luseedhead

After waiting some time to forget the instructions, i recently built a mill and found the instructions worked well. I modified the design a tiny bit to use stock cast iron grinding burrs from CS Bell. I also used slightly over sized key stock for the auger to improve the feed action of the auger. In the end, with some scavenging of materials, it cost $80 in parts and took 15.5 hours to build. There was an additional 6.5 hours of wood working and testing getting it hooked up to the bicycle PTO. The mill works better than my 1920s CS Bell. There is less friction and more precision in the facing of the burr plates. The result is that everyone (meaning even people other than me who rarely grind flour on my mill) noticed it is easier and faster to make flour with the new mill than it was with the old CS Bell. The old record of 40seconds/# for wharthog wheat has fallen!

The gear reduction between the exercycle and the thresher drum is not very important, and can be adjusted easily as an afterthought. Exercycles come with all sorts of gear ratios between the cranks and the flywheel. The thresher drum will work best at somewhere around 200-300 rpm. Too slow and the grain won't get threshed. Too fast and the wobble in the axis will shake the machine apart. Some wobble, remember, is good, as it shakes the seeds down. The bike chain part of the transmission will be happy with a larger ratio; the v-belt part of the transmission will be happy (there will be less friction) with a smaller ratio. In general, the flywheel stores more energy if it is turning faster (kinetic energy increases with the square of speed), so there are some reasons to have a large ratio to the flywheel (ex. 4:1 increase), and then a small ratio to the drum (ex. 1:1.2 decrease). I hope this is helpful!

There is no bill of materials. There are so many materials substitutions and adaptations (like plywood for 1X pine) that what i recommend is printing out the instructions (pdf link below) and then on each page of the instructions write in the materials you will use. If you plan to acquire the materials all at once you can collate the pages to make a master list. This exercise will also help you get familiar with each step in case modifications you make in your design (example: substituting 3/4" plywood for 1" pine) cause changes in dimensions and other possible changes in the instructions which will need to be penciled in to your instructions. Incidentally, i also use the instruction sheets to make other notes and to keep track of time and cost for each step.

Lu, Y'all, A couple thoughts. I think it should be possible, as you are suggesting Lu, to devise a removable way to mount the implement triangles. It might end up being a different technique for each implement. I like your idea for the bolt-on mounting studs. I'll bet we could design and tailor them on the spot, given an implement. Lu, your PDF omits the plate brace near the top of the implement triangle. This triangle is probably not strong enough without it unless the triangle is solidly bolted or permanently welded to the implement. But also, it is a component of the latching mechanism pictured in the first photos. So that leads me to... The original French PDF shows, in an inset photo on the first page, a spring loaded latch on the male/tractor side triangle that locks into the implement triangle. The drawings in the rest of the article don't show this, but instead show a bolt-on top retaining plate that keeps the two latched together. Omitting this would allow the implement to get bumped off the tractor triangle. Hitting a pothole on the street while transporting the implement could conceivably drop the implement in the street. The bolt on thingy in the drawings is a get-off-the-tractor-to-secure-it item, and looks like a part that needs a wrench and will get rusty, hassle-ish, left behind, lost. I think we could make a spring catch that would work from the tractor seat with a pull cord. Attached is a (crude) drawing of how this might be done (the drawing is upside down from the orientation it would be installed in). Could be positioned and welded on as/where needed. I think it worth reminding people who are coming to make a triangle mount for themselves to: Bring your target implement to the build-in. Otherwise (as Lu suggests) bring the exact dimensions, layout and spacing of the mounting points on your implement so we can plan for how you will attach the triangle to the implement when you get back to the farm. If you are going to permanently mount the triangle on your implement you won't be able to pick up the implement without the tractor-side triangle. Remember to note if the target tractor is category I or II (or III ?) Decide if you want to build the sliding upper attachment to allow the implement to "float", as shown in the French PDF. Lu: I can bring a 110v MIG (sans gas) with a small spool of flux core, a couple angle grinders ... what else would be useful? Any small bits of stock? Cheers, Brian

Hello, THanks to Emily, we have a PDF of the proposed basic triangles using the american steel recommended by Dorn. The gussets (plating) and the attachment brackets are left off in this drawing, since they will be the same as the french version, but in 2.5 " x .5" flat bar. A single 20' piece of the c channel makes 4 implement triangles. A single 24' piece of the square tubing makes 3 tractor triangles. i took the liberty of makig the bottom element of the tractor triangle tubing instead of flat stock. This means the open ends will need plating, but there may be other advantages. For me, it's an advantage to use metal that i can weld with the flux core mini MIG. Please look at the attached drawings, suggest changes to the design soon! In the french document, the implement triangle is welded to the implement, or, for the articulating implements, studs are mounted and welded in place. Do french farms have 50 amp outlets at the end of the rows? Would it be better for the implement triangle to attach so that it is removable without special tools? How will the implement triangle attach to your implement at the bottom links? If your implement has bolt on studs for the bottom links to engage, can we remove the bolt on studs and just bolt the implement to brackets welded on to the bottom of the implement triangle? What is the distance between the corresponding brackets on your implement (s)? The issue here is that the bottom links on the tractor SWING in the horizontal plane, and therefore can engage the fixed studs on the implement. On the implement triangle, no such swinging. Therefore a set of rigid brackets could be welded to the implement triangle at a distance apart so they can overlap (just wider than or narrower than) the brackets on the implement and a 1" bolt slipped through the bracket's corresponding holes. Your thoughts? lups. Dorn, if you want to move this to the farmhack discussion, please do. And please send me a link to it so i can follow.