Potato digger drawing and dimensions assembly diagram. Homemade potato digger for walk-behind tractor. Work on creating a vibration model
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Working in the field is not the easiest work. And the owners of their own plots know this very well. Therefore, they strive to make this work as easy as possible through the use of technology. A process like digging potatoes is very difficult to do manually. A rumble-type potato digger, assembled with your own hands, comes to the rescue. It will help make the task as easy as possible by separating the tubers from the soil.
What is
A screen-type potato digger, assembled with your own hands or purchased in a store, will help you dig up potato tubers and separate them from the ground. The first option is preferable for many gardeners. This is primarily due to financial savings for its construction.
This device is distinguished by high performance. The main elements are the drive, the share and the barrel. The operating principle is simple. The knives cut the soil, which, together with the root crops, rises onto a vibrating table. Due to vibration, the soil wakes up back through the cracks. Potatoes are large in size, so they do not fit into the cracks. Root crops fall from the reverse side to the surface of the earth. All that remains is to collect them in a basket.
The dimensions of the screen-type potato digger allow you to dig up tubers from one row. The device is about 70 cm in length and just over 40 cm in width; the exact dimensions can be seen in the drawing shown in the picture below.
Device Features
A home-made screening potato digger can work in conjunction with a large number of the most common walk-behind tractors, such as the Neva. It is important to select and manufacture the coupling unit correctly.
The difference between this type of digger is that almost all tubers are removed from the ground. The amount remaining in the soil is minimal. In this case, the tubers are not damaged (not cut), since all the parts are round.
The potato digger is suitable for use on light to medium soils. This can be not only a personal plot, but also a field.
Potato digger device
A homemade screen-type potato digger consists of the following main elements:
- Frame. It is the element on which all other parts are installed.
- Lattice made of metal rods. It vibrates during operation, throwing soil back.
- The shaft that creates the vibration of the grate.
- A transport hub that allows a device to move. It includes discs, sprockets, chains, rods and other elements.
These are basic items that may require other small parts to function properly.
Required materials and tools
To make a digger, in addition to theoretical knowledge, it is necessary to prepare the materials from which the device will be assembled. This may include:
- Metal channel (8-10 mm is enough).
- 30 or 40 mm.
- Fittings (metal rods 10 mm).
- Iron sheet 3-5 mm thick.
- Bolts and nuts.
A screen-type potato digger cannot be assembled with your own hands without special tools and devices. The tools you will need are a grinder, a drill, a welding machine and some other small things (wrenches, a hammer, a tape measure, and so on).
Assembly of the structure
A do-it-yourself potato peeler is assembled in a certain sequence. To do this, you need to complete several steps.
The first is making the frame. To do this, the metal corner is sawn into 4 parts. Two of them should be 120 cm long, and the other two should be 80 cm long. Using a welding machine, a base in the shape of a rectangle is prepared from the pieces.
Next, jumpers are attached on which vertical rods will be installed to control the equipment. Jumpers should be attached a quarter of the length of the base of the frame. The shaft for the wheels is mounted on the other side of the frame. The fastener consists of two tubes 15 cm long and 3 mm wide.
After this, vertical racks are installed. For this, two squares are made. They are attached at a distance of about half a centimeter from the edge of the frame on the side of the jumpers. The next 4 cm long rack is installed at a distance of 20 cm. Having retreated another 40 cm, racks with a length of 30 cm are attached, the racks are connected to each other with a metal plate.
The second stage is making the rala. To do this, a metal rectangle of 40x40 cm is cut, and holes are made for attaching to the racks. The same sheet of iron is attached to the reverse side. After this, a sheet with a size of 70x70 cm is welded to the first element. Using a sledgehammer, it is bent into a cone shape.
The next stage involves making the grating. For this purpose, rods are attached to the ready-made rahl. Their length should be slightly longer than the length of the frame.
At the last stage, the wheels and adjusting rods are attached. At this point, the screening type potato digger is ready. She can be brought to work. Thanks to this device, the hard work of digging up root crops will become as easy as possible.
People living in rural areas and summer residents harvest potato crops every year. This process is quite labor-intensive, especially if you do the cleaning manually. To simplify potato harvesting, many people purchase special potato diggers for walk-behind tractors. However, some owners refuse such a purchase and try to make such a design themselves. However, before you make a potato digger with your own hands, you need to familiarize yourself with the types of diggers and the features of their manufacture.
