PTO air compresser

I was reading Fawteen"s PTO air compressor thread, and it answered my delima, (I think). I find that tamping the dirt back into a post hole, (solid enough for my teaching), is more than I can do anymore. I looked into pneumatic sand rammers (used in foundry"s) and couldn"t afford a gasoline powered compressor, with enough CFM"s to run one, also couldn,t afford to have a rental unit, setting around, till I finish a line of post"s. If I can reasonably expect 30 CFM from a home made PTO compressor, then I can keep on building my cross fencing, even with my failing strength! Im going to play with this idea! Thanks for the help guy"s

Tposts might be a better option for you. Unless you aren't paying for the wood ones.....

You are right Dave! Especially from a dollar standpoint! I reckon that it's just being hard headed, but we always used wood posts back in the 50's, in my part of Illinois, and I like them better, for looks. Here folks use a wood post every 100 ft, and then use heavy T posts between. I am blest with a stand of Honey locust, which I have been using the straightest post out of it. When I moved in here 13 yrs ago, there was a ridge of dirt close to the property line, left over from using a dozer to level the house site. I started trying to move it ,and level it, and ran into honey locust trees buried in the dirt. They were covered at least 15 yr's because that was how old the house was. The bark was falling off of them, and the only rot was about 1/8th inch deep. Thats when I decided to start using them for fence posts. Very heavy devils tho, for their size. Bonneville power folks, were cutting down a stand of honey locust trees, under their lines, and were going to run them through a chipper. I talked to the line manager, and he let me take out 180, 8' posts,before Asphundi came in with the chipper, and cleaned up the brush. I still need about 80 more, but belive that I have more than that on my place.

What about a portable generator and something like this? You could make a tamper piece out of a chunk of pipe and jam/weld it onto the punch.... Just brainstorming...

http://www.amazon.com/Heavy-1240w-Electric-Demolition-Hammer/dp/B000HSD93K

30CFM at what kind of pressure is the question as thats quite a bit. Money is tight correct. If you could find a portable with a shot engine it would be not that hard to do then you would have the cut-off assy to attach to your engine the pressure tank the compressure and all you would need is the pulleys for the pto and belts.

A friend of mine who was always building wierd strange things that seemed to work very well, engineered/built a 4 cylinder air compressor out of an old 4 cyl engine from his wrecked chevy cavalier. He hooked it to the pto shaft of his farmall m, used an old propane tank for a reservoir, and had air wherever he needed it on the farm. When he died, it got scrapped by his kids. (yeah I know. bummer) so the details are lost. Perhaps someone else has seen something similar and can shed some light on the subject. Definitely falls under the category of cheap though!! Kippster