FREE is my favorite four letter word!
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Thank Johan. I was hoping to use a hinged plate with a couple springs. The same as @Chris did on his baler chunker.
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That cradle-style mount will work like a charm 
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Got some more work done on the chunker today. Working four ten hours days is really nice. I get more time on the weekends to do projects like this.
Had this blade from some heavy duty equipment that is about 1/2” thick, so that became the anvil.
Finished the main frame at 57” long. I tested the electric motor to double check which direction it turns. Apparently it can go both ways so I will be able to mount it inside the square frame like I was planning. I’m kind of thinking of just using 120v ac instead of 240v since I don’t have a plug for 240v. But the amps at 240v is 19A, so that would be 38A at 120v which I also don’t have a plug for. I think I would be able to wire a plug from the main panel in the shop, but it would need to go a long way to get where I wanted to set up the chunker. I’m not sure what would be better for me 120v or 240v?
Before I weld on the anvil I went ahead and cut the blade.
Used a straight piece of paper to mark the angled edge. The widest point is 5”. I was going to try that and go bigger if needed.
Got it cut out. Now to figure out what profile to put on it. Since this is really thick metal I think a really shallow taper on the cutting edge will be best.
I’ve seen others grind the cutting edge but leave the last 5” or so a straight edge. I’ve also seen some serrated on the last few inches. What are the reasons for these different styles of cutters? Which one would be the best?
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I don’t think I have seen someone leave a straight edge the last 5” but I could have missed that one, so perhaps someone else can enlighten us about that.
The serrated edge is for cutting off the last fibres in case they don’t like to part from their fellow chunk, the idea is the strand/fibre/string gets caught in the serration and rips off.
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Johan, here is the link to @BillSchiller chunker thread. That is were I saw that straight edge on the last couple inches.
I was leaning towards doing the serrated edge. Then welding some flat steel on with the same profile as the blade just like @Chris did.
If the grove is tight fitting to the blade that should help a lot with those wood fibres too.
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Thanks Bronlin, I had not read Bill’s chunker thread and I somehow missed Chris’ flat piece on his chunker. I have been thinking of building a chunker myself but that is possibly not even next year since I have the rebak chunker.
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Got a little farther on the chunker. It’s starting to look like something that could cut some wood.
Added a splitter made of 3/16” flat steel. I hope it will be thick enough.
Used a piece of 3x3 angle iron 3/8” thick for the work table. The cutter drum is not quite centred but I think it should work. It’s only off by about 1/8”.
In this picture you can also see the flat iron on the anvil side with the groove in it. Used 3/16” steel there.
This is 4x4 square tubing for a gravity feed. I need to put on some kind of adjustable stop.
Have fun making mitred joints. Maybe I’m spending too much time on that, but at least it won’t get water or dirt in there rusting it out.
Added a lot more bracing on the work surface with 3/16” wall tubing. The weakest part now is the blue 1/8” wall tubing. I hope that won’t cause any problems.
Got a little maintenance to do on my gear box. It has an oil leak on the flywheel shaft. While lifting it with a chain it bent up that cover bolted to the gearbox housing, so I’ll see if I can remove that and bend it back.
Well this flywheel is coming off harder than I thought. The hex head totally stripped out, so tried a couple different things. Even tried welding a nut to it but it just broke off again.
Any ideas for get it out?
Is it possible left hand thread?
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Very nice build Bronlin. Too much heat where you tried welding the nut. You can see that the surface is crystallized without much penetration. Not really much surface area to weld inside a nut. Not going to take a lot of torque.
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I’ve had better luck welding a washer on first and then welding the nut to the washer. Hopefully someone who is familiar with that baler will chime in on whether it is left hand thread or not. I never worked on one of those.
GC
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I like the welded washer idea. After you weld your nut on. Don’t heat the nut. Heat the area around what you are trying to get out not the piece. I then put ice cube on the nut or the piece you trying to get out. I also use ice in a can. Also try turning it the other way.
