In loving memory of Kenis D. Keathley 6/4/81 - 3/27/22 Loving father, husband, brother, friend and firewood hoarder Rest in peace, Dexterday

Pellet heads!! What's up today?

Discussion in 'Pellet Stoves, Pellet Fireplaces, Pellet Furnaces' started by DexterDay, Jan 16, 2014.

  1. slvrblkk

    slvrblkk

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    :eek:
     
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  2. bogieb

    bogieb

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    Very nice on the score - heck I can't get an extra set of rims for that - add tires that are dang near new and you stole them!

    We are getting that chit weather tonight into tomorrow.
     
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  3. SmokeyTheBear

    SmokeyTheBear

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    :doh:that's right, rocks:faint:.
     
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  4. Snowy Rivers

    Snowy Rivers

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    The 8 inch rotor has 4 impact bars that smash the shells between the rotor and the steel anvil.

    How big arr acorns???
     
  5. Snowy Rivers

    Snowy Rivers

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    The weather cooperated SORT OF today.
    Got the needed belt at Ace hardware..
    Once we got home it was not raining and was able to get the Munch outside after drilling and tapping the motor mount plate.

    Welded the plate into position and mounted the motor.

    Wired the thing up (Not shown in the picture)

    Decided to give the beast its first test ride...
    Well I flipped the switch and the motor spooled things up, but did not seem like it was running right.

    Tried tossing shells in and the thing stalled the motor.... hmmmmmm.

    That 1/2 horse motor should slip the belt?????

    Opened up the wire panel on the motor and pawed through the wire in there.... finally sorted out the colors... (Old motor and some colors were badly faded/discolored)
    The last clown had wired it up as a 120 volt, but the internal connections were connected for 240 volt...

    No wonder the thing has no zip..
    The way it was it did not have enough power to pull a sick duck off a pond... (Pretty lame)

    If you ever buy a used dual voltage motor...be sure to check the wiring to be sure of what you have...

    Tried it again and MUCH MUCH BETTER.

    A full scoop of shells into the hopper all at once will stall the rotor and slip the belt...

    Pouring the shells through with a tad bit of restraint and they just HAUL through the thing.

    I need to add some skirting below the hoppers lower edge to keep the shells from flying all over...(I suspected this would happen)

    The shell pieces are a tad too big yet and I will need to close the gap between the rotor impact bars and the anvil.

    Possibly I may have to put the rotor back in the lathe and reduce the height of the impact bars..
    I am at .150" now...but there is a fair gap between the bars and the anvil.... I can lengthen the slot in the anvil about 3/32" and this will close the gap up.

    All in all I am pleased with the first test.

    Once I can keep the stuff from making such a mess I can get better data from the tests.

    Decided to use some pieces of 3/8" plywood to fashion the lower side skirts.
    Have some plywood scraps and this will not add more $$$ to the job.... :yes:

    All the plywood will do is corral the shells and allow them to fall directly into the blue catch tub and not fly all over.

    Tomorrow will be a good day to cut and install the skirts.

    Have one little piece of sheet metal to install in the hopper to correct a tendency for shells to fly out at times.

    The current motor and belt setup is not going to handle starting with a hopper full.... in order to handle this it's going to take a 3/4 horse motor and dual belt sheaves.

    So we will see what shakes out as time goes by and then proceed from that point....

    A great day.....
     

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  6. badbob

    badbob

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    Send me your sister!! "how much for your kids"(LOL old blues brothers quote.)Anyway.someone should tell Don that grain machine would never stand up to nut shells.Nice work.
     
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  7. don2222

    don2222

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    Acorns are about 1/2” round and very hard not sure how hard Snowy’s Hazel nut shells are?
     
  8. Snowy Rivers

    Snowy Rivers

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    Don
    The shells are brittle and only about 1/16" wall thickness and shatter easily when struck.
    The bars on the rotor smash the shells between the anvil and the rotor itself.

    I am sure that Munchy would do a serious job on the acorns, but the machine would need to be adjusted a bit to get it in the groove ya know.
     
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  9. Snowy Rivers

    Snowy Rivers

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    I bought a small grain mill earlier and tried it on the shells.
    Generally the rollers are too close together to effectively pull the shells through the machine.
    A roller mill would need a gap of about .150" minimum to work.

    Some mods can always be made to get things working.

    The best arrangement would be two 6 inch wide rollers with a hardened knurled or serrated faces and have the opposing roller gear driven so it runs with the belt driven roller.

