[RRMCCABE]

Looking for any tips you guys might have to offer.

My brother inlaw gave me a sprayer for my tractor. It has a PTO mounted pump and a tank I am guessing to be 35 gallons. It also has a 60" straight boom. Everything is in decent shape except it has a broken fitting (nozzle body) and the boom is bent up a little.

My intention is to strip the thing down, repaint it green, build a new boom with breakaway arms and replace the hoses and probably the spray gun.

It currently has 80 degree spray nozzles (three of them) on a round boom. I was considering switching to a 1" square tubing boom but was wondering if sticking to round was wise so I could tip the nozzles back a little to get a wider spray pattern.

Seems that I would want to keep the spray bar low to the ground so I dont get chemical blowing back on me or the tractor.

Not sure if tractor supply sells the nozzle bodys like mine or not. All I have seen is the twist on bayonette type. I have no issues with replacing all of them if there is something better.

So looking for input related to the boom. I should have enough pump to run 4 nozzles if needed. Wondering how wide I should go and if there are any better nozzle systems than others. As I said I plan to make the booms hinge so I can hit a tree and have them fold out of the way.

This is to be used on 3 acres and I have a decent amount of trees. So its not like I am spraying fields with it

 

[RandyM]

Maybe there are some ideas here.

Here is a thread of my mods on my sprayer. It is a Demco 60 gal with a 12 ft boom and 4 nozzles. The boom is a square tube and hinged with springs as you are looking to do. The manual suggests running the boom at a height of 21 inches off the ground, maybe a starting point for you depending on spray angle. Let me know if you got any specific questions.

http://www.greentractortalk.com/forums/showthread.php?1549-Demco-Sprayer-with-Mods&highlight=sprayer

 

[ejb69]

Look onto going boomless if you have a lot of trees. I only have 1 noozle on mine,but have seen one with 3 that had a 32' spray width.

Northern Tool may have the parts you need.

 

[RRMCCABE]

Thanks guys.

Randy, checking out your thread now. You always do some creative stuff

Eric, thanks for the boomless suggestion. How is the control?

The first stuff I am spraying goes down at 5 oz to an acre. I think at 8 oz it will start to kill my grass. That said, I want to make sure I get an even application

I did go around back and get it today and bring it up to shop. First modification is going to be making it fit the i-Match. Without bushings and just a pin on the top I could move it but need to add about 1" to the vertical spacing to make it right.

Ran the pump and spray gun and that seems to work. I ran it up to 60psi. Not sure what I can expect out of the hypro style pump. I think I had the bypass valve cranked up but need to check it.

This thing doesnt have a drain on the bottom. Will be adding one when I replumb it.

 

[Kennyd]

My boom runs at 20" I think, I added short piece of chain so I could set the level easily. I built mine from a pallet of parts I got from TSC for $100. My 12' boom is made from channel, and I added ball valves so I can turn off either or both outside sections.

Sorry, these are the only pictures I have:

 

[mjncad]

Rich:

Here is my FIMCO 55-gallon FrankenBORG sprayer.

https://picasaweb.google.com/110106108324823291002/FIMCOSprayer#

 

[Saskman49]

You will also need to consider the height of what you are trying to control. I move mine up and down alot depending on the height of the stuff I am trying to burn off. I am actually considering using a linear actuator to be able to move the boom even further than I can with the 3pt. Also you may want to consider tip nozzles that have a flat spray pattern on top and fan down, if you use them in conjunction with a boom control system you can use the tip nozzles to get under bushes or extend your spray width by another 8 or 10 ft. I use mine to spray under my outer tree lines. BTW I would go with square stock for the boom, that way you can use Teejet nozzles or any of a number of standard ag setups.

 

[Saskman49]

Rich:

Here is my FIMCO 55-gallon FrankenBORG sprayer.

https://picasaweb.google.com/110106108324823291002/FIMCOSprayer#

You have a nice setup there.

 

[RRMCCABE]

You have a nice setup there.

Yea he is out of control. LOL That is an awesome setup. I have so many questions for him I havent had time to start !

Thats a good point on the height of what I want to control but in my case I have 3 acres of mowed lawn. So it will never be unmowed. So dont think height beyond the three point will be an issue.

I have T-JET nozzles and mounts now on a round boom. But yesterday I started working on my boom out of 1" square tubing.

Will post some pictures later.

