I’m not sure there is really enough weight there to radically effect the tracking of the trailer but if so I’d just add some counter balance to the light side.
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Marcus, I don’t know what kind of ground clearence you’ll get, or need, under the shear, but it would be convenient to be able to chunk ahead with the vehicle still attached to the trailer. If enough ground clearence for a wheelbarrow or such, I would have liked the shear in the rear end. The opposite end of the axle won’t be very useful for a spiral horn anyway because of the low rpm. I run a spiral horn straight on a 1500 rpm 5 hp electric motor axle. Works good and not too fast.
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I kind of want the chunker at the back, so it is up in the air easily and then my fuel hose won’t be under me feet to feed the motor, but I think that would make it way to tail heavy…scratching my head hard on positioning this thing
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Marcus,
Belt manufactures provide tables of recommended wrap angle, pulley size, power to be transferred & etc. I’m not sure what belt or pulley you have. Here’s an example. See page i26. Remember that a chunker does NOT make a continuous load, so you will have to over size accordingly, but the charts will give you some idea of what size belt and pulley you will need. Just a side note: exercise equipment belts seem to be cheaper.
Rindert
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Another interesting chopper with automatic feeding
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This runs very fast! 540 rpm? This will open many eyes.
Rindert
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Thanks for the video Marcus .
Looks like you are making good progress.
Will you be feeding the chunker with your right hand or your left ?
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Very nice Marcus. I certainly would not worry about the strength of your materials. I have seen some incredibly light weight steel in space frames carry enormous loads and bar joist with inch and a half, eighth inch angle top and bottom chords with webs of 5/8 round bar span distances you would not imagine possible.
You went to all that work. Why not spray the metal with rust reformer and maybe a spray can coat of bed liner.
I am wondering what your opinion would be of eliminating the gear section, cutting the axle tube off where it enters the pig and just mounting the drive tire to the axle.
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Probably right hand, the left is to stupid to get out of the way of danger in any timely manner 
Tom I really don’t know, if the feed stock is small enough I don’t think the gear reduction would really be needed all that much. I’m 14-1 from the engine to the tire and 3.5-1 through the differential. Motor should run 3000rpm for a final drive of 60 rpm at the chunker if the motor is wide open. 2000 rpm would still be a good chunker speed I think and probably where I will run it to get used to home it operates. Paint has never meant much to me s for the time being it will stay rusty. I’m sure I will make some changes and it will eventually get a skiff of red around the chunker and probably the rest black, safety colors minded. If I could find my ospho spray I would give it a quick coat and be ready for the paint but I want to see how well it works first in case I want to make any changes. Still might add a rear stabilizer or jack to the tongue not to sure yet, just want to start producing some chunk. Spent 8 hours on the table saw Saturday and I have enough fuel from that to last till thursday
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Hey Marcus .
I would be very careful on the last couple of bites of the wood if using your right hand . Very easy to get your fingers between the wood and anvil .
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Duely noted, I plan to use the next piece to push it in like you showed in one of your videos
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I have always found the biggest risk is getting a finger pinched when chunking small multiple pieces.
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Well here is the first test, did not go so well. Runability issues with the motor, and after trying to dislocate my shoulder for the better part of an hour could not figure it out. Tryed with blowers running to keep the fire hot to much flow wouldn’t run. Tried with the truck running and it started sucking air through the hose and killed the truck with a lean mixture. Got it to idle up a few other times for no apparent reason just did it on its own and twice tried to chunk that same piece of pine board and the cutter bent outside of the guide and jammed on the anvil so bad I had to unbolt the cutter and pry the wood out. Re profiled the cutter, added in the hooks, nothing helped. Kind of at a loss on this one how in the world it could flex so badly, I even added another layer to the groove of quarter inch plate so the groove is a half inch deep, still jumped out and jammed. Little dumbfounded what I am missing?
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I was giving it a bump with starting fluid after this video, and I was thinking the hose may be to much of a restriction. It’s a 5/8 I’d house and a 5/8 air hole with a flapper so I can adjust the mixture. Carb throat is 3/4"
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Hi Marcus, first try cutting wood so that the engine will run on gasoline, if the power is enough, you will switch to wood gas, but I strongly doubt that such a large gasifier will provide rich gas to such a small engine. A small engine requires a fairly precise ratio of fuel to air, a flexible gas mixer is almost a must, a smaller gasifier or to adjust the hot zone. You definitely have a big enough gas hose, I think 1/2 "sand hose would be enough. Here Kristjan and I tested the operation:
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Marcus, my guess is there’s nothing wrong with the chunker. Dry wood is probably a good portion of the reason for jamming. I see no other way than first splitting boards like that if they are dry.
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cutting forces, small change, large difference, attempts to cut a wooden slat on a flat surface, or on the edge of the hive
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Too little power, too dry wood, but mostly lay flat side on the anvil so your only cutting/breaking the thin section over 4” rather than 4” in 1”. Also cutting on an angle through the grain really eases the process. I always try to have the thinnest part of a piece of wood to be the last cut to minimize problems if it should stall.
Wet wood lubricates the blade.
You are so close.
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Marcus, indeed, that hose is your first problem. TOO damn long causing gas flow drag.
Chop it shorter. You will see a difference. Then make it larger diameter. See another difference. Use a hose that will not with warm gas suck flat, or kink.
Also without engine modifications you are only getting ~1/2 engine power.
So most likely just underpowering the chunker.
Verify this as Tone said by fueling with gasoline first.
Or bottle fed propane. Dunk the propane bottle in a bucket of hot water to get the winter vapor pressure.
Wet wood/sap wood in addition to lubrication the blade has the fiber cell walls plumped supported apart. So they crush stack up less. You’ll be shearing less cell walls at a time. This is why you angle feed as Michael suggests.
And in this instance your blade should only be sharpened like a lawn mower blade on one side. The away from you side. On the drum. the inner side.
Your gasifer is fine.
Plenty of WK guys run small electric generators off of their trucks for a time. You have the deep, large volume char bed to support minimum flows for a while.
Only true loaded power testing is valid.
Consider while you sort out chunker issues, electric motor powering.
S.U.
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