Auger in Grinder Question

On my Farmhand F81-B grinder, the flighting intake auger came apart so i'm having to replace it, I have a question I really really need the answer to. According to the parts book, about 2/3 up the auger there is a spot where the cork screw flighting turns into a couple of flat paddles, one on each side and then goes back to the cork screw flighting, is that flat part for keeping things mixed up in the mixing tank?? The mixing tank is off of mine (rusted away), we just capped off the end of the tube (under the big tank) and cut the shaft, basically I have no clue whether or not the flat part on that shaft is in the area i'm working in, if anyone knows please reply.

Thanks a bunch!

If the flighting goes to flat paddles, then has additional flighting....likely the additional flighting is csrrying feed the opposite way...into the flat paddles. You"re saying the mixing tank is off? Then where does the ground feed go?

JMS has it correct. The front part of the bottom auger carries the feed from under the hammer mill to the mixing tank/vertical auger. The flat paddles are to throw the feed into the mixing tank/vertical auger better. The rear part of that same auger has flighting that is the opposite twist. It carried material from the mineral hopper in the back. (I think Farmhand has a back mineral hopper. I know NH does).

It sounds like your mineral hopper is gone and you just use the main tank for feed. You would just need the correct flighting to carry the feed back to the mixing tank/vertical auger. You should have a support bearing at the back. Also you need the paddles to throw the ground feed up into the vertical auger. If you just make the flighting push the feed up into there it will wear out faster.

I have fixed several over the years. Just find new flighting of the correct pitch and diameter. The paddles are just flat iron welded to the end of the flighting and the center shaft.

Farmhand does have a back mineral hopper. I just went out and looked at ours, which is still intact and grinds ear corn weekly. The intake auger is as JDSeller describes it. Ours has a sealed bearing at the back of the auger under the mineral hopper, and is driven by the drive chain and sprocket cluster up front. The solid shaft spins, with the front flighting pulling the hammer mill grindings back and opposing flighting in the back under the mineral hopper pulling the mineral forward. The two opposing sets of flighting meet, as you describe, at a sort of junction box approximately 2/3 back. That junction box is set to the right of the bottom of the cone of the main tank. The flat paddles actually throw the grindings and mineral sideways (to the left) into the bottom of the cone of the main tank. I suppose that lateral design was to keep the full weight of the feed in the main tank off of the feeder/intake auger that we are discussing. Anyway, the vertical mixing auger inside the main tank picks it up from there. It does not appear that this two-way auger shaft is connected to any other moving parts of the machine by belt, chain, or gear (other than the drive cluster in the front). A support bearing for the shaft mounted on your end cap would serve the same as the original support bearing under the mineral hopper. Your auger would simply have a shorter shaft with one-way flightIng pulling the grindings back from the hammer mill to the flat paddles. Those paddles are necessary.

If photos of specific parts of our Farmhand would help, let me know. I have not found the owners manual to very helpful, but could send you a copy if you think it would help you. I apologize for leaving you hanging on your related post a few days ago.

I'm sorry guys I meant the mineral tank, not the mixing tank, its still there, I kinda thought that those paddles were to flip the feed into the mixing tank better.

JD Seller, do you know roughly where on the shaft those paddles need to be??

There is one thing in the manual I need and that is the V belt pulleys up front that control the speed of the intake auger, does the book show anything about that? I'm going to be putting in shelled corn mostly, about what speed does the intake auger need to run? I'm running the tractor at 1100 RPM and the intake auger is just barely moving.

The intake auger on ours is driven by a drive chain that is driven by a shaft that is driven by another drive chain off of the PTO shaft. There is a 5" v-belt pulley on the very front end of the intake auger shaft. The belt on that pulley drives the pulley/sprocket cluster that runs the hammer mill and drop feeder. In case of a problem, the hammer mill and drop feeder can be taken out of gear by releasing the tension on that drive belt using the long metal handle attached to it. Kick the handle off it's tension peg, the belt goes slack, and the hammer mill and drop feeder stop. The intake auger will keep going. The belt has no effect on the intake auger-the auger shaft drives the belt pulley.

The intake auger moves pretty slowly on ours. We keep the tractor (an AC D17-540 PTO) wide open while grinding. (About third to half throttle while unloading.) D17s have run that grinder for decades with very few problems. We grind at least a weekly load of ear corn now, but when we still farrowed and finished hogs, it ground a lot of shell corn and oats. If you are grinding for poultry, you will need a fine screen, and go slow. If you are cracking shell corn for cattle or hogs, a coarse screen will do fine and run at a brisk pace. Oats and hay will slow you down. Make sure to keep the grinder indoors, and keep blowing snow out of it when stored in the winter.

If your junction box is still intact, the paddles work inside that. Do you still have your original shaft/paddles for a pattern?

can you open your e-mail and i'll send you some pictures of mine, there is something else on mine i'm wondering what it does, it would be hard to explain! )