B2650 Grill Guard Fabrication

DeepWoods

Active member

Equipment
B2650HSDC Woodland Mills WC68 Wood Chipper
Apr 10, 2019
325
247
43
Bigfork Minnesota
After getting my EA Wicked grapple better than a month ago, I knew I would need a guard to protect the plastic front grill of the tractor from getting destroyed. I have seen several other members solutions to the same problem, and I have used their ideas to come up with my own design. I liked the idea of using expanded sheet metal to stop the branches and sticks from getting to the plastic. A lot of the other members just weld the expanded to the original brush guard. Which does solve the problem of damaging the plastic, but if something big enough punches through the expanded, one must grind all the welds and replace the expanded and repaint the entire brush guard. I've seen others that made a frame to weld the expanded to and then weld the frame to the brush guard, still the same outcome if the expanded is compromised. Grinding out the expanded, replacing, and repainting the brush guard.

I wanted to have something that if damaged, could be removed and replaced without having to repaint the entire brush guard. I also didn't want to repaint the original brush guard after the original installation of the grill guard. So bolting in place seemed to satisfying all my requirements. By making it in two pieces I would only have to repair half of it if damaged. So after some head scratching this is what I came up with.

It has been a very time consuming process, cutting and fitting each piece. Grinding and welding, and refitting some more. And I still have the lower section to complete as well. But so far I am pleased with the results.


More to follow
 

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bird dogger

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Kubota B2650 and lots of other equipment
Feb 24, 2019
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North Dakota
DeepWoods, that's sure going to be one nice custom grill guard!
 

DeepWoods

Active member

Equipment
B2650HSDC Woodland Mills WC68 Wood Chipper
Apr 10, 2019
325
247
43
Bigfork Minnesota
DeepWoods, that's sure going to be one nice custom grill guard!
Custom is right, while cutting and fitting the frame parts, I found the left side at least a quarter inch taller than the right, and not all of the angles are the same either. I highly doubt if I removed it from my brush guard, it would fit any other.
 

bird dogger

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Kubota B2650 and lots of other equipment
Feb 24, 2019
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Custom is right, while cutting and fitting the frame parts, I found the left side at least a quarter inch taller than the right, and not all of the angles are the same either. I highly doubt if I removed it from my brush guard, it would fit any other.
I hear you on the custom part! LOL! My grill guard was anything but being square or even side to side. When I took it off the tractor I had to use a long piece of ready rod through the mounting holes to keep it somewhat in its original shape as the expanded metal was trimmed and welded in place. It's very doubtful they're made in a jig!! :D

"Custom" was the only word I could think of at the moment. There must be a better one that accounts for the additional blue language, banged up knuckles, re-doing, etc. cuz no two pieces/angles are the same when they really ought to be. :D Are you going to have the expanded metal "chromed"? :)

regards,
david
 

Orange1forme

Active member

Equipment
B2650 HSDC, filled tires, wheel spacers, B2728B , LA534A FEL, 3rd valve kit
Dec 1, 2018
394
56
28
Wa
Custom is right, while cutting and fitting the frame parts, I found the left side at least a quarter inch taller than the right, and not all of the angles are the same either. I highly doubt if I removed it from my brush guard, it would fit any other.
I hear you on the custom part! LOL! My grill guard was anything but being square or even side to side. When I took it off the tractor I had to use a long piece of ready rod through the mounting holes to keep it somewhat in its original shape as the expanded metal was trimmed and welded in place. It's very doubtful they're made in a jig!! :D

"Custom" was the only word I could think of at the moment. There must be a better one that accounts for the additional blue language, banged up knuckles, re-doing, etc. cuz no two pieces/angles are the same when they really ought to be. :D Are you going to have the expanded metal "chromed"? :)

regards,
david
So are you guys suggesting that if I were to have this done in a shop, by others, that there needs to be something done to keep it "aligned" to the tractor mount position once it is removed?

If they were to square it up and then attach the grill mesh it would not go back on?
 

Yooper

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3901 LA525
May 31, 2015
1,456
429
83
NE Wisconsin
Time consuming yes. But your patience has paid off. That is some beautiful metal work!
 

rkidd

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B2650, FEL With QA 60"mmm, 3pt FDR1672,homemade ballast box, BB 1572 box scraper
Dec 7, 2015
743
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Jefferson Ohio
Very impressive fab job. Nicely done.
 

lacasmi117

New member

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B2301 with BH70 and LA434
Apr 25, 2016
11
0
1
Ottawa, Canada
Pretty slick, your workmanship and attention to detail is fantastic...Way to make us all jealous and wanting to up our game.
 

