Making a potato harvester for a power tiller with my own hands

Making a self-made potato harvester for power tiller with his own hands

For people in rural areas, harvesting potatoes in the fall is still a laborious task. Of course, today very few people do this kind of work manually, with a shovel. Many people buy various mechanical devices for this purpose, and some, so-called “Kulibiny”, with their own hands make various devices to relieve themselves and their loved ones from hard work. In particular demand among rural toilers is a potato harvester, which functions with a power tiller of any modification, whether it is the beloved model “Neva”, or the device from another manufacturer. Here the main thing is to have a clear idea of what is a homemade potato digger, and be able to create drawings according to the necessary calculations.

Design features and types

It is worth recalling at once that this mechanical device, as can be seen from the photo, to do the work, is hooked to a power tiller. Such a digger, made with their own hands, as shown in the video, is able to process the land plot not only near the house, but also in the field.

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The main purpose of the potato digger is to separate potato tubers from the soil and put them on the ground area. Such a unit is easy to operate and has an uncomplicated design. Therefore, to construct it with your own hands is usually not particularly difficult. Most importantly, this attachment mechanism is suitable for any model of power tiller, whether it is the well-known “Neva” or another modification.

Many readers will say that you can buy such a potato harvester at the point of sale of agricultural machinery and equipment, and why make it with your own hands. This statement is correct, but not quite. Any experienced vegetable grower will tell you that a digger, designed in a home workshop, will be more practical, because it will be designed for the already known characteristics of the soil, and will be made under the strength of a particular person. You should also add the price. The device made by your own hands, will cost much cheaper than buying it in a store.

Before starting the creative constructive work on the creation of a potato digger, you must remember, it is adapted to work on soils with medium and low density criterion. In order to make machines adapted to work on heavy soils, it is necessary to have a deep knowledge of physics and mechanics.

Digger for potatoes, adapted to the power tiller, as shown in the photo, there are such types:

Rattle or vibrating mechanism. it mainly consists of a ploughshare and a vibrating screen. The principle of this type of potato digger, which functions with a power tiller, is simple. The soil is undermined along with the potatoes with the ploughshare. Then the immovable transporter screen leaves the tubers on its surface, while the soil is shaken off like a sieve. Such a model is effective in operation, but rather difficult to manufacture.

Transporter unit for digging potatoes. it can work freely, for example, on the basis of such a motor-block, as “Neva”. By design, a transporter digger consists of a ploughshare and a moving transporter with a special hooking device to hold the tubers on the platform and clear the ground. The conveyor design for digging potatoes is more practical than the vibrating type of potato digger. But this kind of device is not practical on soils with a light density.

The dart type. by design it is the simplest mechanism, which can easily be adapted to any model of mini tractor, such as “Neva”. It does not contain any movable assemblies. As shown in the video, the soil with tubers is cut with a knife. Next, the cut falls on the surface of the special bars, where the soil is poured back, and the fruit in a clean form is laid on top of the soil. This digger is effective on low-density soils, where it is not practical to use other types of devices.

Before you begin to design such a device, first of all, you need to determine exactly the density of the soil on which it will be used. It is worth remembering that where a transporter design can ideally be used with a lancet type will be difficult to work with.

Machine and factory-made drawings of potato diggers

For a small farm, to conveniently harvest potatoes, you need to make a small-sized device. It should be easy to operate and be hitched to a single-axle tractor.

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The construction of the potato harvester: 1. welded frame, 2. knife, 3. conveyor, 4. pulley, 5. crank, 6. pulley bevel gear. 7. belt, 8. rack, 9. adapter, 10. support wheel, 11. spring tensioning device.

In order to make the device in question, it is necessary to have:

Coulter made of high quality metal alloy, at least 5 mm thick. To make it, you can use a saw from a circulating machine.

Metal angles of size 40 and 63 mm.

Steel rods. They are required to make a fixture, as shown in the photo, at least 8 pieces.

To make a device for digging potatoes of vibrating type, you need first of all to make a frame. It should be easy to dock, for example, with a mini tractor “Neva” or other modification.

In general, as shown in the video, such a device consists of the following units:

Adjusting rods of vertical version.

To construct such a unit, you need to make accurate calculations and create drawings according to them. Without following this rule, the process of making it with your own hands will be difficult.