Good luck it’s very frustrating
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Well I tried welding three nuts onto it but they all came off again. The last one I tried welding a washer on first. Did some searching online. There’s not a lot of information about it. But I was able to find out for this brand it is a left hand thread, so I had been turning it the wrong way the whole time. Ended up just grinding out the bolt head till I was able to get the washer off, then I welded a bolt to it and it came right out.
Somehow I will need to get a replacement bolt. I think it is a 7/16x20 fine thread left hand tapered head bolt. Not a very common bolt.
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Just my 5 cents. The threads look fine on that bolt and you have plenty of threads so I would have reused the threads and remade the weld you did now when it is off and you have a bit more control to get a good weld on it.
Cut a 1/2” bolt (not sure about your hardness classifications on bolts over there but don’t use something below standard) to something like 3/4” length not including the head and grind a 45 degree bevel to a point in the end, no threads needed on that, cut the fine thread bolt straight off in the weld you did, put the two together and tack them together once with a small gap in between them, check that they are aligned (tap with a hammed if not) and tack once more a third-ish rotated, check again for alignment and tack in the last third and check again. Then weld around over the tacks as well and last fill the gap going round and round, make sure you don’t weld too much so you have to grind it off.
Wire clean the threads and now you can just use a 5/8 nut and a couple of washers to take up the 3/4” gap since it doesn’t really matter that it sticks out there.
You can also use a longer threaded bolt welded on and use a nut on that one to tighten it. It sticks out a little longer then but do what you think is best.
This became very detailed, hope you don’t mind
Edit: the difference is with the last option you don’t put any turning stress on the weld, only drag.
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Well I welded that bolt again exactly as you described it. I I didn’t get it as precise as you had said. It’s a little bent and I had to grind off some welds, but I think it may still work.
I did ask at the local supply store for another bolt. If they can get one and it’s not too expensive I may just go with a new one.
Now to start on fixing the oil leak. I removed the bottom plug on the gearbox to drain some oil so I can remove the problematic seal. I was surprised to find that it was a clear liquid that came out. It looks like water. There is no smell to it. Is this supposed to be here? I was expecting a dark oil to come out.
Anyway I went ahead and removed the cover with the leaking seal. When I took out the bolts then the familiar dirty oil came pouring out. It looks like this gear box has been repaired. The large nut in the next picture is a little bent up.
I cleaned it up and bent the metal back into place and it think it should work fine without replacing the seal. I tried to remove the seal but it is really tight I’m not sure if it’s supposed to come off?
I’ll see if I can get some Lucas 85w140 gear oil to top it up. Over two litres of the water looking stuff has come out. I’m pretty sure it’s not supposed to be in there. Should I just drain it all out and replace it with gear oil?
Edit: I drain out all the oil. There ended up being about 4 litres of water inside. All of the sudden the oil started coming out instead of the water. There was maybe five litres of oil in addition to the water. Perhaps that is the reason there was an oil leak.
What I am wondering is if it would work to refill the gearbox half full and top it up with the old oil I drained out? That oil is expensive and I don’t really want to fill it all up with new oil. Though that would probably be the best.
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It is very possible it is a left-hand thread. Flywheels or the bolt that holds on something that turns is a common place for them so they tighten when they get turned.
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Great work Bronlin, I think it looks good, just put something in between to make up for the extra length.
Was this like a sheet metal piece bent/hammered over the nut on one side?
If so, it is there to stop the nut from turning. Like a crown nut with a scissor pin.
It looks and sounds to me like a V-seal with a metal to metal seal on the outside, those do come out but ot without destroying it. There is most likely a small spring around the rubber on that axle seal, don’t lose it if it is there. It held the water/oil iside the gearbox so I would have kept the old one as long as it is not damaged.