DeepWoods

Active member

Equipment
B2650HSDC Woodland Mills WC68 Wood Chipper
Apr 10, 2019
325
247
43
Bigfork Minnesota
So are you guys suggesting that if I were to have this done in a shop, by others, that there needs to be something done to keep it "aligned" to the tractor mount position once it is removed?

If they were to square it up and then attach the grill mesh it would not go back on?
I did think about removing the brush guard from the tractor, but decided leaving it on would be easier. Now that I know that is not symmetrical, I think you would be correct in your statement. Especially for the bottom section. It might make it difficult to reinstall the guard if the original dimension and alignment was not retained.

Thanks for all the positive comments, I've always tried to challenge myself when working on a project. I was fortunate enough to have a mentor when I was 11 years old. He taught me how to weld and machine metal. He also instilled my work ethics, and to take pride in my work. His teachings have served me well throughout my life, and I think that is some of what is missing in today's children.
 

DeepWoods

Active member

Equipment
B2650HSDC Woodland Mills WC68 Wood Chipper
Apr 10, 2019
325
247
43
Bigfork Minnesota
So todays work picked up where I left off yesterday. I finished the lower frame, which was more cutting, grinding, and fitting. I made sure to drill all my mounting holes before putting the expanded metal on. It would have been real hard to drill through the brush guard with the expanded already welded in place. Then came time for the expanded sheet metal. Lots of time with a cut off wheel on the hand grinder, then hundreds of little spot welds to hold it on the frame. Final grinding and one last time fitting into the brush guard. Tomorrow will be any final sanding, then into the blast cabinet to get rid of all the mill scale. Then primer and paint to finish.
 

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bird dogger

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Vendor Member

Equipment
Kubota B2650 and lots of other equipment
Feb 24, 2019
1,569
1,409
113
North Dakota
So are you guys suggesting that if I were to have this done in a shop, by others, that there needs to be something done to keep it "aligned" to the tractor mount position once it is removed?

If they were to square it up and then attach the grill mesh it would not go back on?
I agree with DeepWoods comment. If I remember right, when I took my grill guard off to weld my expanded metal screen in place....the mount locations sprung to the inside by quite a lot. If it had been sent somewhere without them knowing that before the welding was done it may have been very hard to pry the mounts wide enough to bolt back onto the tractor again. My simple fix to prevent that was to measure the mount's width on the tractor and use some "ready rod/all thread" to spread the guard's mounting tabs to match that width. (Plus a little for some free play for mounting.)

Here's a link to my guard: https://www.orangetractortalks.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40468&highlight=kubota+b2650+grill+guard

It's certainly not as fancy as DeepWoods' but was real easy to accomplish once the ready rod fix was thought of.

Edit: Orange1forme, if you were to send yours off for welding all you would need to do is inform them of the actual mounting width needed or fix that width ahead of time with a couple of pieces of ready rod.
David
 
Last edited:

Orange1forme

Active member

Equipment
B2650 HSDC, filled tires, wheel spacers, B2728B , LA534A FEL, 3rd valve kit
Dec 1, 2018
394
56
28
Wa
I agree with DeepWoods comment. If I remember right, when I took my grill guard off to weld my expanded metal screen in place....the mount locations sprung to the inside by quite a lot. If it had been sent somewhere without them knowing that before the welding was done it may have been very hard to pry the mounts wide enough to bolt back onto the tractor again. My simple fix to prevent that was to measure the mount's width on the tractor and use some "ready rod/all thread" to spread the guard's mounting tabs to match that width. (Plus a little for some free play for mounting.)

Here's a link to my guard: https://www.orangetractortalks.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40468&highlight=kubota+b2650+grill+guard

It's certainly not as fancy as DeepWoods' but was real easy to accomplish once the ready rod fix was thought of.

Edit: Orange1forme, if you were to send yours off for welding all you would need to do is inform them of the actual mounting width needed or fix that width ahead of time with a couple of pieces of ready rod.
David
To clarify,

If I remove mine from the tractor them all I need to do is make sure the mounting distance stays the same. The easiest way to do is all thread or similar through the mounting holes that keep it the same distance apart?

Cool, thanks!!
 

Yooper

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3901 LA525
May 31, 2015
1,456
429
83
NE Wisconsin
I would suggest you get a quote for powder coating those. Painting expanded with air or aerosol never gets good coverage. Rust will break your heart.