Adjusting wood chip size?

[Egon]

Nomad:

Perfect opportunity to put that there new superefficient mower balde design into operation. Just think of the savings, finish mulcher mower and woodchipper all in one machine for the price of one.

Egon

 

[nomad]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Village Engineer I often cast single parts in my home shop to avoid time consuming milling and other machine works and a heck of a lot of welding. We also compost tree chips to make our own topsoil at a landfill we operate We do add manure to the mix as well. )</font>

and if the part to be casted doesn't require any core (sand core, core box, etc) such as in that flywheel of chipper, it will be much easier to cast. Also, you do not have to make a wooden or aluminum pattern to cast a part or two. Just use the part itself, melt the iron and pour it into the sand. Thats all. Taylortractornut, such forums need people like you who can speak their minds without hesitating the engineers and without hesitating the folks who scare "some sellers" off the threads and make "them" keep silence by warning them "we don't buy your products if you do this, that, etc." I am not a coward who will fear the Bird.

 

[DIYGuy]

Whats wrong with the 6" for small stuff? I routinely feed a bundle of 1" and less through mine. Makes short work of it.

As for smaller chips, the only way is to slow down the feed roller with a slightly larger pulley on the gear box and a slightly smaller pulley on the flywheel shaft.

I haven't tried to source these myself. I imagine it will take a little bit of searching.

FWIW

 

[Villengineer]

Wow, I'm impressed. It's pretty rare to find someone that has the facilities to cast iron or steel parts at home. The tools necessary to do this aren't exactly available at Sears. After all you need a furnace capable of a minimum of 2100deg F. Not to disagree with you, but unless you're simply copying an exsiting part, how can it be less time consuming? Even a rough mold and pattern take quite a bit of time to make.
For a flywheel, I shouldn't have mentioned a weldment becasue it wouldn't be the easiest way to make it. A burnout would be the easiest way. Any way you get the rough part, it would have to be machined anyway.

 

[Villengineer]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Also, you do not have to make a wooden or aluminum pattern to cast a part or two. Just use the part itself, melt the iron and pour it into the sand. Thats all )</font>
First, again like I stated in my other post to Taylortractornut, unless you're copying an exsiting part you at least need a pattern. Since you are supposedly creating a new flywheel from scratch, you need a at least a pretty accurate pattern or you will be spending A LOT of time on a lathe or a mill. If you don't know why this will be necessary, you'd better find out less you hurt/kill yourself or forbid someone else. Plus I'm glad to see that you are so well equiped to have the furnace and equipment necessary to melt, handle, and pour 60-100 lbs of steel or iron.

 

[Henro]

<font color="blue"> Wow, I'm impressed. It's pretty rare to find someone that has the facilities to cast iron or steel parts at home. </font>

Rare yes, but unheard of, no.

Like anything else, if the tools/process is available, then using it is not all that difficult. I built a simple setup for sand casting aluminum that I melted in a home made furnace, a few years ago. I could have went a step further and built what is needed for melting brass or even cast iron/steel.

People do this at home. It is not rocket science. It can be dangerous. And it takes a special interest to make it happen. But people can and do do it at home.

That being said, if one were not into doing these things already, to consider casting something would be foolish, as the investment in time and effort to get set up to be able to do it would be so great as to make it impractical.

Like anything else, if you have the tools availble you tend to use them. Personally I would have no reason to doubt someone if they said they could cast something of aluminum/brass/cast iron/steel at home. Because I know it can be done.

A wooden pattern for something like a flywheel is a simple turning job on a lathe.

I don't think it would be a big deal at all, IF the equipment is already there waiting to be used...

 

[Villengineer]

Out of curiosity, those of you who do have the equipment available at home, how much can you melt and pour?

 

[Taylortractornut]

Right now I can melt 3 to 4 quarts of aluminum in my small home built foundry and my steel foundry has done a 2 gallon pour before the transformer went out that was my fault I had it wired for 203 3 phase instead of 230 that i run in my shop. THe steel gets expensive because of the hard to find carbon electrodes to melt it are difficult to find. Im gonna use another transformer out of a spare 3 phase welder to revive it. To do most of my casting work i use lost foam and lost wax casting. I have an endless supply of syrofoam so thats why I use foam. Ill make a pattern on the Grizzly mini mill in the foam then pack in the box with the sand and dump the molten metal in it and presto chango i have a part. Just saw off the sprue.
I may not pursue the steel casting too much because of the cost to buy the electrodes. Im thinking of building my own chipper but i want to use my pattern torch and cut a 2 foot disc out of a piece of 3 inch plate and bolt some industrial cipper blades to it inside a large 1.5 inch plate housing.