Thanks everyone. I think I am going to replumb mine since I dont know the condition of the plastics. I have a diverter valve to go from spray bar to nozzle now but think I might just built a manifold with ball valves so I can manually turn on the jets and sprayer manually.

 

[RRMCCABE]

Got the bar mounted today. I need to pick up some sprayer bodies, mounts and hose. I will probably mount tabs on the bar to attach the hose and possibly a guard on the back of the outside sprayers.

I welded 1" bar to the end of square tubing for my hinge to make it stout. I also capped the square tube to keep the wasp out.

I have so many trees they would be impossible to spray around easily so going with heavy duty spring loaded arms that will fold when I hit the tree and for storage too.

Here are a few pictures

 

[RandyM]

Looking good, nice job so far. So what's the wing span of the bird? And it looks like a four nozzle set up?

 

[RRMCCABE]

82" was thinking three nozzles should work at decent height.

Sent from my DROIDX

 

[mjncad]

Thanks everyone. I think I am going to replumb mine since I dont know the condition of the plastics. I have a diverter valve to go from spray bar to nozzle now but think I might just built a manifold with ball valves so I can manually turn on the jets and sprayer manually.

Since I went the electric valve route, I no longer use the manual manifold. https://picasaweb.google.com/110106108324823291002/FIMCOSprayer#5219770196980124722 Interested? PM me and I'll get a fresh picture of it off the sprayer, and we can figure out a fair price.

Got the bar mounted today. I need to pick up some sprayer bodies, mounts and hose. I will probably mount tabs on the bar to attach the hose and possibly a guard on the back of the outside sprayers.

I welded 1" bar to the end of square tubing for my hinge to make it stout. I also capped the square tube to keep the wasp out.

I have so many trees they would be impossible to spray around easily so going with heavy duty spring loaded arms that will fold when I hit the tree and for storage too.

Here are a few pictures

Your sprayer boom looks very nice. Good job fabricating it.

 

[RRMCCABE]

Since I went the electric valve route, I no longer use the manual manifold. https://picasaweb.google.com/110106108324823291002/FIMCOSprayer#5219770196980124722 Interested? PM me and I'll get a fresh picture of it off the sprayer, and we can figure out a fair price.

Sorry, just caught this. I think I have everything I need but thanks.

I got a little time to go play in shop today and welded 1/4" couplings in the boom and made some supports and brackets for the hose.

Installed the springs and took it out and slapped some trees with it.

Looks like it is going to work perfect.

About all that is left is to build a mount to store the pump and a bracket for the piping manifold. Need to do a little cleanup on the weld splatter on the original parts and drop it off for sandblasting. Then I will see what my favorite powdercoat guy wants to powdercoat it. I would rather not have to mess with paint !

 

[dieselshadow]

About all that is left is to build a mount to store the pump and a bracket for the piping manifold. Need to do a little cleanup on the weld splatter on the original parts and drop it off for sandblasting. Then I will see what my favorite powdercoat guy wants to powdercoat it. I would rather not have to mess with paint !

Weld spatter?:unknown: All I can see is great craftsmanship. That turned out nice.:thumbup1gif:

 

[RRMCCABE]

Weld spatter?:unknown: All I can see is great craftsmanship. That turned out nice.:thumbup1gif:

Thank you. No splatter on mine as I am using a TIG. But the original frame has a lot of splatter on it. I will take a blender disc and clean it up.

The TIG makes nice welds that are splatter free.

 

[Kennyd]

The TIG makes nice welds that are splatter free.

Yours do, when I tried TIG it looked like bird poop-need lot more practice with it!

Nice job on the build so far.

 

[mjncad]

I like it. Those are the fanciest boom nozzle connectors I've ever seen. I suggest you try out the spray pattern before having it powder coated in case you need to add nozzles for proper overlap. I found this out on a water broom I built out of copper tubing where I didn't put the nozzles close enough together for good overlap and coverage.

 

[RRMCCABE]

I think its going to be OK.

I am going to replace the nozzles with stainless because I think the right one has wear and not spraying as well. Although it did get better as time went on.

But overall the spacing and spray pattern seems OK.

As discussed in other thread, I am not sure if I am going to up the nozzle size or not. If I keep the 8003 nozzles I am going to have to go really slow or spray twice.

I think I am going to order some spray dye too.

 

[dieselshadow]

Looks Great!

I'm no sprayer expert, but it looks to me like you've done your homework an did a great job.:good2: FWIW I think I would change the nozzles to match for a single pass on spraying.