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Belt Drive Hammer Mill

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Ted

02-11-2004 05:19:59




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I have question about grinding feed with a hammer mill. I have a very small operation and I still grind my steer feed with a belt driven hammer mill and an "M". It seems I need to keep the belt fairly tight in order to grind feed or else the belt seems to slip if I allow too much corn to enter the mill. Another occasional problem is at higher rpms with no load the belt wants to start flopping from side to side it will even become violent if I don't put a load on the grinder. I have been doing this for a few years and I should have this operation set but I don't. One thing that makes me courious is in the summer at antique demos I see belt driven equipment running with a big sag (not overly tight) in the belt and it all seems to be operateing ok. I am just trying to find out if there is a rule of thumb for runing belt driven equiptment like a hammer mill.

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Bob in SE Nebraska

02-12-2004 05:36:04




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 Re: Belt Drive Hammer Mill in reply to Ted, 02-11-2004 05:19:59  
Good post and super replies. It's always good to read these things that I have had some experience with but only enough to understand what is being talked about. Sure do enjoy this forum.

Bob



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Kim

02-14-2004 05:20:51




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 Re: Re: Belt Drive Hammer Mill in reply to Bob in SE Nebraska, 02-12-2004 05:36:04  
My only contribution is that when properly lined up, with the right gearing, they work great. My father-in-law would fill a big hopper in the evenings, crank the M with a full tank of gas, and in the morning he had enough feed ground for the day.



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Vern MN

02-11-2004 18:44:15




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 Re: Belt Drive Hammer Mill in reply to Ted, 02-11-2004 05:19:59  
We had hammer mills for a number of years to grind feed for our dairy herd. Used Hs M and a 460.
You want to check what rpm is required for the hammermill by either the data plate or instruction book. Pulley size will regulate the cylinder speed and you want to run your tractor at full throttle for power.
depending on how the hammermill is oriented to the tractor, for right rotation, a twist in the belt will prevent slapping. And as already stated each belt has its own personality. Longer the belt the more sag will show. As for the creeping, that is how square you line up.

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Question 4 All

02-11-2004 12:15:33




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 Re: Belt Drive Hammer Mill in reply to Ted, 02-11-2004 05:19:59  

Does a hammer mill grind ear corn cob and all? Or is it just used for taking shell corn and grinding it into crack corn? Just trying to learn too...

Matthew



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Ted

02-11-2004 12:24:30




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 Re: Re: Belt Drive Hammer Mill in reply to Question 4 All, 02-11-2004 12:15:33  
It grinds ear corn, shelled, oats, minerals and anything similare. The old hammermills don't have provisions for wet molassis.



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Paul in Mich

02-11-2004 10:02:13




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 Re: Belt Drive Hammer Mill in reply to Ted, 02-11-2004 05:19:59  
Ted, I don't know what make hammer mill you have but on our papec, there was a plate which indicated the proper rpm of the hammer mill drive shaft. We used a hand held tachometer to adjust the tractor running speed to coincide with the hammer mill. Once you know where in the throttle to set it for the required rpm, You don't have to do it each time. Next, make sure your tractor is lined up square so that the belt tracks right, and as mentioned below. Use belt dressing to minimize slippage. Some sag is also required to keep the belt from jumping. you can tweek that in as necessary. I think you will find that most rules of thumb so to speak have been covered in this thread. Every belt will behave a little differently, as I have found that they seem to have a personality of their oown. Good luck. My cousin and I as kids used to see if we could shovel fast enough to bog down the old "H". Never happened. We just ground a lot of feed.

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Bob

02-11-2004 08:18:49




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 Re: Belt Drive Hammer Mill in reply to Ted, 02-11-2004 05:19:59  
Have you tried any belt dressing on it? We used to run them with just a little sag, and the stickyness of the belt dressing took care of any slippage problems.

As for the flopping around, you might try flipping the belt, not so it runs backwards but so there is a 180 degree flip in both the top and the bottom section of the belt. Basically turn one end of the belt "inside out".



