Welding Tips and Tricks

I would like to make a plug aerator, the same quality that the guys who charge for aerating your lawn use. I'll need to weld up a cylinder that has about a 1 foot diameter and about 3 feet long. I can buy the plug spikes from the companies that make them. But I am trying to think of ways I can obtain Cold rolled steel that has already been rolled in the shape of the walls, or alternatively, there is pipe that is made this large...where would I obtain it. This is my biggest problem where to start to find this stuff.

Ghenghis73 wrote:I would like to make a plug aerator, the same quality that the guys who charge for aerating your lawn use. I'll need to weld up a cylinder that has about a 1 foot diameter and about 3 feet long. I can buy the plug spikes from the companies that make them. But I am trying to think of ways I can obtain Cold rolled steel that has already been rolled in the shape of the walls, or alternatively, there is pipe that is made this large...where would I obtain it. This is my biggest problem where to start to find this stuff.

Welcome to the forum. I source pipe from my steel supplier who also has a scrapyard next door. I also get well casing from a couple friends that have drilling outfits. Alot of times drilling outfits have spare casing laying aound that they are more than happy to get rid of. Best of luck and let us know how it goes. ......Jeff

You can wrap sheet around a propane tank to form a cylinder

What size and diameter needed?

Ghenghis,
Welcome to the forum.

Scrap yards are an good place to start. To buy new, a piece of 12" pipe will cost you in the neighborhood of $400 for a 3 foot piece. An old hot water tank will be a little bigger but would certainly work for what you want to do.

Report back with what you come up with, it might help someone else in the future. Sharing ideas and techniques is what makes this forum work. There's a warehouse of knowledge and ideas here that keeps growing every time someone asks and answers a question. That's the real treasure that has been found by everyone who cares to partake.

Len

I guess it was another drive-by poster.

I'd like to follow this build too. The coring elements ("spoons") are hollow, and are mounted on the pipe; as it rolls the spoons bore into the dirt and somehow eject a little plug of dirt. So a pipe with a heavy wall may indeed be needed for weight (to jam spoons into the ground) and structural support. The OP specifies cold rolled, which may be overkill for the application.

Just for curiosity, and to file away for future reference, what's the wall thickness of the tank inside a hot water heater?

I just finished my lawn roller it's 8 in sch 4 caped on the ends with flat plate then I ran a 3/4 in sch 40 pipe through the center to act like a sleeve bearing for the shaft. I put a threaded bung in one end of the main roller and filled it with sand then screw in a plug. I've got plans to be able to flip over the attachment and have an aerator and thatcher on the other side. I'll post some pics of the finished roller and frame.