that should hold it good enough for testing purposes anyway. Just enough to see what it's going to do.

[00:41:28]you know, if it's not too heavy as it is, then I'm just going to go with it.

[00:41:32]And then I'll I'll build the uh bushings and make the ears for this thing permanently later on.

[00:41:43]Well, I'm going to get that thing put on the boom truck and take it up to the excavator and put it on, test it out. I just got a weather alert on my phone.

[00:41:53]We're supposed to get some severe storms in a little while. So, if I'm going to test it, I better do it soon.

[00:42:34]Heat. Heat.

[00:42:54]Heat.

[00:43:05]Heat.

[00:43:34]Boy, that thing's just mean looking.

[00:43:38]Well, it's on there. I'm not going to strap it down. I'm just going probably less than a quarter mile across the road and up on the hill, so it should be fine.

[00:44:03]Heat. Heat.

[00:44:42]Heat. Heat.

[00:45:06]Heat. Heat.

[00:45:30]Heat.

[00:45:31]Heat.

[00:45:49]Heat.

[00:46:03]Heat.

[00:46:05]Heat.

[00:46:25]Heat.

[00:46:37]Well, I messed up. I should have flipped it over the other way.

[00:46:41]It' have been a lot easier to try to hook up to it, but I, you know, wasn't thinking.

[00:49:49]Heat.

[00:50:15]Heat.

[00:50:34]So, I think as far as the weight goes, it's going to be fine. It didn't seem to uh affect it when I extended the boom all the way out.

[00:50:43]And uh, of course, that'd be different if I had trees and stuff on it, but you know, it seemed to balance out pretty good, but I know this for sure is definitely not going to work. So, I'll have to cut it off and put the uh ears that I intended to put on it because this plate right here is hitting the uh thumb about it's hitting right there.

[00:51:08]So, I'm going to play around with it a little bit and uh make sure it's going to be okay. And then I'll take it back down sometime and put the uh ears that I intended to put on it. I'll weld them on permanent. But I'm going to mess around with these old trees over here and see how it does about picking stuff up.

[00:51:31]I have to be careful not break it because I've, you know, just got those six tack welds on it. So, let's see what it does on these things here.

[00:51:58]Heat. Heat.

[00:54:23]All right.

[00:54:49]Heat.

[00:55:00]Heat.

[00:55:47]Well, if I could close the thumb all the way on it. It worked really good. I mean, it worked good on the bigger logs.

[00:55:53]Didn't have a bit of problem. It's It is a little bit topheavy. So, but I think once I put the regular ears on it instead of this all this right here, this big plate, it's probably going to take probably about 30 lbs off of it. So, but yeah, it's it's a tad bit heavy, but I think it's going to work fine.

[00:56:18]Stuff like this right here is what I actually built it for. So, I think I'm going to walk the esavator down here and see what kind of a big bite I can get on it.

[00:56:43]Heat. Heat.

[00:57:49]Heat.

[00:57:53]Heat.

[00:58:24]Well, as you can see, that part of my test didn't go very well. I was kind of afraid of that. Uh, you know, I only had them six tacks on it and I didn't realize that that big tree was down there. When I grabbed a hold of it, I just snapped it plum off. But now I know it's going to work and I'm going to uh take it back down the shop and work on putting those bigger ears on it.

[00:58:51]But, you know, as you can see, it's raining, too. Some pretty bad storms are moving in.

[00:58:59]So, I guess that's going to be it for this video. I'll uh you know, make another little video next week on the uh ears, making those, putting them on. And I've come up with a another little project I want to do with that thing.

[00:59:14]It's not what it's meant to be used for, but I'm going to try it on something else anyway. And I may record that and do a little video.

[00:59:24]So, yeah, there's some pretty bad storms moving in. So, I'm going to get this thing back down to the shop and try to work on a little bit more.

[00:59:37]It just completely started pouring the rain right after I stopped recording a while ago. And uh I went ahead and loaded up and got it down here. You can see where I broke my tack welds off.

[00:59:52]One good thing about it, I won't have to use a wafer wheel to cut those tack welds. I just have to grind them down.

[01:00:02]But I'm probably going to end the video right here since I'm going to have to make some pins and make bushings. And I've got everything I need to do it.

[01:00:19]Just getting the time to do it is the question.

[01:00:24]Oh, here it is.

[01:00:27]There's my bushing material.

[01:00:31]So, like I said, I've got everything I need to do it.

[01:00:37]Well, I guess you could say my test was both a success and a failure since I proved that it's going to work.

[01:00:44]Although, it is a little bit heavy. But, uh, then I turned around and broke my little tack welds off, which I knew they was going to break. I just I didn't plan on it breaking where it did.

[01:01:01]>> [music]