Field finishing tool

When I work up a field with my disc, I pull a spring tooth drag after the disc to smooth the field out (before the packer). I?m looking for advice on a tool that would do a better job of smoothing the field before I plant. Is there something I can buy or build (without costing an arm and a leg) to do this? It would need to be small enough to pull behind a John Deere A (the A handles an 8? disc fine).
Thanks.

I use 40' pipe drags (considerably bigger than what you can pull with an A.

Build the pipe drag like a rectangle....two long pipes, one in front and one in back about two feet apart joined at the ends with either
flat bar or angle iron. Imagine two pipes 8' long joined by 2' angle.

I would think you could use up to 8" pipe and still pull it. Run cable from each side of drag (weld plate with holes for clevis) to drawbar.

The front pipe levels and busts clods and the rear pipe does the same on whats missed.

For added fun....cut holes through and through pipe about 6" apart, drop a railroad spike through each hole and weld top and bottom.
Now you have a "chisel" drag.

Make another trip crossways, or diagonal.----------Loren

A regular field cultivator will level better than about anything. Disc it to cut the trash then field cultivate it to level it. If you can pull 8' of disc 10-12' of cultivator should work good.

I had great success pulling a 9ft length of railway rail, hooked up with 2 chains, behind my 8ft disc, as a leveller. Jim

I made a drag by using 2 4x6" treated 8' lumber laid on the flat, and I put holes every 6", and put a railroad spike in so it stuck out about 2-2 1/2" on the bottom. The holes in the rear 4x6 is offset from the front by 3" so that there's a spike every 3" as you drag. I used 2-2x6's on each side about 6' long, and on the very rear is a treated 6x6 with the front bottom corner having a slight bevel on it for final finishing. I also have a 2x6 on top of the 4x6's with the spikes in them to keep them from coming out. There are diagonal braces on the rear to keep it from flexing, and I used lag screws to assemble it. Most of the wood was slightly used, so I spent little on it. I got the spikes from abandoned railbeds. (NO, they were holding any track down...) I put in cast and threaded eyebolts to pull it with a log chain. It works really well, and cost me very little. I usually add a couple hundred pounds of weight to keep it from bouncing or bucking. Use whatever weight works best for you. If you go to the tractor photos and search for "45 Farmall M And Home Made Harrow" there's a pic of it before I added the extra 6x6 on the rear. You can see how nice it smoothed out my garden.

I've seen where guys fasten a couple rows of road grader or truck tires together and pull
them behind implements. Seems like the heavier grader tires "do the most damage".

Ditto on the railroad rail or pipe or heavy timbers.rail works best using just a chain.

I had, or I guess I still have the top 16 feet of a utility pole with chains attached to it somehow that I hook to the back of the disc.

I made a drag for an old disc once. Seems I used 3 or 4 inch square tube with spikes on it. It attached to the rear of the disc with 2 arms and hinges. That way I could fold it up on the disc for transport. Worked pretty well.

We used to use a "fine toothed drag" to do what you're talking about. AKA "spike toothed drag". I don't know if they're made anymore. I've gone to using a J&M soil conditioner behind either a Sunflower disc or a Brillion field cultivator. Works for me. Things come out nice and smooth. There are a lot of products out there. Get online at the equipment mfg websites and take a look at what's available.

feurst chain harrow just use small section that you need