Soaking it will take time like maybe a month take a hammer Rap it a few time soak it again walk away do that once or twice a day. The other trick that works well is a 2x4 or pipe about 6 feet long with a cement block hanging off it. The constant force of gravity will help the diesel or other fluid of choice work it free. This is a trick used on stuck tractor motors fill the cylinder with your solvent of choice after you pull the head hang a cement block off the crank with some sort of 6 to 8 foot lever arm and walk away in a few weeks the block will be on the ground and the motor will not be stuck any more.
1 Like
I just pulled the rotating assy off and have it standing upright. I’ve dumped kerosene into the hub and I’ll do the tapping with a hammer thing every time I’m out there. The shaft is keyed into the hub so the lever and weight thing wouldn’t work unless I could somehow get the key out of there.
Here are a few more pics from before I pulled the rotating assy:
I’m glad I pulled the rotating assy off, much easier to get a look at all the hammers. Some along the outsides of the pack are beat, not much material left around the hole, wouldn’t be long before they’d be getting launched 
!
I would probably lightly hit it with the air hammer and a blank or punch smoothing hammer to vibrate the oil in.
2 Likes
There is a hole in the pulley face that I noticed allows access to a set screw. It’s inline with the key, so I am going to pull that out, and keep a cinder block parked on the end of the pulley for some constant pressure while I carry on with the kerosene and tapping.
I got some parts together today to make the braze-on puller, and will be getting my torches refilled tomorrow, maybe I’ll be able to take another crack at that bearing tomorrow night.
The slide in screen appears to be out?? Or missing?? It will not work without the screen.
It’s out, I wanted to have a good look down in the rusty bowels after I found the hole in the blower housing 
. It slides in on those curved bars above the auger.
1 Like
At least they make bushings that size. It took me a minute to find one though. It was the first and only one I pulled up with a couple of searches. Seems pricey compared to the 5 dollars 1.5" bore ones. You can probably do better. 
I was just thinking about that shaft size. I know this is old equipment and they oversized back then but an 1 3/4" shaft is over 40 hp. Shafts are actually sized based on torque not hp. But I think you have alot more machine then a 20 hp motor will like.
I was thinking that too as I heaved the rotating assembly out of the machine, it’s a good 40-50 lbs.
They way things are looking with the engine hunt, It looks like an auto engine is in my future. I’d love to score an old air cooled agri engine - but I’m trying to keep this adventure on a budget since there’s no guarantee straw gasification will prove workable.
Yep, I’m probably going to try and forgo a taperlock style to keep costs down, and just go machined bore with key just like what’s on there now.
Good. We have one at the mill to reduce wood to small particles for pelletizing. 3/16 hole in the screen, hammers are identical only many many more. 150 hp 3 phase motor. Last year one hammer came loose and tore up the screen, Check your hammers and the pin that holds them in. Looking good.
1 Like
Thanks Carl, I’ll be having a closer look at the hammers since I noticed some were shot. There is a huge variation in condition throughout the hammers that I was not expecting.
What kind of particle size do you get through a 3/16" screen? I have only two screens, 1" hole and 1/8" hole. I’m thinking I need 1/2" hole maybe bigger. I’d like particles between 3/8"-1/2" to start experimenting with.
I’ll try to take some pics later.
1 Like
A bunch “prototyping” ideas come to mind for testing the viability of your gasification plan without actually builiding up a whole system that may be a white elephant later:
1.Stick with the belt drive and find a local farmer who still has some belt drive tractors. Interest him in what you are doing and use his tractor to drive your hammermill…
2.Use the internet to find the closest Threshing show. Contact some members and do the same as #1. but if you check closely, you may find that some of them already have a hammermill with a wide choice of screens, already setup that you could use.
2A. Same as #2, but bring your hammermill to them. Threshing show folks are curious folks, if you don’t already know this.
3. Check with local farmers who do use a hammermill for feed grinding and take a bunch of your straw to them. Hobby farmers would probably be a better choice here.
I know you want to keep costs down,
Pete Stanaitis
2 Likes
Thanks Pete - So far my costs are acceptable, the mill was 50.00, and I don’t plan on spending more than 250.00 for a suitable engine. If I succeed in all this, I could probably liquidate at a profit if it came to that.
I want to keep moving on this while it is still winter, and I don’t want to trouble anyone or be held up by same. Time is of the essence as spring will have 5 other things on my plate .
A car engine will have problems with the rear main bearing if a pulley is attached to the crankshaft. You might leave a standard transmission on it and use a driveshaft. Would also give you a choice of speeds.
2 Likes
Thanks for the tip Fred, If I went automotive engine, I’d probably just drive inline as 3500-3700 RPM is no problem for a car engine. That way I can save some cash on big drive pulleys and belts The mill turns counter clockwise if looking at the drive pulley, hopefully a typical car engine turns the same way! 
Sorry car engines turn the other way. Any way to drive the other end of the shaft?
Not without a lot of work. Probably easiest to just turn the engine around and go with the pulleys.
Or look for a boat motor most of them are backwards.