 

[Villengineer]

It sounds like you've got a really nice set-up. The ability to melt and pour over a hundred pounds of steel could come in pretty handy. It's a good thing you have 3PH or your power bill would be keeping pace with the electrodes.

 

[nomad]

Well, I am not casting at my home. I am making the wooden pattern at a small wood workshop of a friend and have many friends who have small (or big) foundries. I use their facilities when they are casting their parts.

 

[Taylortractornut]

Thanks the 3ph came as a backwoodsgift . It runs my 15 horse power lathe and 2 other welders. I wished i had a natural gas foundry for the seel that way i could fire some of my other parts and also use to heat treat it. The last electrode i bought was 500 dollars and lasted 45 minutes. My little homebuilt foundry for aluminum and brass runs off propane. This is just a hobby shop lol. 7 welders 2 hand torches, one table torch 2 lathes a ,mini mill, horizontal bandsaw, power hacksaw,chop saw,and a small drill press, Im eye balling a 12000 pound drill press at an out of business factory that I can get at a bargain with a full bit set. I work out of my shop when the dirt moving is slow but i really like to use it only as a hobby shop. Folks askme why I have such a hobby shop and I tell them I have a serious Tool Fetish.

 

[nomad]

Taylortractornut, how do you say, WoW?
We can call you like "modern blacksmith"?
I think your need now is a CNC machine so that you can get rid of some of those machines. Used CNCs musn't be so expensive there.

By the way, returning back to this topic; while I was operating my chipper my neighbour cherry farmers asked me if there is any chipper with feeding method is not manual by hand. They want the trimmed tree branches on the ground to be collected (by a rake or the like?) and fed them into the chipper hopper directly (without touching the hand.) These fruit farmers are a really lazy people. Okay, anyone knows such a chipper?

 

[Egon]

<font color="red"> </font> These fruit farmers are a really lazy people. Okay, anyone knows such a chipper?

Nomad I've found just the machine. A couple of passes and the branches will dissapear. more passes and the chips get smaller.

Egon

 

[nomad]

The machine you are talking about is the nature? Then, till we see them branches disappear, we will lose those 10 hairs too on our bald heads.

 

[Egon]

Just keep that disk a disking. Them's branches will dissapear Nomad.

Egon

 

[Taylortractornut]

I ve seen some self propelled and tow behind chippers that have small knuckle boom/ grapple loaders on them. I have seen them advertise in Equipment World Magazine. I have used a tow behind a few times with a grapple to feed itself. We had it at TVA but i dont recall the name. It was handy to go out with a loader and 4in 1 bucket they would drop a pile of brush and we would hoist it and set it in the feed rolls. The knuckle boom could reach 15 feet on a 360 degree rotation and had a free swinging grapple. You could grab a log and hold it and grab a few more and put 3or 4 branches in at once.
Nomad Im not a blacksmith at all those guys are artists. Im just a Tinker. I was trained in a trade school on CNC but never took to it as most CNC jobs here are production work/boring. CNC isnt really practical for alot of my jobs i sideline I do wish I had an EZtrac manual/CNC Milling machine. They are pretty handy. Really may shop is a a place to fall back when work is slow but mainly a place to keep me out of trouble lol.

 

[nomad]

That grapple loader, I thought to add to my chipper, will make the chipper less effective, time and money consumer. Therefore, I have stopped thinking about this and now continuing to feed by hands. I am thinking nowadays about adding somethings like rotary rake tines, but, working in the same axis of the chipper.

Yes, CNC machining will reduce your work time and you may find yourself on the street, and we know how the streets of the world today are. My grand father was always saying that "if you want to pray bad about a person, don't pray for him/her to be without money - just pray for him to be without work." Somethings never change in the world.

 

[DocHeb]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( They want the trimmed tree branches on the ground to be collected )</font>

Heavy duty flail mowers with hammer flails (rather than blades) can be used to mulch the branches in place in the aisles between the trees. For an example, see the Seppi Orchard Mowers offered through the St. George Company.

I have only seen them on the web, and have no personal experience with them.

 

[nomad]

You have no experience with them, because they are a Canadian company in Ontaria (their web site says.) Egon must have some experiences with them?

Mulching mowers maybe useful, but they won't do what is asked here. The chip sizes must be as small as possible (for quick decomposition in the soil) and the only machine that does cut the wood/tree branches into so small size chips are the wood chippers. Mulching mowers will mix the wood (trimmed tree branches) pieces with the soil without cutting them in small sizes.