Flat belt attachments?

[CalG]

Or should I say "detachments"?

As a kid, on the farm we had a flat belt feed grinder. Corn in, chicken feed out.
I was young, but it took me all morning to position the farm all, get the belt twisted right, and get corn from the nearby crib enough to hill the dumper to please my grandmother.

The saw mill where I used to get logs milled to my needs had a pretty nice power feed planer of about 2 foot bed width that ran off a flat belt. Lots of chips doing that work.

Myself I had a wood working planer 2 foot bed width (most would call it a jointer, but the makers called a planer) It had a straight round shaft off the cutter head to take a flat belt, though I ever only powered it with an induction motor running V belts on that flat shaft).

Flat belt cord wood saws are frequently seen rotting in side yards here in Vermont.
Out in my homelands of the Dakotas, a flat belt driven threshing machine is often seen as a hill top adornment. (No rust out here)

Feed grinders, threshers,cord wood saws///

What have you seen and wondered about in the world of flat belt drives?

I ask, because I used the flat belt pulley on my Fordson to jog the engine while fitting the magneto earlier today. I have seen pictures of hi pressure oil pumps fitted to provide hydraulics to these old tractors. But this tractor has a tap on the 3 point lift if needed.

Curious .. It's an old timers conversation for sure....

 

[Jstpssng]

My father converted a front mounted cordwood saw from a Farmall to go onto the 3pth of the 8N. When he traded that for his first Kubota he bought a saw which ran off the 3pth. Before I can remember but I believe he also had a bolter mill which he ran off a "hit and miss" one lunger. He used to saw out pine boards to make boxes for the greenhouse.

 

[WranglerX]

Not exactly a farm implement.....This is a 5000lb stamp mill for crushing gold ore, it has two 8 inch flat belts powering it...

 

[Jstpssng]

^^^^^^^
A bit off topic, but why does your signature ask to bring back the "delete" button? That feature has been available for a while.

 

[ericm979]

Not exactly a farm implement.....This is a 5000lb stamp mill for crushing gold ore, it has two 8 inch flat belts powering it...


View attachment 1057357

Where is that located? I have seen a lot of ruined old stamp mills but not a working one.

 

[Gordon Gould]

I thought this one was interesting. A saw mill powered by a steam driven tractor via a flat belt. Saw it in operation at the Great Oregon Steam Up held at Powerland Heritage Park last July.

gg

 

[LouNY]

When I was young we had a belt driven cordwood saw setup on a WD Allis Chalmers with the saw at the front of the tractor on a drop down stand, it had a gravity return on the table.
It cut a lot of firewood in it's day. Many people didn't have a chainsaw back then and if they did it weighed 40 pounds and while it cut much better then a crosscut saw they were a pain to run and keep running. So most people would drop a tree and buck it up into manageable lengths and load them on a sleigh or wagon to haul out of the woods then cut them up latter with the buzz saw or cordwood saw. One heck of a project when putting up 10-12 cords of firewood a year in addition to regular work.
At the time I could trim out a tree much faster with an axe then a chainsaw could on anything smaller then 6".

 

[oldnslo]

My grandfather had a flat belt jack shaft in his blacksmith shop that ran several different tools like drill press, large grinder, blower for the forge, some type of drop hammer, etc.

He also had belt driven wooden shingle saw and wooden barrel stave saw. Unfortunately all this equipment was all lost when his shop burnt down.

 

[WranglerX]

Where is that located? I have seen a lot of ruined old stamp mills but not a working one.

THis one is a 5 - 1000lb Joshua Hendry Stamp mill located at the Mariposa Museum & History Center in Mariposa California (on highway 140 to Yosemite National Park) , there is also a 2 -1000lb stamp mill on same property.... Both mills are fully functional (but 5000lb mill is having bull wheel replaced).... Have had pleasure of working on both mills maintenance wise for many years.... It is believed that MM&HC is only place in California that actually has 2 working mills....

 

[WranglerX]

^^^^^^^
A bit off topic, but why does your signature ask to bring back the "delete" button? That feature has been available for a while.

Because at one time the Delete feature went a way.... And I wanted it back so it was a standing message to system operator I wanted it.... Well the Delete feature came back, but I never got around to removing message in sig line... I suppose I should edit it....

 

[oosik]

I've only ever seen one flat belt operation. At the county fair. A wood fired steam tractor driving some sort of grinder with a flat belt. Think it was set up to grind dry corn.

 

[jwoodr36]

I've been needing to clean out my barn for a while now so I can get to work rebuilding it. It's full of old lumber, scrap metal, ancient rusted/broken implements, wasps, etc

One of the larger, heavier pieces in there was an old hydraulic cider press. I'm guessing it's about 100 years old and it looks to me like it was powered by some kind of PTO belt drive setup. There is a flywheel and a grinder/scratter on the main shaft, and another belt turning a hydraulic pump that powers the press.

The name plate says:

We have a small apple orchard and I would really like to restore this machine to press cider. Today I took the first step in that direction and moved it into the garage onto a heavy pallet with casters so I can begin to disassemble it and come up with a plan for the restoration. I'm thinking it must be around 500 lbs, but I will need @Shawn T. W. to come and confirm that.
The rear wheels did not lift and I didn't take out the garage door, so that was a success.

 

[Gordon Gould]

^^^ You have a heavy duty production press there. Hope you can get it going !!

gg

 

[jwoodr36]

Thank you. I was able to hunt down a copy of the original sales catalog with a drawing and some of the specifications. It should be pretty helpful.

It turns out this cider press is probably around 100 years old. I underestimated the weight by quite a lot. I was thinking 5-600, but the spec says over 1000 lbs, granted, I'm missing a few parts.

Requiring 1.5 hp, I think my Ford 4000 should be more than adequate power , though 800 rpm seems like a lot. The drive wheel seems larger than the one in the photo, so perhaps it's been reduced a bit. I wonder how loud this thing is.

I have been trying to decide how closely I should adhere to a faithful restoration, or if I should just stick with what's practical. For example, replacing the antique solid bearings with more modern pillow blocks etc I'm not sure how historically significant this machine might be.

 

[CalG]

Does anyone know what tractor was the LAST production tractor to be fitted with a flat belt power drive?
My Fordson E27n Major is a 1950 m.y.

The Diesel Majors had flat belt drives.

Google says it was the Oliver 550, but a quick look at images does not show ANY postings with a flat belt pulley. There is a picture of a 540 rpm PTO attachment, but that doesn't count ;-)

 

[LouNY]

The Farmall "100" series had belt pulleys as an option, also many tractors did use a belt drive unit in place of a pto drive.
The Allis Chalmers up into the "D" series could have a belt pulley

 

[LouNY]

The Farmall "100" series had belt pulleys as an option, also many tractors did use a belt drive unit in place of a pto drive.
The Allis Chalmers up into the "D" series could have a belt pulley

 

[Rustyiron]

A friend has an old flat fender jeep with a rear pto and a bolt on right angle flat belt drive. His belt driven "attachments" are anything that you might imagine. Wood splitters to a belt driven ice cream maker, laundry machine, dowel maker and several saws from a circle sawmill, shingles and "bolt" mills. Lots of gas engines (hit & miss - 1 lungers) and tractors to drive them beyond the jeep that also has a 3pt hitch.
I think of them as the ultimate survival equipment/tools if it ever comes to that. Sips gasoline and is EMP proof!

 

[BnRidge]

1959 inventory. Dad was 19 when he took over the farm. Plenty of previous generation equipment still used. But about the only flat belt equipment still used was the silo blower.