START OF "THUMPER" BALER SPLITTER/ Flying cutting wheels

[indiansprings]

Started a new project, THUMPER, the hay baler transitioning into a wood splitter, after viewing Clarence's Wood Splitter on You Tube, we couldn't help ourselves, a neighbor donated his old IH baler to the cause and we started tear down. Ever had a 4 1/2" cutting wheel explode? My son was cutting off bolt heads when I walked out the shop door about 10' away, I heard a pop and was knocked down by something hitting me in the adam's apple. A 4 1/2 cutting wheel had just exploded, I had just put it on not three minutes before, no visible cracks and brand new, it was a grizzly brand I was trying for the first time. I guess you can't be to careful, will post updates as we get THUMPER up and running, we're going to incorporate a sliding shield on the plunger so you can't get your hands in it while operating, just an experiment to augment the Troy Bilt 27 ton. Good father son time if nothing else.

 

[skid row]

OUCH!! Glad you OK. That could have been real nasty.

Keep us updated on the build.

 

[371groundie]

here i was thinkin a firewood baler would make the little bundles they sell at the gas station.

any chance you can leave the pickup system on it so you can drive it up th a tree and let it cut, split, and then use a bale kicker to put it in the wagon? yes im getting carried away.

 

[Butch(OH)]

OK so you dont get the wrong impression I am not a safety geek, as a matter of fact I get sick of reading posts by the super safety green peace/PITA types, BUUUTTT,,,,,,,,,
I watched a U tube vid of some old man with one like you propose and it gave me the creeps.
Instead of Thumper you should call it STUMPER because somebody is going to be short a dang usefull part of his arm if he uses it long enough. As for the disk exploding you got a warning there, heed it or ???? Go to a welding supply store and buy some good ones. The ones on my shop are Siate (spelling??)

 

[waterman]

gotta watch those grinders even when they stay attached to motor. they can eat flesh faster than they eat metal. please keep us updated. i have an old new holland that i would like to do same with. have seen that youtube vid also and think some improvements definately needed. some kind of "v" in bottom of bale chamber so all you do is drop round in top and it self centers and plunger drives it thru wedge and out back. no hands ever entering baler. the plunger would also have to be trimmed to clear "v". sure there must be a safer way to do it. looks like you farm there . grew up on spud farm here and have been haying for the last 25 years. a real weather challenge here in alaska

 

[avalancher]

Sounds like a cool idea, saw the video myself. Keep us posted!

 

[Stein]

How are you going to keep it from shearing shear pins? My baler pops one when I run a 2" diameter stick into it.

 

[freemind]

Cheap or expensive, cutting wheels can and do explode. You can actually make them pop faster, unless you hold them very straight, when cutting. Any kinking of the wheel in the cut, will make them explode.


I have seen guys using grinding wheels for cutting wheels. Big NO NO. They DO explode, with little effort.

 

[Spotted Owl]

On you tube where would you look to find this video? This could be good use for an old scraper from the bone yard. If nothing else it would be a good SUPERVISED project for the 4H group my kids are part of, the boy especially.


Owl

 

[tatra805]

oh so negative

let me be the bad guy on this one...

finding an alternative use for a tool or machine is not what drives me here, i was the first one (and the last as a matter of fact)in the family to use the lawn mower as a dog sh!t spreader but...

what wories me with this concept is that you have no control over the stroking part. safety is one thing but also functional, how are you going to stop the stroke if it does not split a piece?
break a shear bolt or depending on the construction bent some parts.

I mean to say, if it splits its ok, but what happens when it does not split and how many times it can take a blow before things start to break/fall apart.

Consider a clutch mechanism? it does exist and works on 12VDC also. Our die cutting machines (flywheel based) have them and the clutches hold the 120ton pressing force. If you could incorporate it, you would have a push button engagement of the stroke and with the right switches it would only engage the clutch for 1 stroke. Not that complicated.

Why not between PTO and the baler, place to mount it and you would be able to use it for other pto driven implements also.

:monkey:?