Before you create a potato digger, you need to study in more detail exactly what this tool is used for. This attachment should be used together with a walk-behind tractor. It is used for digging up potatoes and digging soil in fields and garden plots.
The main function of a potato digger is to separate tubers from the soil and lay them on the surface of the ground. This is why many vegetable growers and farmers buy or make such devices themselves before harvesting.
Varieties
Any potato digger for a mini tractor is made to loosen the soil and dig potato tubers onto its surface. However, despite the fact that all potato diggers for walk-behind tractors perform the same function, such designs may still differ. There are several types of diggers that you can make yourself or purchase in a store.
Vibrating or screening
The potato grinder is made of a vibrating sieve and a ploughshare. The vibration product has a fairly simple principle of operation. During operation, the digger is placed in the soil and gradually removes ripened tubers from there. Together with the soil, they fall into a sieve to shake off unnecessary soil. This kind of potato digging has a serious drawback - it is very difficult to do it yourself.
Simple or fan
This fan potato digger for a mini tractor has the simplest design. It is made from a plow to which several arrows must be attached. During harvesting with a motorized cultivator with a simple digger installed, the plow will go deeper into the ground and the dug up tubers will begin to rise along its rods. The advantages of this digger include its versatility. It can be installed on any model of walk-behind tractors and mini tractors.
Transport
A transport-type potato digger is perfect for walk-behind tractors of a model such as the Neva and therefore should be used with them. The design of such a digger is very simple and consists only of a mobile conveyor and a ploughshare. The conveyor has a special hook that holds the tubers and helps separate them from the ground. A transport potato digger should be used only in areas with heavy soil, since this model does not dig up tubers well from soil with a low degree of density.
How to make a potato digger with your own hands
Before you make a potato digger for a walk-behind tractor with your own hands, you need to read the instructions for making such products. First, you should familiarize yourself with the list of tools that will be useful for creating a manual potato digger. To make a homemade potato digger you will need:
- reinforced rods;
- iron plate;
- engraver;
- welding;
- Bulgarian;
Creating a Frame
The basis of the homemade product for a walk-behind tractor or a walk-behind tractor is the frame of a potato digger. To make a high-quality frame, you need to familiarize yourself with the basic steps of its creation.
Welding the fastening rectangle
The mounting rectangle forms the frame of the entire device and therefore must be done very carefully. To make the frame, you will need a square iron pipe with a length of at least four meters and a width of about 50 cm. It is cut into four different parts, two of which should have a length of 100–120 cm, and the rest - 80–90 cm. All cut pipes are welded in this way so that the result is a rectangular structure. After welding, the edges must be sanded by hand to remove sharp corners.
Fastening the jumper
The potato digger connected to the walk-behind tractor must adjust its level of inclination, and it is for this purpose that a jumper is installed for mounting special rods. It is mounted in the center of a rectangular frame. On the opposite side, two small pipes are installed, no more than 10 cm long and 25 mm in diameter. The tubes are mounted on the frame so that wheels can be attached to them in the future. They are installed on the outside of the frame in one of its corners. After attaching the pipes, small holes with a diameter of 10–15 mm are made in each of them using a drill.
Installation of vertical racks
In order for a self-made potato digger for a walk-behind tractor to have a more reliable frame, you will have to attach several vertical posts to the frame. First, you need to step back 5–10 cm from the jumper along the frame and weld a small metal square measuring 35x35 cm perpendicular to it. Then you need to step back 15 cm from it and attach iron posts 30–35 cm long. As a result, the finished structure should look like an inverted staircase.
Rack connection
The final stage of creating the frame that will make up the potato digger for the tractor is connecting the edges of the stands. To do this, it is recommended to use metal strips 0.5 mm thick. Each of these strips is welded to the posts at an angle of 45 degrees, after which their edges should be connected to each other. The finished structure will have the shape of a triangle.
Ralo and pitch board
Having finished with the frame, you can begin to create the pitched board and raal. These made parts of a potato digger for a walk-behind tractor are used to dig tubers out of the ground and clear them from the ground. For an inexperienced tractor driver and gardener, creating such elements may seem like a very difficult job. Therefore, before getting down to business, you need to familiarize yourself with the peculiarities of their manufacture.
