Earlier this year, I rolled the dice at a garage sale and spent $40 on a Craftsman chipper/shredder with an engine that didn't start.
I tried some stuff and never could get the engine running, and ever took it to an local small engine shop and they told me it would be $300+ to get the old engine running.
I've been learning to weld/fabricate, etc. in the last few years and I thought it would be a cool project to remove the broken engine from the shredder, fabricate a mount and a 3 pt. hitch, and build a belt drive system to run the shredder at its standard RPMs off my tractor's PTO.
Although if it works, I'll get lots of use out of the shredder, this is 50%+ motivated by my desire to learn and practice fabrication skills, so I don't care if it is "more work than it is worth" or that the end product will be doomed to break (as long as it doesn't explode or create shrapnel or some other safety hazard) I'm aware that hooking a chipper/shredder designed for a 6hp small engine will, quite likely, grind its own teeth off over time when hooked to a 95HP PTO, even if a do use a belt system to keep it at the right speed and allow things to slip a bit. (That said, I do plan on giving this my best try to make it durable and workable and useful. I have an engineering degree and have reasonable odds of getting this to work. However, if I learn good stuff during the project, and the whole thing goes "poof/creak/bend/crunch" and destroys itself, I won't cry.)
A few things I'd like to learn/practice:
1) General practice welding/fabricating
2) How to build the implement end of a 3pt hitch.
3) How to build a "gear box" to convert a 540RM PTO to whatever is normal for a chipper. (I think small engines routinely run at 2200RPM, but I'm going to ask the shop where I took it and they said it wasn't worth fixing.) I know how to do the math/theory, but I'm sure there will be real-world issues like belt-tension that I'll need to figure out.
4) General stuff on how to fabricate with rotating parts and PTO shafts. All my welding/etc. has been on non-moving things. I know I'll need to support things like bearings, etc. Not sure the best/most economical way to do this.
5) What prefab PTO parts are available (Shafts, U joints, etc.), where to buy them and a vague knowledge of prices for future projects.
Any advice as I undertake the project?
I tried some stuff and never could get the engine running, and ever took it to an local small engine shop and they told me it would be $300+ to get the old engine running.
I've been learning to weld/fabricate, etc. in the last few years and I thought it would be a cool project to remove the broken engine from the shredder, fabricate a mount and a 3 pt. hitch, and build a belt drive system to run the shredder at its standard RPMs off my tractor's PTO.
Although if it works, I'll get lots of use out of the shredder, this is 50%+ motivated by my desire to learn and practice fabrication skills, so I don't care if it is "more work than it is worth" or that the end product will be doomed to break (as long as it doesn't explode or create shrapnel or some other safety hazard) I'm aware that hooking a chipper/shredder designed for a 6hp small engine will, quite likely, grind its own teeth off over time when hooked to a 95HP PTO, even if a do use a belt system to keep it at the right speed and allow things to slip a bit. (That said, I do plan on giving this my best try to make it durable and workable and useful. I have an engineering degree and have reasonable odds of getting this to work. However, if I learn good stuff during the project, and the whole thing goes "poof/creak/bend/crunch" and destroys itself, I won't cry.)
A few things I'd like to learn/practice:
1) General practice welding/fabricating
2) How to build the implement end of a 3pt hitch.
3) How to build a "gear box" to convert a 540RM PTO to whatever is normal for a chipper. (I think small engines routinely run at 2200RPM, but I'm going to ask the shop where I took it and they said it wasn't worth fixing.) I know how to do the math/theory, but I'm sure there will be real-world issues like belt-tension that I'll need to figure out.
4) General stuff on how to fabricate with rotating parts and PTO shafts. All my welding/etc. has been on non-moving things. I know I'll need to support things like bearings, etc. Not sure the best/most economical way to do this.
5) What prefab PTO parts are available (Shafts, U joints, etc.), where to buy them and a vague knowledge of prices for future projects.
Any advice as I undertake the project?