 

[indiansprings]

On You Tube the video is named Clarence's Wood Splitter just type it in the search function on You Tube.

I am a very safety minded person, when you see the finishes product you will see the guards that will keep it from endangering limbs. Grade 8 bolts should stop the shearing of pins to stop if not some 6011 rod at around 150 amps should do the trick. The goal is to split 12-16" rounds that don't contain crotches or big knots, those go to the TB 27 ton. We're in the process of securing a old corn elevator to set were the wood comes out the chamber to carry the wood away from the splitter and make a big pile.

After THUMPER is done, we already have picked up an old hydraulic post driver to play with, we can lift 1100 lbs up to 72 inches and then drop it.
Thinking of building a big detachable wedge to go on the bottom to split really big rounds. We're just always tinkering with something and feel blessed to have a shop 60 x 80 with a 25 x 25 attached metal shop.
We can do just about anything with wood or metal without going to town.

 

[autoloader]

Wow! That thing looks like it is seriously dangerous. Keep your body parts out of the way.:jawdrop:

Here is a link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUUPKEk6ds4

 

[Crofter]

let me be the bad guy on this one...

finding an alternative use for a tool or machine is not what drives me here, i was the first one (and the last as a matter of fact)in the family to use the lawn mower as a dog sh!t spreader but...

what wories me with this concept is that you have no control over the stroking part. safety is one thing but also functional, how are you going to stop the stroke if it does not split a piece?
break a shear bolt or depending on the construction bent some parts.

I mean to say, if it splits its ok, but what happens when it does not split and how many times it can take a blow before things start to break/fall apart.

Consider a clutch mechanism? it does exist and works on 12VDC also. Our die cutting machines (flywheel based) have them and the clutches hold the 120ton pressing force. If you could incorporate it, you would have a push button engagement of the stroke and with the right switches it would only engage the clutch for 1 stroke. Not that complicated.

Why not between PTO and the baler, place to mount it and you would be able to use it for other pto driven implements also.

:monkey:?

the clutch idea only works if it is after the flywheel, which in this case is on the baler. The shear pin is about 5/16 diameter and I suppose you could drill the drive hub and flywheel larger but it is there to protect the bevel gears that drive the crank. Splitting wood will be ten times or more the force it sees as a baler. The stroke is not overly long and timing to drop in the chunk of wood will have to be pretty precise.

 

[thejdman04]

Sounds like a good idea, would be real good if you could figure out a way to v the bottom of the "channel" and the plunger so you wouldnt have to center the wood on the splitting wedge.

 

[clutch25]

My GOD!!! That was scary to watch!!!!!

Almost as bad as the woodtick with the big flywheel mounted blade!

The money you would save isn't worth a limb or life....damn!

 

[rdbrumfield]

Looks like a mod 46 baler I used to own.

I can see the next mod now, a verticle splitter. Stand that thing on end and let it stamp em out. You might think about shortening the stroke by putting the throw on the pushing ram off the gearbox a bit closer to the drive axle. I can see the gearbox parting when it hits a red oak.
As long as it pushes the wood out the end to be picked up for another split if needbe, you might be able to keep both arms to eat with at dinner.

 

[Chuck Diesel]

Great idea. But your asking for trouble.

 

[Stein]

Grade 8 bolts should stop the shearing of pins to stop if not some 6011 rod at around 150 amps should do the trick.

Ummm, the shear pins are sized now so that you don't break stuff with catastrophic and likely dangerous results. Even if you can get the baler to hold up, you will likely be doing some damage to the PTO. Just sayin'...

 

[Stein]

Anybody that thinks that this is even remotely a good idea needs to watch this. I was grimacing the whole time he was using it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUUPKEk6ds4

Although, it's no worse than this one.:jawdrop:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bVAAx3mMKY

 

[indiansprings]

We're going to use a Honda engine and belt drive with the kill switch mounted by the operator, you will have the fly wheel clutch slippage in event of a non split. With the sliding shield attached to the ram no hands, arm or other body parts can be exposed to the splitting chamber, as the shield returns the stick will fall in via gravity feed ramp.