Welding the rala
To create this element with your own hands, you will need to make two small holes in a small iron sheet with dimensions of 30x30 cm for installing M12 bolts. They will also have to be made in each of the racks at a distance of about 45 cm from the bottom. When all the holes are prepared, the metal sheet can be screwed on.
Then we place another iron sheet on the opposite side. In this case, metal is used with dimensions of 60x30 cm and a thickness of 0.5 mm. The center of the attached sheet must be hit 2-3 times with a sledgehammer to form a cone.
Welding a pitched board
The device for digging potatoes must have a pitched board, and therefore, after welding the ral, you need to start making it. To create a pitched board, you will need to prepare one twig with a diameter of 10-15 mm and a length of about one meter. One of its edges is welded to the newly created rahl, and the second should extend beyond the base of the potato digger for the walk-behind tractor.
There are times when a welded rod begins to wobble greatly and it is necessary to create additional support for it. To do this, a riser 25–30 cm long is welded at the end of the frame. Then a square pipe is attached to the riser, to which three rods will have to be welded to ensure additional stability of the structure.
Installation of adjusting rods
A homemade potato digger for a walk-behind tractor must be equipped with adjusting rods. They are installed so that in the future you can independently adjust the inclination of each installed rod. They must be mounted to the first cross member on the product frame. To reduce the angle of inclination, the installed rod will have to be unscrewed so that its rods begin to protrude. To increase the angle, you will have to screw the rods back in.
Wheel mounting
In order for a potato digger attached to a walk-behind tractor to move better around the site, you need to install several wheels on it. To do this, you can use any wheels from wheelbarrows, the load capacity of which should not exceed one hundred kilograms. A mount must be welded to each wheel and installed on the potato digger.
Probably, every owner of a large personal plot or vegetable garden wants to minimize the labor intensity of land work and reduce the time of tillage to a minimum, which is why gardeners strive to acquire a walk-behind tractor and various equipment for it. If you are the happy owner of this useful equipment and like to grow a lot of potatoes on your plot, then it makes sense to think about the need for a potato digger for mechanical harvesting. Now you can buy various designs and improved equipment for all types of walk-behind tractors, or you can put in a little effort and make a digger for a walk-behind tractor with your own hands. In this article we will introduce you to the varieties of this device and tell you how to make a potato digger yourself.
Do-it-yourself potato digger - design features
There are two types of household potato diggers:simple And vibration The principle of operation of potato diggers of all types is the same - the rawl, ploughshare or tines are immersed in the soil and extract potato tubers onto its surface. Thus, the gardener will not need to manually dig out potatoes from each hole - the gardening unit will do it for him. Both types of diggers can be made independently from available materials or you can buy some components, the cost of which is low, and save your budget.
Simple digger is an attachment in the form of a pointed curved iron sheet to which rods are welded in a fan-shaped manner. This mini-ploughshare cuts the soil and lifts the tubers along an expanding fan of twigs, while sifting out excess soil. A simple digger, which is attached to a walk-behind tractor, mechanizes potato harvesting. 
Vibrating digger is a conveyor potato digger for use when working with a walk-behind tractor. Complete with screening grid and wheels. The harvesting mechanism with such a digger is simple: the soil is cut with a rake, which goes along with the potato tubers onto a grid, where the root crops are sifted from the clods of earth and then rolled along the screening grid to the soil surface. 
Important! It makes sense to make a potato digger yourself for cultivating areas with light and medium-heavy soils.
How to make a potato digger with your own hands: choosing material and tools
In order to make a regular homemade potato digger for a walk-behind tractor, you will need the following materials:
- frame made of welded corners, the size of which is 40 by 40 mm;
- sections of pipe or channel 1.3 m long;
- fittings with a diameter of 10 mm;
- metal sheet with a thickness of 7 mm or more for the sides of the fence and ploughshare;
- pieces of square pipes or channels for metal racks - 8-10 pieces;
- rotary metal drum and chain for transmitting rotation;
- wheels, bolts and hardware.
Did you know? A vibrating potato digger for a walk-behind tractor ensures harvesting up to 95% of the entire potato harvest, and a simple fan one – up to 85%.
Equipment and tools needed to create a potato digger with your own hands:
- welding machine;
- drill and drill bits;
- metal scissors;
- hammer, wrenches;
- Bulgarian.
