Has anyone tried one of these for crushing charcoal?
It’s an oil seed cake crusher (rape seed for cattle feed).
This is what the mouth parts look like. See the charcoal eating teeth!
I’ve only tried a few handfulls through it so far but it seems to work a treat.
Pete the tractor driver said that some have a pulley wheel on the other end of the shaft to connect it to a belt drive.
The slanting wooden bits below the crushers had a rack attached (broken) which could easily be replaced with a 1/8" screen to create a shoot into a bin or barrel.
Maybe a plywood hopper add-on would make sense to avoid having to stop to reload the whole time and bob’s-yer-unkle!
This is a British one made in Abyth by A. Sinclair & Son, but I’d imagine they would have been available in any country that had cattle farming? I’m away from home for most of this week but next week I’ll make some charcoal and let you know how it performs.
That looks great! What you could do is set up a 6 foot long ramp at a 45 degree angle below it like how Gary does with his crusher so it pre sifts the dust out.
To motorize it you could probably use an automobile serpentine belt on that big flywheel. Or if the spindle has a keyway you could attach a V belt pulley.
Hi Cody,
yes I thought I’d set it up on a bank so it’s sufficiently high above the container. I think the wooden bits are at a bit more than 45 so I’ll have to alter that.
it has a keyway though it’s only a shallow dip. I think a threaded bolt with a domed end would fit it.
That looks to be near perfect for crunching up for fuel size , i also came across something very similar to yours , but this one was for crunching up ice blocks , it was listed at $50 i should really have bought it , but i have so many bits and pieces waiting to be used i decided to leave it , sure another one will show up again one day .
Dave
Yes it was a perfect fluke! Never been in that barn before, they just started clearing it out a couple of weeks ago. Went in to look for something else and there was the crusher just winking at me from the corner (rubs hands with glee…)
Justin,
Yes, that was a fortunate find. Someone a long time ago just knew you would need that now. I have never seen anything like that before, and I have laid my eyes on a lot of “valuable Junque”!
Just take care of it, clean and lube, and keep it hand crank until you know what it can handle. Then, I would drive it with a fractional horsepower electric motor with slip-belt drive to protect its cast-iron beauty.
Mike, I will defo take care of it as when I no longer need it I will stash it back in the corner of a barn for someone else to find down the line. Who knows what they will use it to crush?