    This would pull the materials through quite well.

    I chose to use the single rotor and anvil setup because of the much lower build cost, and having seen how well the loaner machine worked.

    We need to move tonnage and do it in a fairly short time, and the small grain machines are just not able to do that.

    For hobby brewers and custom home made grains for baking and such the little machines are fine.

    The little grain mill I set up earlier would take about 3 hours or more to crush a 55 gallon barrel of shells.

    This is beyond any reasonable time to spend making fuel for my stove.

    I would spend almost all day to get any serious amount ready to burn.


    I really hope that the plant gets their old setup back into the system as they say will happen.

    Having to do all the extra work is not how I planned my retirement.... :rofl: :lol:
     
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  10. don2222

    don2222

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    Wow that is coming out reall nice. We know it is a lot more work using any machine like that.
    However I would like to process a months worth of acorns to save a ton of wood pellets $$$ !!
    That would take a bite out of the seasons fuel cost if the initial investment and process time is worth it?
     
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  11. SmokeyTheBear

    SmokeyTheBear

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    I think you'd have major issues with getting rid of the nut meats Don, Snowy doesn't have to deal with nut meat as it is gone from her shells. You need to deal with them.
     
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  12. slvrblkk

    slvrblkk

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    o_O :zip: :D
     
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  13. gbreda

    gbreda

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    :rofl: :lol:
     
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  14. SmokeyTheBear

    SmokeyTheBear

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    Sorry, Coagulated vegetable oils.
     
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  15. Snowy Rivers

    Snowy Rivers

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    I am right at $600 into the Munchy.
    Short term investment for a long term problem.
    As long as we can't get anything other than the 1/2 shells this little machine will do it's job and earn it's keep.

    If I did not have a nearly complete machine shop here at my beck and call...this would not be possible...
     
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  16. Snowy Rivers

    Snowy Rivers

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    MUNCHY LIVES [​IMG][​IMG][​IMG][​IMG]

    COOKED up some skirting to keep the shells from flying all over as they exit the machine...
    That solved that issue quite nicely..

    I added a bit to the slot in the anvil to allow tightening up the throat some.

    The machine works pretty well now.
    I still need to get things a tad tighter.

    Tomorrow I am going to tear things apart and get the rotor back in the lathe and cut to outer diameter of the impact bars down another .050 or maybe a touch more.

    This will get the clearance between the round part of the rotor down to a touch over 1/8" Probably 5/32" and then give that a go.

    The size of the rotor and the load on it allows a nice steady feed, but it will not handle just tossing in an entire scoop PLOP....

    A 1 hp motor and a dual groove pulley would be needed to handle the torque required.

    Maybe a good use 6.2 and a quad 60 roller chain roller chain [​IMG]

    Ran about 1/4 of a barrel through the beast and got the feeding thing figured out.

    It will still feed 3 times as much as the little loaner did.....
     

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  17. Snowy Rivers

    Snowy Rivers

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    6 AM here and I'm all primed to get in the shop and rip "Munchy" all apart and get the needed "Trim" done on the rotors impact bars.
    Was just worn out yesterday, and the weather sucked big time....

    Will only take maybe 1/2 hour to strip the little critter down and get the rotor out.

    Really excited about how things are going to work once this little adjustment is done.. :rootintootin:

    I will get some more pics as things progress today.
     
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  18. don2222

    don2222

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    Very good, like to see pics of the rotors and maybe a video?
     
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  19. imacman

    imacman

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    You'd be amazed what you can "steal" on FB Marketplace, if you never used that before.
     
  20. don2222

    don2222

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    I am just excited about my new Quad CB1200 find.
    The auger was all jammed up with hard black muddy sawdust and I had to chip it and yank the auger to get it cleaned out. The owner said it had not been used in 9 years! I also had to clean and lube the blowers and I changed over the exhaust blower housing from one that used sheet metal screws to one that has studs. So much easier to get the gasket and blower back on after cleaning!
    See those pics here
    Making the old Quadrafire Exhaust Blower housing into a real stud!
    The only real problem was a bad control box, so I borrowed the one out of my Quad Counter and changed the selector to cb1200 and the stove fired right up! :)
    So today I am making a cable with quick disconnects to banana jacks to plug into my shop T-Stat to test it on a Thermostat to see how well it keeps the shop warm since right now it is 57 Deg.
    I wish I could keep one of these cb1200 sometime but no real place to put it!
     

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