Features of making a simple potato digger
A simple potato digger is an improved curved shovel that plunges into the ground below the level of potato tubers and pushes them to the surface. By correctly calculating the width of the digger and the angle of inclination of the cutting tool, during harvesting you can loosen the soil, which will not need digging. Making a simple potato digger is simple - three sheets of iron are welded together and attached to the walk-behind tractor with a special fastener. The simplicity of the design and the small number of component parts allow it to be manufactured by a novice agricultural machine operator who knows how to work with a welding machine.
How to make a hiller
The simplest hiller is the lister type, which consists of two peak-shaped welded wings made of sheet iron with a thickness of at least 2-3 mm. This device has a fixed grip length due to fixed elements, the tip of which pierces and loosens the ground, so every gardener planning to make a simple potato digger with his own hands must first make drawings of the device, taking into account the row spacing that is acceptable for him, which he usually maintains when planting potatoes. As a rule, this is approximately 60 cm, and industrial hillers are only 30 cm wide. To make a hiller, you need to take a sheet of metal with a thickness of at least 3 mm of a triangular shape, the base length of which is from 30 to 60 cm, and the height is approximately 30 cm. This element of the hiller is bent along the height of the triangle, thereby creating a point that pierces the ground, welded to it small rectangles in the form of wings, the span of which will be equal to the width of the rows. 7-10 rods approximately 30 cm long are welded to the main triangle in a fan-shaped manner. For better rigidity, the tip of the triangle is reinforced with an iron strip no less than 3 mm thick.
Important! A rigid stand-mount will prevent overloading the walk-behind tractor engine during operation.
Attaching the potato digger
To attach the potato digger to the walk-behind tractor, you will need a metal rectangle 50*520 mm, the metal thickness of which is at least 10 mm. Holes are drilled on it to regulate the depth of immersion of the digging tip into the ground to avoid cutting the tubers. It makes sense to strengthen the rigidity of the tip and wings by connecting the edges of the wings with an iron plate, to which a structural post will be welded, bearing the entire load of earthworks when harvesting potatoes; if possible, this metal part can be pre-hardened.
How to make a screen-type potato digger with your own hands
Making a potato screening type digger with your own hands is a little more complicated, but very realistic to implement. First, you need to make the individual components of this useful unit, connect them together, check the operation of the mechanism, and the do-it-yourself vibrating potato digger for a walk-behind tractor is ready for harvesting potatoes. Let's study all the stages of making a potato digger for a walk-behind tractor. Before manufacturing this mechanism, it is recommended to make a schematic drawing of a potato digger for a walk-behind tractor, indicating the dimensions of the parts for clarity when measuring the material and further welding work.
To begin with, it is recommended to make a frame for the screen digger. To do this, you should weld a rectangle measuring 120*80 cm from a square pipe of 40*40 mm (or corners), which needs to be well sanded with a grinder. Then a section of 40*40 mm square pipe is welded to a quarter of the length of this frame rectangle for a jumper and further installation of rods. In another part of the frame we make a mount for the wheel axle; to do this, from the outside in the corners, we need to vertically position and weld two 15 cm long pipes with a diameter of 30 mm, and use a drill to drill a hole with a diameter of 10 mm in each pipe. 
Then you should install several vertical posts - to do this, you need to step back 5 cm from the built-in jumpers on both sides and weld them in a square measuring 3*3 cm and 50 cm long, then step back another 20 cm and weld 40 cm posts, after which step back 40 cm and weld 30 cm posts, the result will be a kind of ladder. Now you need to connect the racks with a metal strip, the thickness of which is 0.4 mm, at an angle of 45 degrees, the result is a triangular structure.
Did you know?The first horse-drawn potato digger was created by a Russian blacksmith in 1847.
How to make a pitched board and ralo
The next stage of making a potato digger with your own hands is welding the working part of our device - the raal and the pitched board. Ralo is necessary for digging potato tubers from the soil and then feeding them onto a ramp made of iron rods. For the construction of the rahl, two metal sheets measuring 400 * 400 mm, 0.3 mm thick, are needed, in each of which you need to make a hole for a bolt, and also drill a hole in the racks, stepping back 5 cm from the edge, and firmly screw these metal plates to frame with bolts. Then a metal plate measuring 30*70 cm is bent cone-shaped in the central part using hammer blows and butt-welded to the side sheets - it turns out to be a rawl, the edge of which needs to be sharpened for better penetration into the ground. 
