[victor3ranger]

I have a Troybuilt mower that isn't being used anymore but the motor still runs good, its a 20hp ohv.

Trying to figure out what I can do with this motor on something else.

 

[Tractor-Holic]

Vertical shaft I assume?..

Your a bit limited if it is,as to what else you can power with it,you could rig up a v-belt mule drive to make it power something using a horizontal shaft setup though..

You could run a hydraulic pump with it for a log splitter,or run a car altenator to make 12V power (and add a 110V inverter to get 110 AC power at lower wattage to run lights and smaller stuff).or a water pump,pressure washer...or some type of "yard buggy" or ATV 3 wheeled toy,etc..

I just picked up a free rear engined rider with a good runing 8 HP Briggs vertical shaft I/C engine...it has no deck and the rest of it is in tough shape from sitting outside,so I too am wondering what to use the engine for..been thinking of making a 3 wheeled yard buggy or something to fool with maybe..

I might try using the transmission it has (chain drive to the rear axle) to run a table saw outside to cut smaller sized logs and branches up for firewood..

A friend of mine had a cordwood saw rigged up to be run by a lawn tractor by using the rear wheels of it to spin two "rollers" which were just tires on an axle from a RER like this one,to power the saw blade..he would drive the tractor up onto a platform that had the rollers mounted under it and chained it in place,left it in second gear at fast idle..it worked amazingly well..

I may lack the time and ambition to ever use the engine too,so I might just sell it too...

 

[victor3ranger]

My bad luck is that is does have the vertical shaft, isgus:

I wonder how hard it would be to make this engine run a hydrolic pump?

Or maybe a pull behind mower??

Not sure how I would go about doing something like that with it.:dunno:


What is a V-belt mule drive?? How does it work and how do you make it?

 

[brokeitagain]

Vertical shaft I assume?..

Your a bit limited if it is,as to what else you can power with it,you could rig up a v-belt mule drive to make it power something using a horizontal shaft setup though..

You could run a hydraulic pump with it for a log splitter,or run a car altenator to make 12V power (and add a 110V inverter to get 110 AC power at lower wattage to run lights and smaller stuff).or a water pump,pressure washer...or some type of "yard buggy" or ATV 3 wheeled toy,etc..

I just picked up a free rear engined rider with a good runing 8 HP Briggs vertical shaft I/C engine...it has no deck and the rest of it is in tough shape from sitting outside,so I too am wondering what to use the engine for..been thinking of making a 3 wheeled yard buggy or something to fool with maybe..

I might try using the transmission it has (chain drive to the rear axle) to run a table saw outside to cut smaller sized logs and branches up for firewood..

A friend of mine had a cordwood saw rigged up to be run by a lawn tractor by using the rear wheels of it to spin two "rollers" which were just tires on an axle from a RER like this one,to power the saw blade..he would drive the tractor up onto a platform that had the rollers mounted under it and chained it in place,left it in second gear at fast idle..it worked amazingly well..

I may lack the time and ambition to ever use the engine too,so I might just sell it too...

I have a transmission a motor and a front axle that im planning on using to build a three wheeled play toy out of, must be catching lol

 

[rgoers]

It only takes a simple pulley setup to make that vertical shaft into a "horizontal" one. :fing32:

My factory tiller works that way.

 

[victor3ranger]

Is there some place on the net that shows the pully setup to change vertical to horizonal??

 

[engine2quarters]

Do a 'search' on MTF here for "mule drive'.
The typical 'mule drive' consists of 2 pulleys on one common axle. The axle is mounted horizontally (pulleys are vertical. The belt is run around the pulley on the engine and over the 'mule drive' pulleys. The resulting belt position is vertical. Te belt then runs over a pulley (vertical also) that is mounted on the 'horizontal' axle accessory.
Typical mounting location is on the front of the machine frame.
My Wheel Horse 211-5 has a vetical shaft engine, uses a 'mule drive' transition located under the frame, to drive a horizontal drive single stage snowblower.
Only real difficult thing is to keep the belt tight, using a similiar method as the belt on the grass cutting deck, or rear drive line.

 

[Tractor-Holic]

The main drawback to a mule drive is if you use the belt with an idler pulley so it can be "clutched" the amount of twists and turns the belt must make also increases its chances of de-railing...if the belts just remain taught constantly then its not so liable to have that happen..

You can also get a right angle gear box(like ones used on mower decks on some tractors) to change the output to a horizontal position..they too have limitations,mainly how fast you can spin one,not many like going 3600 or more RPM,and their HP rating needs to be sufficient to handle the engines output..they are best for uses where you dont need the same speed as the engine is running at for the output shaft,you can use a larger pulley on the gear box than the engine has to reduce the speed the output runs at,while increasing the torque..

