Homemade firewood wrapper - Updated 1/7/11

[scdaddy7269]

Hi, my name is Chad, I am from NH. I am a new member. I have been selling camp wood in front of my house for several years. I usually hand tie the bundles using some 2x4 jigs I have made and twine.  I have seen wrappers online for $2000+ so I decided to make my own, so far spent under $250.  Here are a few videos.  It currently works but I need a new way to mount the wrap holding arm to the drive shaft. I am looking for a steel pulley to weld the arm to. I was running out of time and used the aluminum one seen in the videos but clearly it is too flexible. The problem is as I tighten the tension on the wrap dispenser it pulls on the arm more as it wraps and allows the pulley to flex and that is obviously a problem.

If anyone has any other ideas or a source for a 3/4" ID steel pulley at least 10" in diameter I would appreciate it.

-Chad

Overview
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y88EsCHe0xQ
Spinning
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEGBL9mvPxg
Wrapping
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SESPNPaPC8
Fatal Flaw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ng1vAymYi2w

[beenthere]

Chad
Welcome to the FF

Looking at the slop you show (flaw vid), can you possibly connect to the shaft with some steel plates under the bolts holding the square tubing?
I've shown in yellow what I was thinking. Seems that these two arms move about with the axle shaft (or I missed how it moves about). May be other better ways to lock those arms on the pulley to the shaft too.

Looks like a good invention on your part.   

[albirk]

looks to me that you need to add some more braces to keep everthing from moving around looks good you have to start someplace and work forward  i think a 18" to 20" pipe split in half for the wood cradle may work better once the wood is rapped to remove it better just my 2 cent

looks good

[Buck]

First of all the project is great!  You can custom build a hub to fit the shaft. Boring and keyway isnt that difficult and a machinist probably wouldnt skin you to build one . Make it heavy enough to weld your arms on and you are in business.  And, welcome to the forum.

[Buck]

And, if you wanna make it easier than that....use a sproket like your driven sprocket on your chain drive.  It is heavy enough to build from.  You can get all kinds of variations from industrial supply houses.

[Roxie]

I'm liking your ingenuity, flaw and all!   8) 

[Bandmill Bandit]

I am with buck for ease of build.
I would lose the pulley and go with 2, 4" or 5" sprockets. Could grab a a couple of build it hubs as well and then grab 2 round 4" to 6", 1/4 inch plate cut outs from the scrap bin at a  fab shop. They would be able to punch a couple of hole fore you to fit the hubs. I would weld the whole thing together with a piece of square tubing between the to flat rounds that would allow the arms to be taken off. Finished piece should be between 3 and 4 inches out side edge to outside edge. make sure you put the set screw side to the out side on both sides.   

[Magicman]

Welcome to the Forestry Forum.  Flaw and all.   ;) 

[Banjo picker]

I like it and welcome!!!  I like the fact that you can get many different ideas as to how to improve a project...I need to be working on mine right now, but its too cold...Tim

[scdaddy7269]

Thanks for all the compliments and advice. I am still looking to keep it as simple as possible. I may just get a large diameter sprocket but I am worried about the force on the arm causing the set screw to slip. On the drive pulley I just drilled a small hole for the set screw to fit in, works great. However, on the pulley with the arms attached there is a lot of wiggling, which I have since eliminated some with more counter weight. I may have to come up with a better way to clamp to the shaft though so it does not wear. Possibly break out the grinder and make a flat edge 1/8" deep or so and use a much wider set screw on whatever sprocket I get in order to have maximum contact.

[Bandmill Bandit]

Use 2 hubs  so that you get a wider and more stable support distance on the shaft.
If you want further explanation in person fire me an email with your number and i will call you. if i had it in my shop it would take me about 2 hours max to fix it.
I would not wobble when I was done 

[Dale Hatfield]

How about an electric motor mounted to a  rear axel
Firewood  hung on the hub ends wrap 2 bundles at a  time .
I think that would solve the flex and  mount pullys to  drive yoke.
Somebody here can come up with the best ratio.
Dale

[MudBud]

Chad, where in NH are you located? As most stated you are not far off your design to make it flawless.  If you run a pulley it needs to be keyed versus just a set screw.  However there are many different ways to secure it to the 3/4" shaft. Why didn't you go direct drive to the 3/4" shaft versus the chain driven? A lovejoy coupling could make it much simpler and may make it easier to adapt your arms to something else.  I will look in our manufacturing shop to see if there is anything that can adapt to.