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buggy

02-11-2004 07:06:27




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 Re: Belt Drive Hammer Mill in reply to Ted, 02-11-2004 05:19:59  
Good timing, I have just aquired a hammermill for use with my H. Several questions, any suggestions on belt width?, my H has a 12" pulley? do I need to slow it down by going to the smaller pulley? I figure length of belt will depend on where the hammermill ends up and where I can set up the tractor, any problems here?



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Red Dave

02-11-2004 08:18:13




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 Re: Re: Belt Drive Hammer Mill in reply to buggy, 02-11-2004 07:06:27  
All the belts I have worked with were about 6 to 8 inches or so wide. We ran a small hammermill with a Farmall BN, made it grunt some, but it worked OK as I remember. Also, if memory serves, the belt was about 25 or 30 feet long. Been a long while and I was young, so I may be off a little. I don't remember anymore if we used a twist in the belt on that setup, but I do remember using a black stick of belt dressing on that belt.
On the size of your pulley, you need to determine the feet per minute the hammermill needs and compare that to the feet per minute your H's pulley runs. That info should be in an owners manual. If you can't find that info I suppose trial and error is all you have, just be careful.

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Red Dave

02-11-2004 06:45:35




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 Re: Belt Drive Hammer Mill in reply to Ted, 02-11-2004 05:19:59  
I don't know about any rules of thumb, but I have done a little belt work. On steam engines usually a pretty long belt is used for a couple of reasons. One is the weight of the belt helps add tension without pulling it super tight. A long belt with some sag also helps damp out the pulses that you get from a single double-acting cylinder turning the flywheel. A twist in the belt seems to help control the flopping, but that is easy to do on a steam engine because you can reverse the flywheel direction. You can't do that on your M.

Here in the US, belts I've seen used tend be long with some sag. I have a video made in England of steam engines operating belt-driven machinery and I noticed that they seemed to favor short belts pulled tight as a piano string. I don't know why they do it differently or if one way is better than the other. I suspect that it's just a difference in customs.

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SGT K

02-11-2004 07:25:03




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 Re: Re: Belt Drive Hammer Mill in reply to Red Dave, 02-11-2004 06:45:35  
This is one of the things my dad explained to me, and I wish I would have paid more attention, because he's not around any more to ask.

When I was younger I bought an old JD hammer mill and pulled it with the M. I remember dad said it was a good set-up, because I could put a twist in the belt. He also said the belt was a good one, because it was one piece rubber and it was nice and long. I believe he thought a longer belt was better, and if I remember right, just tight enough to take most of the slack, or sag, out. I do remember that I needed to get the tractor lined up just right, so the belt would stay running in the center.

I also remember him saying they would put a little liquid molasses on the belt, but I had a rubber belt, and I never saw the need to do this. Besides, by then the only place we had liquid molasses was in the refrigerator, and mom would probably have put a halt to that!

I have a lot of good memories grinding corn with the old M and that 6" hammer mill, it used to give us both a work-out.

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JB

02-11-2004 19:03:15




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 Re: Re: Re: Belt Drive Hammer Mill in reply to SGT K, 02-11-2004 07:25:03  
We had a J.I.Case #8? hammer mill for about 50 years. My Dad use to run it with a SC with a 50ft(100ft of belt) endless 8 inch belt that was from the threshing machine. On the SC to turn the hammer mill in the correct direction it had to be a "straight belt" and if there was a cross wind the belt would flap and jump around when there was no load on it. Later when we used B414D the belt pulley coukd be installed to left or right. We would install it to the left for hammer mill as now it required a "crossed belt" to run the proper direction. This eliminated the jumping and flapping caused by the wind and also appeared to provide better grip on the pulleys. Threshing machines were always run with a "crossed belt".

Belt dressing is a must. The black tar like stuff that came in a tube was the best.

Good luck JB

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