How to make a potato digger for a power tiller

Potato digger for a motor-block with their own hands, made according to the drawings, must have certain characteristics. If it will be a manual potato digger, it must have an appropriate drive. Before carrying out the work, it is necessary to calculate the budget of the event and decide on the method of processing the land with the machine.

Potato digger with their own hands, made to carry out work on the land plot, has a simple principle. The design includes 2 steel blades needed to cut the ground. The tubers collected by the knives, together with the soil, go along a special transport grid to the hopper for the collection of vegetables.

Potato digger vibrating in the process of work separates the tubers from the soil. Your harvest can be piled on the ground next to the machine, if there was not enough special material for the hopper device. Individual elements of the structure of metal can be connected in two ways:

These methods ensure that the metal parts are firmly connected. Bolted connections have many advantages compared to welded joints because the potato digger can be easily dismantled if necessary.

No need for time-consuming work with special tools to connect the individual parts. You only need to prepare a drill with a drill bit and a couple of wrenches. Homemade potato diggers are made of 5-7 mm thick sheet metal. This size is able to guarantee a high level of stability for the construction as a whole.

The potato digger for mini-tractor does not weigh too much, which makes digging the soil much easier. For working on hard soils, use a digger with a larger size. It is heavier, so the ploughshare is able to dig into the ground better and turn out the soil layer with the vegetable tubers.

Potato harvester with your own hands

Before making a potato digger with your own hands, you should get acquainted with the technology of making this unit. It includes the following basic steps:

  • assembling the frame from metal angles and channels;
  • fixing the elevator and other elements to the prepared metal frame;
  • installation of shafts on the elevator, which transmit the force from the rotation of the wheels;
  • installing on the frame strong metal sides;
  • installation of the grid that vibrates due to the rotation of the wheels;
  • fixing the metal ploughshare to the elevator with 10mm bolts;
  • assembling the support and transport unit;
  • Connecting the machine to agricultural machinery, for example, MTZ.

Homemade potato digger of the screen type should be assembled using a welding machine or bolted from metal corners. The greater the load will be on them, the greater the thickness of the material should be provided. Often use the corners with the overall dimensions of 63×40 mm.

The potato digger with your own hands is made with an iron channel. The bolt connection scheme requires the purchase of the required quantity of hardware. The drawings suggest the use of a chain that transmits torque to the wheels made of rubber or metal.

The blade is attached only after the elevator is finally assembled and fastened to the supporting frame of the digger for the power tiller. It is the direct working part, representing a plough, needed to be able to turn the potato root crops out of the ground with ease. The support and transport unit made of discs or wheels also includes 2 roller chains. It is made using a metal rod.

Particular attention during the assembly of the mechanism should be paid to the way the potato digger is attached to the power tiller after assembly. This step is the last one in the process of making the machine for the single-axle tractor. If the design is poorly attached to it, it will be necessary to review not the attachment, but the single-axle tractor itself.

Design and principle of the potato harvester

Diggers can be attached to a power tiller or tractor, or they can be completely manual. The type of design determines what materials and tools you need to work with.

We will consider the principle of operation and design of a vibrating potato digger, attached to machinery.

Skilled craftsmen can assemble a potato digger that works by itself. This construction is equipped with a motor.

The principle of operation of the potato digger is based on the work of two metal blades that cut the soil. They are used to feed the tubers through a grid into a special bowl for harvesting.

The earth stuck on the sieve with the potatoes falls off thanks to the vibration. There may be no potato hopper at all: In this case, the vegetable falls straight to the ground. Potatoes fall on the ground and are picked up manually.

All parts of the device are equally important, because each of them affects the longevity and durability of the equipment.

The main parts of our potato digger:

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  • Frame;
  • Elevator (a grid that vibrates and sides to keep the potatoes from falling out);
  • Shafts (their rotation creates the effect of vibrating);
  • Ploughshare (plow with blades);
  • Support and transport unit (with its help, the potato digger moves: wheels, disks, roller chains, metal rod, sprockets and bearings).

Note! Potato diggers are most effective for garden plots with light soil, but also with medium-heavy soil.

Materials and tools

Materials that are needed to make a potato digger with their own hands:

  • The basis of the device is a metal frame. It can be made by welding together several angles of 63 x 40 mm.
  • Iron channel You can also use pipes (length about 130 cm).
  • Sheet metal for the ploughshare and walls (at least 7 mm thick);
  • Rebar (cross section of 10 mm).
  • If the connection will be held by bolts, you need to buy metalware.
  • A chain that must transmit rotary movements.
  • Metal props of different sizes (pieces of pipe or channel).
  • Wheels (can be metal or rubber, it depends on the soil to be worked on).
  • A drum made of metal or rebar.
  • Bolts (to fix the plowshare, size. 10).

