That’s a lot closer than I got mine! Looking mighty fine sir.
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Thanks Carl, we get more than our share of pot holes, just as soon as the frost lifts out which has already started.
Thanks for responding Chris. when you warned me about being off, I wasn’t sure how far off I could be until it became a problem. I will finish welding it then.
I made some rails for the motor to slide on for adjustment. Because I plan to try different size pulleys, I wanted some room for adjustment. I welded a washer to the bolt coming up and cut the washers to fit inside the tube to keep the bolt from spinning when I tighten from the top. I think I will need to weld a nut to the motor plate to tighten it up.
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Looks good Bill; I am building one from a baler also, any thoughts about using a serpentine flat belt?
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I wanted to use a serpentine belt but didn’t know where to find a drive pulley for the motor.
I thought of adapting one off of an alternator, or water pump,bolt or weld to a weld on pulley hub.
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Bill just wanted to chime in. Chunker is looking sweet. I don’t think you will notice it being a 32nd out of round one bit. I have seen much worse on other applications. It probably wont even be visible to the eye. If I know anything tho, these machines have to really be overbuilt, and yours definitely looks it! I really want to build one of these but the parts are just so expensive. Big beefy steel supports and a gear box… that’s a lot of dough to come off of.
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Thanks for the he kind words Joseph. I am making this road worthy which does incur unnecessary expense. The gear box was picked up for $300. I think the rest could easily be constructed with some decent scrap for little money. If I was already living on my property, this would stand where it was built.
I am basically copying what Chris S had designed. He should take all the credit.
I can’t wait to try it out.
Good job Bill; I worked very hard to get my blade as close to perfect as possible — can’t say exactly how much it was out of round. But the point is, as I started chunking wood I had to keep trying bigger and bigger pieces to find it’s limit and I ended up bending things. No problem, it still works, just makes some sqreeching sounds as it rubs something. I can’t stand very long, but over the last two days I was able to chunk up a couple hundred pounds to get ready for summer.TomC
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I got the motor mounted and in position. I went with 3 belts from a lawn mower. It was suggested to me to make sure I got good heavy duty belts and I figure mower deck belts endure a lot. I have never had one break.
I have this pulley but it doesn’t have a set screw to secure it to the shaft of the motor. Is this common?
Here’s a video of everything turning. There seems to be a lot more wobble than I anticipated. Here’s a look into my messy garage.
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You definately need a set screw on top of the key, and I would put another at 90 degrees to that one. Use your hand grinder to make a small flat spot on the motor shaft where the 90 degree screw touches it. Sure looks like a good start to a great chunker.
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If they don’t have a set screw usually they have a bolt in the end of the shaft. Is the keyway in the pulley and shaft the same width?
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I wasn’t thinking about two screws. I was planning on grinding a flat spot at 90 degrees from the keyway. I will put an additional set screw on the keyway. Thanks Carl.
@MarvinW, yes they are the same size.
This chunker is looking very nice. As for the pulley, I don’t fix anything until it breaks. It looked like you had the motor and chunker flywheel lined up will enough that the pulley was running true and not trying to work it’s way off. The set screws are a good fix. You could also make a collar out of a piece of pipe and tap/thread a set screw through it to hold the collar/pulley on. Also, I would go for drilling/tapping the end of the motor shaft and putting a bolt with a large fender washer on the end.
For the wobble; yes it looks like a little much, bbuuttttt, I think when you cut the big section out for the actual blade, that you will not see that much motion. As you are standing in the position you will feed it from, the wobble left and right will not make much difference. The wobble in and out will be a problem though. When you cut the helical out, or what ever you want to call it, set the drum so it is in the position closest to you, and make the big step off in that area. You will ALWAYS be cutting in this area no matter how wide the stock is, and you want a good “cut” to finish off, so it breaks loose. If when you are done, you find that where the cutting edge is too far from the anvil part you can all ways add material/ weld on the anvil to take up the space at that point.TomC
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The cutter drum is ready for action. I first cut about 45 degrees off of the inside of the drum until the outside edge was sharp. I then took another sweep on the inside to lesson the wedge effect. Good or bad, I don’t know. What I do know is I watched many chunker videos and all of Wayne’s videos (a few times each). As far as ease of cutting, his wins. So I think reducing that angle should make this more effortless. I also left the last few inches flat and unsharpened. <—not a word but is now. Here is my result. Not sure if I mentioned above, I did use studs from a heavy duty truck and pressed them in the hub.
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That looks great. Should do the job all right.
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Really looking good Bill; The other day when I was chunking, I found something that I need to throw out for the groups thoughts. I was chunking away on some pretty dry wood that was giving my chunker a work out. At one point I had a piece that was to wide to go into the opening for chunking. Before I through the piece back in the pile I tipped it up on edge and I’ll be darned it fit into the opening. So I chunked it standing on edge. As I did it appeared to cut better in that position compared to laying flat on the anvil. I cut several more piece standing on edge with the same results. So, I’m recommending that you make the mouth wide enough vertically to cut boards wider than what you can cut horizontally TomC
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Thanks Tom C.
Today is one of my exciting days since starting wood gas. Today I was able to chunk wood with minimal effort. No circle saw, power miter box or table saw.
After going on the hangout last night ideas were given to me and this morning I implemented them and put my chunker together. Well at least the cutting part of it. I still have the rest of the trailer to finish.
The first picture here is of the shear and the splitter. I used the portion of the drum I cut off to make the shears.
This picture is of the reinforcements I needed for the anvil plate. I was only able to find 3/8" plate steel so I reinforced it with 1/4" thick angle iron. It should be enough.
Here are a couple of branches that have been cut into bite size pieces.
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Ok… Where’s the video? 
Looks real good!!!
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