Keith

[scdaddy7269]

I went with the chain because it allowed me to keep the motor low and centered. With it down low and the wheels I have on it I can very easily pivot it up and walk it to wherever I need it. I would like to know more about the best way to attach the sprockets to the shaft. A key way will not work since the shaft is not keyed and I already made 2 holes in it for the set screws. To be honest I do not know much about machinery and what is out there in terms of different sprockets, gears, etc. I just envisioned making it work and found whatever I could to do it. The motor is from craigslist, the wheels from harbor freight, sprockets, chain (new) and pulley from local used tool shop. I got the metal from a supplier but I found some 1/4" flat stock about 16" wide at my dad's friend's farm. It must have been outside for 20 years it was so tempered I ruined about 6 drill bits trying to make a few mounting holes in it. When I cut the squares for the machine I used a metal blade on a gas concrete saw because my grinder and chop saw were barely making a scratch.

I guess if I had to I could buy a keyed shaft, buy a sprocket, and call it a day unless there is a simpler/cheaper option that you guys are talking about that will work on the drive shaft I have currently.

[Buck]

I think you can still make it work without keyways. You drilled holes for your set screws. That works. Is there a second hole  at 90 deg. from the other?  You really arent under a great load so long set screws with a dimpled shaft oughta work.

[albirk]

one thing that may also work is to move your wrap bar tight to the shaft to take the wobble out of pully

[Hilltop366]

Hi and welcome.

Looks good so far just needs a little tweaking.

It looks to me that a second pulley to sandwich the arms and steady the load might do the trick, although as mentioned before a  weld on hub or sprocket(s) would be stronger. I suppose a person could cut a key-way with a grinder if you were careful.

[woodmills1]

I think the flexing pulley does not need to be a pulley

If your main shaft is steel just weld a stell disk to it in place of the pulley  and weld your arms to that


sort of what I thought when we first talked

that pulley is not a pulley, no belt no drive

[scdaddy7269]

I need to find some steel disks then. Only problem is my drive shaft is stainless steel.

-Chad

[WH_Conley]

Nickle welding rod.

[albirk]

309 welding rod will also work

[Bandmill Bandit]

I wouldn't weld to the shaft. Makes repair difficult. drill 2  1/4 holes through shaft (one for each hub) or get a keyway cut. if you do it right and you haev your clearances correct you could set it up with a proper sized bushing so that the warper arm would rotate freely with the 1/4 inch bolt out and then the bolt  would act as a shear bolt for saftey if any thing ever got in the way like a drop piece of wood or something.

I think i would go with a piece of heavy wall pipe about 4 inches long, get it reamed to fit an impregnated brass bushing that will fit snug on the shaft but still rotate freely, drill 1/4 inch hole through pipe,bushing shaft, AFTER welding a 3/16ths (or more) by 3 inch round plate to the pipe and the wrapper arms to the plate. that would be about the best fix that wrapper needs.

[Ford_man]

 When I built my wrapper I started with a hand crank, then I thought it would be nice to power it so I used a windsheild wipper motor  and a 12 V battery The hubs are locked to the shaft by drilling a hole through and then I put a small bolt through the hub and shaft works real good.

[scdaddy7269]

I have decided the easiest for me will be to weld to the shaft, removing the entire shaft only requires loosening the set screws so I am not too concerned with that. I am officially done with this semester of classes on Monday, after that my first project is swapping a rear end in a truck I am selling then immediately onto the wrapper to make it 100% ready for the spring.  Also, I broke the 1,000 bundle barrier today for the year. Sold my 1,003rd bundle of the year.

[scdaddy7269]

Well, it has been a few weeks but I finally finished it. I had a local welding company sandwich the wrapper arm with some flat stock, it is totally solid now. I spent some time on it today making a few adjustments and I can finally say it is done and 100% functional.  I will be taking it over to a sheet metal shop next week to have some pre-loaders made, basically just a U-shaped piece of metal with curled edges that I can stack with wood then drop between the U-shaped arms on the machine and have a ready to wrap bundle. I figure about 10 pre-loaders would make it go smoothly. If I am by myself I can load them then wrap 10 bundles or if I have help I can have a continuous cycle going. It kills me to see these companies that make wrappers and don't supply or allow for a pre-loading system because then you are stuck stacking the wrapper piece by piece. What a waste of time.  Anyway, I am psyched to be done. I also picked up a 26ft hay elevator that I will be converting into a wood conveyor for loading my dump truck and for making splitting and moving easier.  

New video of the fixed wrapper.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC7gD_19bKc

Pic of the solution to the wobbling wrapper arm.