[Stoves] Live-Wall Wood chip Bin

[Crispin Pemberton-Pigott]

Dear Alex

What a lovely piece of work. The material looks as if there are a lot of
fines.

Have you tried a 'gripper' other than the weldmesh on the chip-side of the
wall?

I was thinking that downward (45 deg) facing spikes (perhaps a long bolt
with the head sticking out and two nuts on the other end) would bite a
little harder and slip by if not needed. It was kinda hung up there at the
end.

If you want to save money and power, do not use a right angle (worm) drive.
They are not very efficient though common and popular. If you get a triple
reduction in-line box you will be able to get the correct speed (now that
you know what it is) without that first gear-up, thus eliminating one chain
and sprocket set.

The worm drives run hot too.

See http://industrial-gearbox.com/cone-drive.php and the third picture down
on the right. You can eliminate the end bearing on the shaft and use the
gearbox instead. To solve left-right lateral movement put a shoulder on the
shaft and a thread on the end poking through. Note that it will be 'foot
mounted' in your case.  For price and reliability I found Leroy-Somer to be
good value but you have to go with what you can get serviced.

If you really need a variable speed (because you want a sensor on the line
to make it 'catch up' when it falls behind) don't get a variable speed
drive. Put on a 3-phase motor and a controllable inverter (push button on
the cover or a dial elsewhere). Wonderful things. High starting torque and
you can make them run any speed you like because the controller generates
3-phase from a single phase input at any frequency you want. You can happily
run a motor up to 6000 RPM so get a 4 pole one and a gearbox to suit your
central speed at 60 Hz.

It looks so good running in slo-mo like that.

Well done.
Crispin

+++++++++++

If your working on small-ish scale processes using wood chips and flow
resistance feed stocks, then you might be interested in a 'minimum' 
tech, live-wall bin we made mostly out of our 'bone yard' of used parts.
The idea is to scale it up, vertically, to a height the loader can still
reach, with a capacity of around 1 ton of dry chips, while still being able
move it with a skid cart or fork lift.  Currently
(intended:) it uses one 1hp gear motor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJIZFY_N7U4


Alex