The pitched board is welded from 8-10 metal rods or pieces of reinforcement approximately 1.2 m long, one end of which is welded below to the raft, and the second extends beyond the boundaries of the digger and moves quite freely. The rods are welded parallel at a distance of about 40 mm. To strengthen the structure, a channel about 30 cm long can be welded at the end of the frame on both sides - these will be risers to which the bar is welded. Rods will then be welded to it at a distance of two-thirds of their length to strengthen the pitched board. During the harvesting process, the free edges of the rods will vibrate and break the soil adhering to the root crops. It is also recommended to weld metal plates on the side of the bars of the pitched board to prevent potato tubers from falling out of the lattice structure. 
Selection of wheels for the design
We have already familiarized ourselves with the main steps of how to make a potato digger with our own hands; now we need to choose wheels for the design from the following options:
- metal– suitable for use on hard soil, their weight makes the digger heavier and improves the work of the rake;
- rubber simple– used for working on loose soil; on wet soil they will not make it possible to transport garden equipment;
- rubber with tractor tread– will make it possible to use the structure in wet soil without slipping; they are bulky and heavy.
Important!Wider wheels will make it easier to move the potato digger around garden beds.
Making fasteners
And here we are at the final stage of making a potato digger with our own hands - making the mount and final assembly of the mechanism. The gearbox unit is attached to the axle using bearings, and the transport mechanism is assembled from wheels, roller chains, and metal disks. The axle, as a connecting bridge, should be attached with sprockets; discs are welded to it, to which the wheels are attached. The chain will transmit energy and rotate the shafts, driving the potato digger mechanism.
Then a holder is made with the letter “G”. The long end is attached to a radial part connected to the walk-behind tractor, and the short end is welded to the tip of the rahl. To control the angle of the rafter, the best option would be to connect the beam to the potato digger with two or more bolts.
The bulk of Russians' garden space is traditionally allocated to potatoes, because our people also call it the second bread. Many have transferred part of the labor of growing potatoes onto their shoulders, or rather onto trailed small-scale mechanization equipment: walk-behind tractors and mini tractors.
And if planting potatoes is not a big job, then hilling them, and most importantly, digging them up is not an easy task. For hilling and weeding, the hiller included with walk-behind tractors is most often used, but for digging in its pure form it is not entirely suitable. Let's figure out what to dig and how to make a potato digger for a walk-behind tractor with your own hands.
There are several known designs of potato diggers for walk-behind tractors and mini tractors. Let's look at them: from the simplest to the most technologically advanced.
Fan potato diggers
The simplest ones to manufacture are also produced industrially, but most require some modifications.
It is immediately clear that they are based on the same hiller; it is this hiller, buried below the level of the tubers, that loosens and turns the soil. But he brings up the dug potatoes - a fan welded to the back of the hiller. Its role is played by metal rods, welded at a distance of 3–4 cm from each other, diverging and curved in the upper part.
The amount of depth is regulated by thrust wheels, and the transverse bar serves as a footrest, upon which a person, with his weight, provides the required depth to the device.
It is this type of fan potato digger that seems to us to be the most productive. The digging process itself can be seen here:
You will have to modify the shape, angle of attack and other nuances yourself, taking into account your soil, the power and driving performance of the walk-behind tractor on which you plan to install the potato digger, and even the varieties of potatoes that form tubers at different depths.
A type of similar digger without a fan, designed for two people:
Potato diggers with a roar
This is the most common type of potato digger, produced by various machine-building plants in Russia and abroad. It has slight design differences, primarily in the design of the screen drive - oscillating during operation of the pan, which allows the potatoes to be partially cleared of the soil while the potato digger is moving.
The knife of such a digger can have different configurations. It can be fixed motionless, or it can be hinged and oscillate slightly during movement, simplifying the process of digging up tubers. The width of the knife is 35 – 40 cm.
DIY drawings
It is this type of potato digger, despite being quite difficult to manufacture, that is made by home craftsmen with their own hands more often than others. We offer approximate drawings with the main dimensions of such a potato digger for a walk-behind tractor.
A large number of joints of moving parts makes this device regularly serviced, but the result of its work is of better quality than that of fan-shaped potato diggers:
Potatoes are peeled better from the ground and are located on its surface.
The magnitude and frequency of oscillations of the screen may vary and depend on the design of the drive, but even with minor oscillations, cleaning occurs quite well:
Conveyor potato diggers
They are much easier to make yourself, but in our opinion they are no worse at peeling potatoes from soil.
