You have done a fantastic job on this chunker Bill. I wouldn’t do anything else now but use it. Keep up the good work buddy.
Ron H
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All I can say is…I’m jelous…LOL. Very nice Bill, you have inspired me to start on a new chunker. Mine is just to slow. I knew what ever you built would be a work of art, and you didn’t let me down. Excellent job.
GaryLangworthy
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Hey Gary if that old gear box is too slow I would probly buy it off ya if you would like to sell all I have been using is a darn big ass band saw and/or miter saw.
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Done with the chunker. Lights are mounted with protective covers. I didn’t put plates on the bottom of the covers. I may do that yet. Not sure if I really need them. I extended the stop on the gravity feed tube. Didn’t test it because the weather turned sour quick. The warm air is battling with the Canadian air and the Canadian air is winning. We will have a wind chill in the 20’s.
I did get under the frame and sanded all the rust off to put some paint on. Amazing how much the rust took over and it hasn’t even seen the road yet.
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Very impressive. If you floored that thing, you could haul wood, or the gasifier, or the lawn mower on it!
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@Carl, the trailer is too small to haul a riding mower. I would like to put a screen floor on it.
Here’s what I am doing.
I want to be able to power it up with my lawn mower. The maximum PTO rpm is 900. This will turn the cutter wheel in the range it is now. I have everything I need to make this happen. What I don’t know is what a safe length is for the PTO shaft. The PTO is about 6" lower than the pulley shaft. The shaft is 3’ long and can be shortened to whatever length I choose. I’m looking for some insight as to how long it should be. I will have to have removable bars to maintain a constant distance and not separate the shaft from the chunker.
Is there anything else someone can see other than shields that needs to be addressed?
I left the belts on the electric motor to show how the new pulley may be able to stay mounted. while the electric motor is running or vice versa
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Bill, I never paid much attention to your PTO on your lawn tractor and I assumed it was a horizontal shaft that ran in the same plane as the front wheels like I plan on doing with mine. I was thinking easy build with a quarter twist of the belt and a sliding mount to tighten and loosen the belt. Your set up is pretty cool and took a little more sitting on your thinking chair i bet!
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Here is what I did Don. The shaft from the engine is a vertical shaft. I’m not sure if my method is correct. The chunker will be it’s first test.
http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/bills-mini-wk/1008/349?u=billschiller
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Hi Bill, looks good. You may want to install another pb bearing close to pulley to cut down on shaft flex when under load. That is a neat set up. Al
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Thanks Al.
Yes I built that extra shelf for another pillow bearing near the pulley. Having problems with my phone but will try a different camera angle later.
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WOW, that is very impressive. I’m guessing a new, tight fitting PTO shaft, will run fine just like you got it. The mower may want to jump a little with each cut, so removeable angled braces might be a good idea.
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Hello Bill, That removable cutter hub design seems to have plenty of strength. Awesome machine.
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Thanks Mike.
I sure was hoping to see you Terry G. again this year. I hope all is well with you.
Take care
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Back to your question. That 3 ft pto shaft looks good. Those U joints will take up a lot of out of alignment. I think back when I was mowing hay. As I turned the tractor it would bend so much that the rear tire of the tractor wood hit the tongue of the mower if I didn’t pay attention. Some times I could hear the mower chatter from the tight bend in the pto shaft— but at that point I had just about a 90 degree bend in the two parts of the pto.TomC
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Bill, nice pto…! Wheel Horse and Cub Cadet both had PTO options. Wheel Horse did it because, at the time, the feds were giving tax break if a tractor with a PTO was bought. So they thought why not get in on the band wagon. Just some worthless information…
See yah soon…
Jeff
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The wood chunker lawnmower setup is done…enough for Argos. I don’t have belt guards or a guard for the pulley. I am very excited about this because to use 240 volts up north is not likely.
Maybe someone at Argos can hook me up with some wood gas or a charcoal gasifier.
This will delay my start in the morning but I’ll get there.
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Running chunker on charcoal
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That whole thing is just impressive. One of the better video’s showing all the little details of construction too. You got your tractor working on charcoal -and- you got a brand new autofeeder attachment complete with a red hanky to boot!
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Thanks for the kind words Sean.
The credit really ought to go to Chris Saenz for the design. I did alter it to fit my needs such as using the tractor as an alternate power source. The gravity feed at the top turned out to be actual safety feature this weekend as Gary showed in this video. There’s no reason to get one’s hands too close to the cutter. When the tractor is operating the chunker, the cutter needs to catch up after a few cuts. With the electric motor, I can feed both sides at the same time without slowing down the cutter.
My PTO is a bit rough but functional due to my lack of fabricating experience.
I was honored to have have Gary’s charcoal gasifier and Matt Ryder’s wood gasifier fuel my lawn tractor this weekend. I sure learned a lot in Argos.
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