A tip when you put the cover back on is to cut up like a plastic soda bottle with no sharp stuff sticking up and wrap it around the axle up onto the shoulder that the seal runs on when it is mounted, grease the plastic up with a little oil and slide the seal over to keep it from getting damaged, this is if it is a V-seal. Hard to determine on the pic. Not sure if another type of seal would flex enough to fit the plastic in between.
Do you know where the oil leak was? I am thinking as I write so sorry if it is jumping here and there, I thought perhaps you see something in my thoughts that will help.
If it is the axle seal that leaks it is most likely that the water came in that way, perhaps it was lying with that side up in the scrapyard where you picked it up.
I don’t know how high the oil level should be on those gearboxes, if it is over or below the axle coming through and if it is a splash type of lubrication which means it will only leak when running and that might be acceptable. My guess is just that, splash type with oil level below axle and if it is then I would use the old seal regardless if it leaks, filter the old oil and reuse it if it looks and feels ok. I never had a chunker or a hard pressing haybaler but I guess that it will never get neither the hours nor the hard stress of baling with its new life of chunking.
Then I would bend some sheetmetal and use it as a roof over the axle, fastened in a couple of the bolts for the cover so no more water comes in, this is if it is the axle seal of course.
Well, that’s a glimpse of my head, sorry about that 
Someone that has a baler or built a chunker can perhaps chime in and clear up my mess, just trying to help 
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This looks to be an older style Chicago Rawhide seal. These actually did use a mold-formed animal hide material with a knife angle cut flexible sealing member. If it is not cracked split it can be reused. These did not have a back side compression “gaiter” spring.
For sure use a mineral oil grease, not a synthetic. Do not high level over fill. And make sure the chamber vent tube is clear to allow for not pressure building up with working heating up.
IF you must remove the seal assemble it is done with a cape chisel; or sharpened screw driver tip; working from the inside edge; to bending and collapse the seals outer tin metal body crumpled towards the center until it falls out. Or can be pried out. Work carefully to not nick-score the outer housing cover. Use a sealer around the outer new seal metal cup edge before driving in with a block of wood flush.
If the replacement seal assembly is modern molded elastomer with a gaiter spring; then you can use a modern synthetic gear oil.
S.U.
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Thanks for your reply’s. Johan, the piece that was bent was the outside of the groove holding the axle seal. If you look closely in the picture you can see that has been banged up. It got bent in towards the seal. I used a hammer and punch to bend it back out without damaging the seal.
There was no spring on the seal. I think Steve was right about that seal. It does have a metal cup on the outside.
This gearbox is a dip style of lubrication. The oil fill hole is below the level of the flywheel axle. I think the biggest reason that it was leaking was the amount of water in there. The oil was leaking out that flywheel axle seal. Since there was 4 litres of water in there that would cause the oil to float over filling the gearbox. That would put pressure on the axle seal. It would make sense that it would cause the oil to leak out there.
When I picked up the gearbox from the scrap yard I had to remove it from the baler. So it was sitting upright the same way it will from now on. I’m not really sure where the water came in. I did watch a couple videos of others draining the gearbox oil from a square baler. They also had water in with the oil though not nearly as much as I had.
Steve would the Lucas gear oil be a synthetic or mineral oil grease?
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Oh, sorry Bronlin, then I completely misunderstood where the bent metal was. I thought you meant behind the large nut.
I thought that it didn’t look exactly like a V-ring seal on the picture, good thing Steve recognized it. 
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Little more progress on the chunker. Filled the gearbox with oil. Ended up getting 4 quarts of oil and about 1 quart of the old oil I filtered out.
The motor is mounted and the belt is on.
Made an adjustable stop for the gravity feeder. I pretty much copied Calvin Radar’s design with the springs on the stopper to keep it from getting jammed.
Still trying to figure out how to wire it up. I’ve decided that 240v would be best since the motor is rated for 19a. That way I could get away with 12 awg wire. I’d like to go at least 100ft so I can set up behind the shop to keep it out of sight.
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