Their knives are the same as those of the screening ones, and the potatoes are peeled while they move along the conveyor belt. It is clear that the longer it is, the better the potatoes will be peeled, but long conveyor belts can only be installed on potato diggers used with tractors. On walk-behind tractors, they will interfere with the person walking behind him.
The conveyor belt drive may be different. If it is taken from the wheels of the digger itself, then they must have good lugs so that they do not lock on wet or very loose soil.
Also interesting in this design are the rear guides, which more compactly place the potatoes behind the belt.
In this self-assembled conveyor potato digger, the belt drive is carried out from the power take-off shaft of a homemade walk-behind tractor and is transmitted by a motorcycle chain.
To view a picture, click on its thumbnail on the right
When manufacturing a potato digger of this type, the main problem will be selecting the rotation speed of the conveyor drive gear and matching it with the speed of the power take-off shaft. In this model, the power take-off shaft rotates at a speed of 500 - 800 rpm, and the gearbox is taken from a motor boat with a gear ratio of approximately 1:2. The rest is selected by the size of the stars for an approximate walking speed when digging 2-3 km/h.
And yet, the connection between the speed of the conveyor belt and the wheel speed seems more appropriate to us.
There are models designed for specific walk-behind tractors and mini tractors, like this one for mechanisms with a side power take-off shaft:
Drum potato diggers
This is a rather rare type of equipment for mini-equipment, so it is mostly homemade. Peeling potatoes from soil in such devices occurs quite efficiently, as does laying them on the ground, but the design itself is quite controversial, and the tubers are more damaged than when digging with the above-mentioned potato diggers, and therefore are worse preserved.
What is simpler about them is the direct drive of rotation from the power take-off shaft. Everything else: making the drum, thrust rollers and bearings is clearly more complicated. The design of the knife does not have any special features, except that it is preferable for it to have a more rounded shape in the back so that the potatoes are not further damaged when they get into the drum.
Horse-mounted potato digger
There are still quite a lot of them for sale on the Internet. They are imported mainly from Poland and converted into mini tractors and walk-behind tractors.
At the same time, taking into account the higher speed of movement of this equipment in comparison with a horse, in addition to modifying the towing device, a limiter-shield is placed on it on the side on which the dug potatoes are thrown. Otherwise, it will have to be collected in neighboring areas. A wedge-shaped paw digs up the potatoes, as in fan diggers, and the drive of the device that removes the tubers from the ground is carried out by wheels with lugs. The higher the travel speed, the faster this potato extractor rotates.
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A walk-behind tractor is used to harvest potatoes in small and medium-sized plots. A potato digger for a walk-behind tractor is a must-have equipment in this case, because agricultural work is unthinkable without special tools, devices and equipment. The hard times of manual labor are a thing of the past.
Any model of potato digger has the same operating principle. Its principle should be described as follows: teeth or rods, plunging into the ground, pull tuber by tuber onto the surface. Each potato rises from the nest and is harvested by hand very quickly.
Types of potato diggers
There are several dozen device models on the market, but there are only two types:
- A simple potato digger. Conventional attachments like a shovel or plow with welded rods or teeth. A plow or shovel cuts into the soil, lifting ripened fruits out along the teeth. It turns out that excess soil is sifted out from root crops in the process of loosening and lifting the soil. All the tubers from the nest remain at the top. The peculiarity of a simple potato digger is that it can be installed on a walk-behind tractor or small tractor of any power.
- Vibrating potato digger. This is a conveyor potato digger for a walk-behind tractor. Equipped with a screening grid or grids that are placed on the support wheels. The design also includes a ploughshare. During the cultivation process, the soil is cut through with a plowshare, then it is lifted along with the root crops onto the grate. On the grid, the potatoes are sifted from the soil and tops. Then the root crops fall along the grate to the surface of the plot. At the end it is easy to collect the harvest in potato bags.
Agricultural equipment of this type is produced under different brands and has several types of fastenings. Before purchasing, it is better to make sure that the device is suitable for your cultivator model.
Several main popular models for cultivators:
- Regular "KKM-1".
- Regular "KVM-3".
- Regular "Garden Scout".
- Vibrating "Neva".
- Vibration "Poltava".