I think a hydraulic pump does not really care what position its mounted in,I have seen guys use FM power steering pumps tilted on their side to power one off a vertical shaft engine before,and others with remote resivours should be able to be used in any position too...once you get hydraulic pressure the uses are endless..log splitter,hydrostatic drives,hoists,etc...so a vertical shaft engine isn't worthless,it just offers more challenges to use them...

 

[youwillforget]

This is what I did.

 

[Tractor-Holic]

OK -just saw a post in the "Homemade Tractors and Impliments" section here that shows a mule drive on a post made by "Youwillforget" about his "Buzz Saw Project"..he's using a vertical shaft engine to power a saw blade that normally would have had a horizontal shaft engine powering it..

That will show you what we are describing!..pictures are always better than words!..

 

[youwillforget]

I got the idea from an Allis-Chalmers lawn tractor. The Allis-Chalmers I saw had a front pully, to drive the deck the belt went over the front pulley across an idler pulley around the deck pulley then over the second idler back over the front pulley.

 

[victor3ranger]

Now that is what I am talking about. I can't really see how the belt is routed though. Do you have other pics??

Man, I would love to find a blade like that, here in Oklahoma those things just aren't to be found. My dream is to somehow make a saw mill setup that I could rip red cedar planks from all the stinkin red cedar taking over the farm. I could then use the lumber to build stuff for the house.

Where the heck would someone from Oklahoma find a blade like that??

 

[Tractor-Holic]

You beat me by one minute Youwillforget!.....

Up here in New England you see those old cordwood saws being scrapped a lot lately..they are not that common,but not rare either--as time goes by though,I'm sure they wont be as easy to find like they used to be..

I saw a cordwood saw a guy made from an engine we had at the junkyard...he saw the idea in an old book on home made farm equipment at the library!

He asked us how much we wanted for a junk straight six engine that was lying in a puddle "forever",and my boss said "eh,that thing will never turn over again--if you want it,take it!"..

A few weeks later the guy returned--the engine was in the bed of his pickup...he had taken off the cylinder head,and bolted the block,head side down,using the head bolt holes, to a steel plate about 4 feet square and 1/4" thick,and he took out all 6 pistons and rods,leaving just the crankshaft and main bearings..he drilled the main bearing caps in the centers and tapped the holes and screwed in some "gibs" that hold about 1/2 a pint of oil,they were commonly used on old machinery in mills around here that had overhead shafts to drive belt driven things like lathes,etc..

He used a old Wisconsin engine to spin the engine over ,using the original harmonic balancer pulleys that once turned the water pump and altenator..pretty ingenious!..

He found a large 24" cirucular saw blade locally ,it happened one of the guys working at the junkyard knew someone who had a sawmill,and had some spares kicking around..

He bought one and took it to a machine shop and had them drill it for the same bolt pattern the original flywheel on the engine had for the clutch pressure plate..had it sharpened professionally,and he rigged up a tilting table to put the logs on and saw them up ...it was pretty cool!..said he spent less than 100 bucks on everything to make it..

He added he thought about using the engines original oil pump,but he would have had to leave the camshaft and distributor in it to drive the oil pump,and block off all the oil passages in the rod bearing jouranals on the crank,and rig up a long pickup tube for the pump to suck the oil up,and decided it was too complicated and probably wouldn't have worked well--he ran the thing a lot with just the drip feed oil cups and the oil pan off it,said he saw no problems with the main bearings getting too hot,so he wasn't worried about them failing..

I think a saw like this is better suited for cutting logs to length more so than making beams or lumber,it would be limited as to how thick a log you could cut,and prove difficult to handle one that long and heavy...a chain saw mill or bandsaw mill is a lot better for that purpose..

 

[youwillforget]

Heston Steam is hosting a Flea Market this weekend and I have table space. I will get to see all kinds of stuff. Heston runs 4 diffrent rail road guages and a steam powered saw mill. Tractors, Pony motors, the flat head V8 powerd 8N is one I really like seeing drive by. Icecream made with a steam engine is pretty cool.

 

[engine2quarters]

I remember those saw mills mounted on the back of a Ford 8N tractor. My boss would cut, and I'd stack. He'd give me a funny look when I wouldn't pickup the cut logs from under the blade. OSHA wasn't around back then.

T-H's right angled drive sounds interesting. I've got a couple vert's around up here and I need a winter project, also.

Victor, take a close look at 'yous' pic. Right behind the bottom of the engine, you'll see 2 silver colored pulleys, where the belt changes direction.

 

[victor3ranger]

I finally noticed that and the light bulb went on in my head, I feel stupid now.

Really wish I could find a big blade to make something like this.

Just throwing ideas out but could you divert the drive belt from a mower deck to do the same thing, that way you could start the motor as normal then pull the deck engage knob to the "on" possition to start the blade turning?