Tools and equipment that may be needed when making a digger independently:

  • Welding machine for making the frame (possibly also for welding parts);
  • wrenches or ratchet heads;
  • A sledgehammer and hammer;
  • scissors or a saw on metal;
  • Drill and drill bits on metal.

How to make a potato digger of the screen type with your own hands

Making a potato digger screen type with their own hands is a little more complicated, but very realistic in the performance. To start, you need to make individual components of this useful unit, connect them to each other, check the mechanism, and potato digger for power tiller vibrating, made by hand, is ready for potato harvesting. Let’s study all the steps of making a potato digger for a power tiller. Before making this mechanism, it is recommended to make a schematic drawing of a potato digger for a power tiller with an indication of the dimensions of parts for clarity when measuring the material and further welding work.

Making the frame

To begin with, it is recommended to make the frame of the screen digger. To do this, you need to weld a rectangle of square section of 4040 mm (or corners), size 12080 cm, which should be well grinded with an angle grinder. Then a section of square tube 4040 mm is welded on a quarter of the length of this frame rectangle for the crosspiece and further installation of rods. In the other part of the frame do mount for the wheel axle, for this on the outer side in the corners to vertically arrange and weld two pieces of 15 cm long pipe diameter of 30 mm, and a drill drill drilled into each tube hole diameter of 10 mm. Then you need to install a few vertical struts. to do this, you need to step back 5 cm on both sides from the embedded bars and weld a square of 33 cm and 50 cm in length, then step back another 20 cm and weld 40-centimeter struts, then step back 40 cm and weld 30-centimeter struts, the result will be a kind of ladder. Now you need to connect the racks with a metal strip, which is 0.4 mm thick, at an angle of 45 degrees, resulting in a triangular structure.

Did you know? The first potato harvester with horse-drawn traction was made by a Russian blacksmith in 1847.

How to make a sloping board and a ralo

The next stage of making a potato digger with their own hands is to weld the working part of our device. the frame and the gantry board. The rake is necessary for digging potato tubers out of the soil and then feeding them onto a rolling platform of iron bars. For the construction of the frame you need two metal plates, 400400mm thick and 0.3mm thick, in each of which you make a hole for a bolt and also drill a hole in the posts, 5cm from the edge upwards, and firmly screw these metal plates to the frame with bolts. Then a metal plate measuring 3070 cm is bent conically in the central part by hammering and welded to the side plates at the butt. you get a frame, the edge of which should be sharpened for better penetration into the ground. Slope board is welded from 8-10 metal bars or rebar segments about 1.2 m long, one end of which is welded to the bottom of the frame, and the second. goes beyond the boundaries of the digger and moves fairly freely. The rods are welded parallel at a distance of approx. 40 mm. To strengthen the structure, you can weld a channel of about 30 cm on either side of the frame at the end. these will be the risers to which the bar is welded. To it will then be welded bars at a distance of two-thirds of its length for the strength of the rolling board. During the harvesting process, the free edges of the lattice bars will vibrate and crush the soil stuck to the roots. On the side of the rods of the gantry board it is recommended to weld also metal plates to prevent the potato tubers from falling out of the lattice structure.

Choice of wheels for the design

With the basic steps, how to make a potato digger with their own hands, we have already become familiar with, now you need to choose the wheels for the construction of such options:

  • metal. Suitable for hard ground, they make the digger heavier and improve the performance of the rake;
  • simple rubber. are used to work on loose soil, on wet ground they will not give the opportunity to transport the garden equipment;
  • rubber with tractor tread. make it possible to use the design in wet soil without slipping, they are bulky and heavy.

Creation of the mount

And here we are at the final stage of making a potato harvester with our own hands. making attachment and final assembly of the mechanism. The gear unit is attached to the axle with bearings, and the transport mechanism is assembled from wheels, roller chains, and metal disks. The axle as the connecting axle should be attached with sprockets, the discs are welded to it, to which the wheels are attached. The chain will transmit power and turn the shafts, driving the potato harvester mechanism.

Then in “G” shape make a holder. The long end is attached to the beam-shaped part that connects to the tiller, and the short end is welded to the edge of the frame. To control the angle of the frame, the best option would be to connect the beam with the potato harvester with two or more bolts.

