The Forestry Forum

General Forestry => Sawmills and Milling => Topic started by: Peter Drouin on April 22, 2017, 06:43:20 AM

Title: Power
Post by: Peter Drouin on April 22, 2017, 06:43:20 AM
I would like to steal power from my edger to run a conveyor .
Not sure how, Maybe a pulley on the front of the 25 horse, cat to a hydro pump. Or a bunch of battery setup with a new alternator to run a belt.

Any ideas from the group would be nice, Thanks.


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Title: Re: Power
Post by: 69bronco on April 22, 2017, 07:07:31 AM
Can't see your fan belt setup, maybe you could mount a hyd.pump and run it using a longer belt?
Title: Re: Power
Post by: longtime lurker on April 22, 2017, 06:25:01 PM
Much will depend on what kind of load is on your belt. Load meaning total load ie length of belt (friction over rollers + inertial weight etc etc), plus load on the belt ( material being conveyed) + speed you need it to move at.

Hydraulic is better if you can swing it. Or a 110v alternator as opposed to just a 12/24v alternator: more and better options. Battery probably isnt a great idea because the load conditions will wear them out fast unless continously charging... you're going to be needing to run the engine to drive the belt either way so they wont achieve much.
Either of the big options will most likely require multiple belts for power transmission, at least a double pulley.

How much spare oomph do you have with the edger? Whatever you hang off the front has to share load with the back, which will reduce power available to the mandrel. If she's working now you might not have enough spare power to drive both at once.

Oddball option might be to extend the mandrel and put your drive pulleys out there. If the conveyor is edger related you might be able to bypass hydraulic/electrics altogether and use belt drive from the mandrel direct to the conveyor. Maybe. Back to the same robbing power from the mandrel issue that way also.

Title: Re: Power
Post by: Darrel on April 22, 2017, 07:32:53 PM
Options I see are hydraulics direct drive of front of engine connected with short shaft and u joint, or as already mentioned, the mandrill. Another option is if the conveyor is edger related, run it off the same drive mechanism that runs the edger's feed system.
Title: Re: Power
Post by: sandsawmill14 on April 22, 2017, 07:54:14 PM
i agree with darrel i would try to run it off of the edger feed or mandrel    the conveyor will rob less hp than if run off a hyd pump and motor :)
Title: Re: Power
Post by: moodnacreek on April 22, 2017, 08:55:47 PM
You can do an amazing amount of work with belt driven hydrolic pump usually just one V belt off your engine. Copy something similar. Surplus Center is the place to get components.
Title: Re: Power
Post by: sandsawmill14 on April 22, 2017, 09:34:17 PM
you will lose about 1/3 of the hp (1hp gas = 2/3 hp hyd) if you run a hyd pump but load may be small enough i doesnt matter i run a 6.5 hp gas engine for the hyd on both the timberking and the s&w mills its enough but nothing extra  :)  the only lose with the belts to drive conveyor would just be the drag on the belts which would be minimal :)   but if you think you have plenty of power with the edger engine hyd will work for sure :)
Title: Re: Power
Post by: 4x4American on April 22, 2017, 09:43:29 PM
We have to remember, Peter is cutting pine most of the time anyways so he's prolly hardly working that little Cat engine, prolly has plenty of engine to spare  ;)

Title: Re: Power
Post by: Peter Drouin on April 23, 2017, 07:25:50 AM
Going to call Cat, I bet they have a hydro pump that will bolt right up to it.
Thanks for the info to all.
Title: Re: Power
Post by: warren46 on April 23, 2017, 08:47:56 AM
I am not a Woodmizer owner so I am not sure of the details but i seems to me that you will need a means to get the hydraulic power from the engine mounted on the saw head through a set of hoses to the stationary edger.  With a 24' cut length mill, that is a lot of hose that will need to roll and unroll every time you saw a board.

Am I misunderstanding your intentions.

Title: Re: Power
Post by: sandsawmill14 on April 23, 2017, 09:48:58 AM
i think his edger has its own engine not connected to the mill :)
Title: Re: Power
Post by: 4x4American on April 23, 2017, 12:07:39 PM
Peter if I remember I'll try and get you a picture of how the hydraulic pump works on my edger that powers the belts.  Pretty much they have a belt driven hydro pump off the crank on the engine and it powers a hydro motor that spins sprockets/chains and has a flow control valve for the speed.  it's a 34hp perkins diesel
Title: Re: Power
Post by: Dave Shepard on April 23, 2017, 12:29:43 PM
Quote from: warren46 on April 23, 2017, 08:47:56 AM
I am not a Woodmizer owner so I am not sure of the details but i seems to me that you will need a means to get the hydraulic power from the engine mounted on the saw head through a set of hoses to the stationary edger.  With a 24' cut length mill, that is a lot of hose that will need to roll and unroll every time you saw a board.

Am I misunderstanding your intentions.

The edger has it's own engine. I have the same edger, and I think it would have plenty of power to do this.
Title: Re: Power
Post by: 4x4American on April 23, 2017, 08:19:44 PM
I had an idea earlier.  I was walking past my wood splitter and the hydraulic pump caught my eye....got me to thinking, what if you parked your wood splitter underneath the table and used the hydraulics off of it?  It wouldn't be very difficult, and you could probably use the same valve too, just play with the detent on it that brings it back automatically.  Turn a screw to make it stick more.  And if something ever jammed it, it might pop.  Anyways, just a thought.  I know you want to use the edger, and I think it'd be a great idea to save the amount of engines running, but I thought it might be a quick easy thing to do this.