Help with a forage chopper

Hi, we have an old antique forage chopper and are currently thinking of ways to attach it to an electric motor or an engine. it is similar to this one (will take owns pics shortly)



i would ideally like to work it from a v belt pulley or similar. Does anyone have any helpful ideas?

I can't be 100% sure without seeing your own pictures but you may have trouble finding something slow enough to run this as a lot of engines will be too fast. More pictures from different angles would make things easier.

Hello and welcome to the forum .

by the looks of it it is a hand driven one ... as the pulley looks more like a handwheel , that would of had a wooden handle on it to turn by hand . I have seem machinery similar to this with handle taken off to take a flat belt . Or you could try and find a pulley alot smaller for a flat belt ???

I have a bamford oil cake breaker and the pulley is alot smaller but i will be using my fairbanks which is a slow running engine anyway

something like this would be better .



matt

yes it has a handle. more or less the same as this

youtube.com/watch?v=-H3I3GidWfg

that youtube link does not work .

matt

matt86 wrote:that youtube link does not work .

matt

You need to copy & paste it Matt. here you go, I made it work....



I'm not a big fan of converting hand wind machines to run off engines or motors, many people do it with old pillar drills. These machines were never designed to be run from things as powerful as engines, often the gears aren't up to it & I think if any accidents were ever to happen liability would come under serious question, especially as you lose a certain element of control. When you're hand winding something you can stop as soon as something goes wrong, with an engine or a motor powering it you first need to spot something's gone wrong, then you need to do something about it.

However, it is possible, but you will need a very small pulley on your engine & a very big pulley on the machine to slow things down properly. It could take a fair bit of trial & error to set up correctly.

Some old machines were set up for both hand or engine operation.

I think that chaps going to cut his fingers off if not careful .

matt

matt86 wrote:I think that chaps going to cut his fingers off if not careful .

matt

Haven't actually watched the video. Suppose I should.

EDIT: see what you mean, that thing looks bloody lethal!

Not sure I'd want those blades engine driven.

matt86 wrote:I think that chaps going to cut his fingers off if not careful .

matt

I was going to say, might be more of a finger chopper than a chaff cutter if he's not careful

Ianhw77k wrote:

matt86 wrote:I think that chaps going to cut his fingers off if not careful .

matt

I was going to say, might be more of a finger chopper than a chaff cutter if he's not careful

Bloody hell, where's your sense of adventure
To be fair, I would have no issues driving it via an engine, in fact it would be safer, as with the handle gone you could easily fit a heavy mesh guard with some kind of staggered outlet or simply let gravity do its job.

Although the one in the first post and the one in the video are 2 completely different machines, the cutters are enclosed in the picture and the handle is cast into the drive gear, the large pulley is no more than a flywheel to aid cutting by providing momentum.

There's plenty of small engines, Villiers/ BSA's about with built in reductions so that might slow the engine output then you need to sort out a pully. Can't see to good in your pic how the handles attached and what the shaft size is or even if a pulley could be found to fit or you'd need something machined to fit.

Stu.

anyone know where i can get hold of a large diameter v belt pulley?

I got mine from here

http://www.bearingboys.co.uk/V___Wedge_Pulleys-1038-c

I prefer a company called Beltingonline, they give more technical info on their website & are a bit more willing to help IMO.

They all sell pretty much the same stuff at pretty much the same prices though, but you'll need to match up belt types, as there are many different types of V belts. Beltingonline provide all this information & will actually answer any questions you email them. From their website you can measure any pulley you already have & find out what type of V belt it is supposed to run.

Here's their website....

http://www.beltingonline.com/

Of course, if there are any questions you have about belts & different V belt sections, you could always try asking here first.

Here's a good page to help identify different types of V belts....

http://www.beltingonline.com/vee-and-wedge-belts-213/help-identifying-v-belts-591/

nutgone wrote:I prefer a company called Beltingonline, they give more technical info on their website & are a bit more willing to help IMO.

They all sell pretty much the same stuff at pretty much the same prices though, but you'll need to match up belt types, as there are many different types of V belts. Beltingonline provide all this information & will actually answer any questions you email them. From their website you can measure any pulley you already have & find out what type of V belt it is supposed to run.

Here's their website....

http://www.beltingonline.com/

Of course, if there are any questions you have about belts & different V belt sections, you could always try asking here first.

Here's a good page to help identify different types of V belts....

http://www.beltingonline.com/vee-and-wedge-belts-213/help-identifying-v-belts-591/

Nuts are you on commision.

Stu.

stationary stu wrote:
Nuts are you on commision.

Stu.

You would think so wouldn't you, but I'm not. I was just so surprised when I emailed them recently about a belt for the last Tarpen, it was around 4:30 in the afternoon & I had a rather nice reply by 5:00. Many companies these days don'e even bother replying to emails.

Also, I can never resist a website with technical diagrams

I'm not doing down the bearing boys (or whatever they're called), I've never actually used them, but I have looked on their website & I didn't find it quite as helpful as beltingonline, but other people may have other opinions & may well have other recommendations. It's always good to have a few different companies to look at.

Yes Nuts your correct in saying the more names of suppliers the better then anyone looking have a choice of who to use and maybe give there feedback to us on there experiance of the help they were given etc.

Stu.

Well, we might find out a bit more about the bearing boys, they are pretty local to us & Ian needs a bearing block for the Stuart Turner project.

Beltingonline don't do bearings, or at least I don't think they do.

I have worked up a few good suppliers in the past restorations, but rather than make a thread or put them up anywhere I usually wait until people ask. I think a thread dedicated to suppliers could get a bit complicated.

i get my bits like belts , bearing , bushes , pules and the like from a company called eriks uk and there around the corner from my work .

handy really .

matt

nutgone wrote:Well, we might find out a bit more about the bearing boys, they are pretty local to us & Ian needs a bearing block for the Stuart Turner project.

Beltingonline don't do bearings, or at least I don't think they do.

I have worked up a few good suppliers in the past restorations, but rather than make a thread or put them up anywhere I usually wait until people ask. I think a thread dedicated to suppliers could get a bit complicated.

Nuts we do have a post ( Suppliers ) where others have put Suppliers details so others can look through for what they need.

Stu.

stationary stu wrote:

nutgone wrote:Well, we might find out a bit more about the bearing boys, they are pretty local to us & Ian needs a bearing block for the Stuart Turner project.

Beltingonline don't do bearings, or at least I don't think they do.

I have worked up a few good suppliers in the past restorations, but rather than make a thread or put them up anywhere I usually wait until people ask. I think a thread dedicated to suppliers could get a bit complicated.

Nuts we do have a post ( Suppliers ) where others have put Suppliers details so others can look through for what they need.

Stu.

Might put some in, but quite often find there's usually at least one person who's had a bad experience with a supplier, then it can get a bit complicated. Bit like when I sent Ian to a local paint supplier who I get along with very well, he came back & had not had a good experience there (I think it's the way he comes across sometimes ) he claimed the people were not helpful or friendly. Next time I took him in there the bloke couldn't be more helpful, was really enthusiastic & very good all round (in fact, if anything, he could have been considered a bit too chatty).

Think we need to remember everyone can have an off day, & many companies have one or two "difficult" staff members.