As a result of all the work you will have a potato harvester for power tiller, very easy to use, in addition, it will be partially demountable and transportable thanks to the connection of the mechanism by bolts. Such a potato digger will help remove potato tubers from the soil, clean some of the soil and lay them neatly on the surface of the furrows. The owner of the homestead is left with only the harvesting and optimal storage conditions.

Features of screen designs

The second name of this design is the vibratory digger. This kind of potato digger for power tiller works on the following principle: one of the elements. the petecha, deepens under the soil, and the stationary grid, leaving the tubers, sifts the soil, as if through a sieve. A coarse potato digger to a power tiller, as a rule, is not able to process large areas at a time. The driver is forced to pass thin strips of land, which wastes a lot of fuel and time on harvesting.

This design consists of a pellet and a moving conveyor belt. Before digging potatoes, you will need to check the area for thick weeds, so that they do not wind up on the “tray” of the device.

Transporter design is equipped with a hitch element, which is designed to hold the potatoes on a special platform. The soil simply falls off the platform, and the farmer gets clean potatoes.

This type of equipment is quite practical, but it should not be used on wet soil.

The design of lancet diggers

Arrow, or fan design, is considered one of the simplest. During operation the soil is cut with knives, and together with the crop falls on special bars. The soil crumbles off them quickly, and the potatoes remain on their surface.

This type of device has proven effective on soft and loose soil.

Potato digger for a motor-block of this type has one disadvantage. when processing uneven areas, the rods can get stuck in the ground, due to which the farmer has to constantly stop the work.

Rumble potato digger with their own hands

Equipment of this type is a little more difficult to make by your own forces. Nevertheless, the result is really worth the time spent, because the potato digger has a capacity in 2, and even 3 times higher than the simplest device for potato harvesting. Such a device is perfect for digging tubers in vegetable gardens with an area of 10 hectares or more.

To make a potato digger you will need to prepare materials and equipment, which include:

  • Profile pipe. with it you need to make a frame;
  • 3-millimeter sheet of steel, which will be needed to make a bucket;
  • metal armature or a circle;
  • channel, 3 × 3 cm, which will be needed for the manufacture of vertical rods;
  • gearbox and front hub from VAZ car brand;
  • spline-type connection;
  • a whole wheel with a tire;
  • angle grinder and drill
  • welding machine;
  • set of fasteners.

As in the first case, we advise to read the drawings in advance, which will prompt how to place and attach the parts of the potato digger. The manufacturing algorithm is as follows:

  • First weld a strong frame, which should be attached to the device at two supporting points;
  • As a pulling device, use a hanger, also made of metal parts;
  • The wheel will serve as a stop of the whole structure and will regulate the height of its location above the soil, so be sure to provide a reliable mount for it;
  • The gearbox of the potato harvester must be driven by means of a shaft, which must be attached to the wheel of the equipment;
  • The working part is driven by means of a slotted connection. Thanks to the presence of such a node, the ploughshare will move sideways, sifting the soil and dropping the collected tubers.

Made in such a way a screen potato digger on a single-axle tractor will help quickly dig out potatoes, and save a lot of time and effort of its owner. It is easy to use and requires little maintenance.

Both the simplest and the screen potato harvester can be successfully used together with the Neva MB-1 and MB-2 power tillers, as well as Agro, Cascade, Caiman and MTZ machines.

Drawings of a potato harvester for a power tiller: dimensions, photos

Detailed drawings of fan type potato digger for power tiller photo and video of the device in operation.

As is known, there are two types of potato diggers for power tillers, fan and vibrating. The most simple in the manufacture of fan type digger, and its device we will consider.

Fan digger is the hinged equipment, in this variant for the power tiller, this is how this device looks like.

The device for digging potatoes represents a plough with a fan from rods, during movement of a power tiller the plough plunges into the soil and lifts it on a lattice from rods, in turn rods loosen and sieve soil thus potato tubers are thrown already on top of soil.

The video shows the working principle of the fan spudger.

To make a potato digger for a power tiller, you can use the provided drawings with dimensions and photos.

Self-made machine consists of several parts:

Variant of making a plough for digging potatoes.

The picture shows a system for adjusting the depth and angle of the plow. Holes in the bipod allow you to adjust the depth of plowing into the soil.

In this video the author shows a self-made potato planter.