Hunting for a rack

[Thumper41]

Alright. So I'm in process of building myself another splitter. Ive already built a forty ton hydraulic splitter and it'll split just about everything ya feed it. But the cycle time is pretty slow. So ive planned out a kinetic splitter and have everything I need save for a rack to drive the ram forward. Ive hunted around online and all of the rack gears I've found that were actually large enough would end up costing me more than ive spent on all of the other materials combined. Ive hunted around everything from old farm houses to old warehouse closings in hopes to find one from an old firedoor or something to no avail. Even talked to a couple of the smaller machinist shops round here and even going through them it would cost a small fortune to have them manually make a rack for me. 



Ive thought about maybe taking some 4340 square stock I've got and throwing it on a precision grinder I happened across to grind a bevel to it. Then welding it to a piece of 4340 3"x3/8 a buddy will sell me. But man is that a lot time and I'm not sure if I could even fit it in my furnace to equalize and then anneal it. 

So if any of y'all have a suggestion on where to find a rack gear that I can mount to my 36" ram Id be eternally in your debt. 

[Corley5]

What about the rack from a circular sawmill head block?

[jmur1]

Try to find a construction hoist company in your region area.  Old masts made by a company called "Alimak" have a nice heavy rack that should suit for what you are looking for.  They damage these masts all the time during setup so scrap should be available.  If you are lucky they might have a pinion too.

Might work?!
jmur1



   

[hedgerow]

Thumper41  I sent you a P.M. about some parts. 

[sharp edge]

Would a large roller chain do? There is lots of them around.




se

[Thumper41]

What about the rack from a circular sawmill head block?

Cant say that I have much experience with sawmills. So I don't guess I'm familiar enough to say if it would work

[thecfarm]

Headblocks in Sawmills and Milling

Reply #31,seem like the #10,11,12 picture shows a rack.

[Thumper41]

Headblocks in Sawmills and Milling

Reply #31,seem like the #10,11,12 picture shows a rack.

Ok thanks. Something like that would probably work after a good bit of cutting grinding and resurfacing the backside. Well topside in the picture you linked me to. I believe it was picture 12.