Thread: Homemade wood conveyor ideas

A while back there was a thread for homemade conveyors. By some quirk I cannot find it by search to post my pics so here is my very own conveyor thread. Like my processor it was made largely from available materials not nessasarily ideal materials, but cheap ones.

The main frame was made from some old concrete form. It is an odd C shape. One 4" flange, one 3" with abut a 6" web. Finished length is 17' or enough to load our trucks without a steep angle. Sorry for the very poor pics, camera usually does better, couldn't be the operator could it?? The hopper is not finished and the red boards are 1x4 to extend the sids upwards.



The drive is by chicom Honda, now on sale at HF for $99. Not real happy with this set up, was supposed to be underneath but the undercarrage was in the way no matter how i tried to route things. Will probably end up different as i don't like the drive in the way of erreant wood. We will leave the belt slack for now so it will slip if need be. Middle shaft is old Go cart drive (boys wernt too happy about that, LOL)


Made the head and tail rollers in the shop. 4" pipe, used the plasma to cut disks from 7Ga and 1" bushing. Just jig them and weld. The Lagging on this drive end is simply a piece of the belt, inside out and riveted and glued to the pipe. Welds look really crappy in the pics eh? Dont look tha bad in the shop must be a camera thing?


The hitch removes with a pin so it is not in the way or being tripped over. Pins for both ends are looped to chain and welded so they cannot be lost. More bracing to be added here before we will call it done.




Belt is 18" wide, All shafting is 1" so I stock just two spare bearings for it. total cost so far is right at 1K. Conveyor belt is expensive. also depleted some steel building the processor and had to buy some new for the hopper etc. I don't feel bad about having 1K in this one so far. probably sell for 2-3 times that if I was so inclined (with a slick paint job of course.

Looking good!

Originally Posted by TreeCo

Looking good!

+1

Looks good. I started the other thread....... titled something like 'show me your DIY firewood conveyor'. Where did you get the belting? Yours looks simple and effective. I look forward to seeing it complete.

Originally Posted by Ductape

Looks good. I started the other thread....... titled something like 'show me your DIY firewood conveyor'. Where did you get the belting? Yours looks simple and effective. I look forward to seeing it complete.

The belting came from a place near Cleveland called Conviber. I think it is called "rough top" single ply. I am pretty sure that Conviber is a large outfit with stores around the country?

We took it out and loaded a truck today and stood it up pretty steep just to check out how it handled it. The rough top does a good job of keeping the wood from slipping, a trouble that others have had with a belt type conveyor. I did not remeber the camera though The Chonda Motor ran well and starts easy just like a real Honda.

I've bought belt for my processor from conviber b4. Great prices and service.
I just finished up rebuilding a new 2 me chain conveyor.New chain/paddles, sprockets, gear drive and motor.If I told you how little I had in this beefy badboy you guys wood fill your panties.
Getting rid of my belt cause of wood slippage in winter.

Lookin good guys! I'm gonna hopefully get to buildin my conveyor this winter, I'm going to do the V channel design to keep it as light as possible. The hardest part to find was the chain, stupid money new and used hay elevators for parts are bout unheard off in these parts but I did manage to score 40ft of good detachable chain for $0.

Post up some pics of them wood movers in action when you can!

Conveyor looks great, hope it works well. I too am starting work on my own this winter. I picked up a beat up hay elevator for $100. Going to make it into the V trough type chain drive like hundson, but going to make it hydraulic drive as I already have hyd pump and motor. That way I can also make it adjustable height with 4' long cylinder I have. All powered by Harbor freight 6.5 hp honda chi-clone I picked up for $99. By the time I buy a few valves and hoses and some paint I fig I'll spend about $500.

Hey butch
Could you send or post me some pics of your slide out exchanger please.

Looks good to me... as long as the welds hold ... and it does its job.. who cares how they look right?

you were talking you don't like the drive set up... what about going hydro? and then you could put the motor pretty much anywhere you want... could either have the hydro motor be direct drive or belt drive....
or run it off the hydro system of your processor if you want... eliminates a motor to maintain.. just a thought
ever heard of this place? they seem to have quite a bit of stuff... I have ordered some pneumatic stuff and electrical stuff... and am satisfied

https://www.surpluscenter.com/home.asp

Looking good, what other alternatives are there to belting (expensive. I like the chain but don't know where to get any. What else could I use. I have seen something with pieces of angle iron bolted on to move the wood.

What size chain is that?

Just an idea for you guys for the conveyor belt, how about using old snowmobile tracks? Dealers around here give them away to people they know and sell them for $5 each to people they don't. The majority of them are 15" wide and the only trick would be splicing them together.

Originally Posted by zr900

Just an idea for you guys for the conveyor belt, how about using old snowmobile tracks? Dealers around here give them away to people they know and sell them for $5 each to people they don't. The majority of them are 15" wide and the only trick would be splicing them together.

I'm goign to call a few sled dealers this week, maybe starts gathering supplies to build one. I have 2 trailers I could use for a base.
I wouldn't need many of them, how many feet are they?

How about large round baler belting from farm supply?

Originally Posted by ba-1

How about large round baler belting from farm supply?

got a link or picture?