The price of a potato digger for a walk-behind tractor from this list varies from 7,000 to 12,500 rubles. During the summer season, prices can, of course, increase.
It is important that the listed models of potato diggers are exactly suitable for the type of attachment to walk-behind tractors:
- "Firework".
- "MTZ".
Homemade potato digger for walk-behind tractor
It is worth making a manual potato digger for compact areas. It is better to buy industrial types of equipment for large areas from manufacturers.
Simple vibration equipment can be easily made from the following materials:
- Iron channel.
- The pieces of steel were no thinner than 5 millimeters. Strong steel will be required for the plowshare. A used blade from a circular saw or any other high-speed steel is perfect.
- Iron corners from rolled metal.
- Steel or iron rods. It is better to use fittings of small diameter.
The vibration model must be made from a base or frame. The design must include:
- base (the above-mentioned frame);
- suspension system;
- rods for adjustment;
- moving elements (wheels or lugs).
Drawing of a vibrating potato digger for a walk-behind tractor: 
Tools required for work
Can't do without:
- Bulgarians;
- welding machine;
- engraver or drill;
- square and level;
- mounting plates;
- steel bolts with nuts.
Work on creating a vibration model
Rules for manufacturing each part separately and assembling the entire mechanism.
The basis
It is optimal to use a square profile pipe 40 by 40 mm. It is better to take a 4-meter piece of rolled metal and divide it into segments of 120 and 80 centimeters. We get four support beams.
From them you need to weld a base in the form of a rectangle at a right angle. Its dimensions will be 120 by 80 centimeters.
Rod mount
It is necessary to weld the jumpers not in the middle of the frame (rectangle), but at a quarter of its length.
On the back side of the base, we fix the square tubes in a vertical position by welding. They are placed outside the base to install the axle. Wheels are then installed on the axle.
Or an engraver makes a 1 centimeter hole in a place convenient for fastening.
Vertical racks
We retreat 5 centimeters from the edge of the frame and secure the square profile by welding. Its length is no more than 50 centimeters. After 15-20 cm, we also fix the square profile by welding, but already 40 centimeters long. After the second rack, we measure 40 centimeters and secure the 30 centimeter profile with welding.
As a result, the design is similar to a metal pair of descending stairs.
Rigidity for racks
It is necessary to secure the racks at the bottom of the structure. To do this, use a strip of metal 0.4 - 0.5 mm. The racks should be connected by welding at 45 degrees, additionally welding the strips together.
Plowshare or ralo
Creating the working part of a potato digger. A homemade ploughshare must sink into the soil, digging through potato rows for harvesting.
To make a ralo, you need metal from 0.3 mm thick. Two “working” blades are cut out according to the drawing and a homemade plow is welded. To give it a three-dimensional shape convenient for gripping the soil, you need to tap the center of the blades with a hammer, after securing the entire structure with a fastening rod.
Making pitched boards
The pitched board is a continuation of the design of the potato digger, or rather steel rods welded to the base. The easiest way is to use reinforcing bars with a diameter of no more than 10 mm and a length of up to 120 centimeters. Every 4-5 centimeters you need to weld the reinforcement, as shown in the photo.
Adjustment rods
An optional element, because adjustment is only needed on problematic (watery) soil.
The rods will easily adjust the desired angle for tilting the reinforcement (pitched) board. The easiest way is to make a movable structure in the form of a frame on which the pitched board is located. The frame is tightened with ordinary bolts.
Support wheels
The design of a digger for a walk-behind tractor, created by yourself, must be equipped with movable wheels for ease of operation and movement.
It is most profitable to equip the digger with wheels from a garden wheelbarrow with wide tires. We purchase axles, attach them to the frame and install the wheels. It is easier to secure the wheels with a pin (as in a garden wheelbarrow).
The simplest potato digger for a walk-behind tractor with your own hands
A lancet-type potato digger is the simplest type of attachment for. Manufacturing does not require special materials, complex drawings or measurements.
You will need a bipod, but it can be easily cut, for example, from an old shovel. Make rods from reinforcement or adapt teeth from old forks. A thrifty owner will always find a use for even old broken garden tools.
To successfully use homemade equipment, you need to know the degree of soil density on the site. Otherwise, using such a potato digger will become inconvenient.
Easy to attach to any model of cultivator or mini-tractor. There are no moving parts in the design, so there is nothing to break.
Potato digger for walk-behind tractor - video