What did you do today?

[Bob Engelhardt]

... I do have a "Roto-Hoe" chipper/shredder ... Not sure how well it would work.

I know how well it'll work: MUCH more slowly than you expect. I rescued one from the dump once and used it once. I didn't have the patience for it. Make a bonfire of those branches.

[PStechPaul]

That's pretty much what I've heard. I've usually just used a mower to grind up leaves and small branches, and I also have a Sun-Joe electric vacuum/mulcher/blower that works OK. Once the leaves are off, the larger branches dry up, and I use them as kindling in my woodstove. That's one reason I haven't been inspired to go much further into tearing it down and refurbishing the Roto-Hoe. I have too many projects in the queue now - house painting, building an 8x12 shed, rebuilding a crude addition on the back of my house, spreading topsoil on my lawn so I can grow grass, cutting up several fallen trees up on the hill, and clearing the nasty weeds that have overgrown the meadow. Plus some electronics projects and organizing my workshop.

[DennisCA]

In Deckel land not everything is roses and sunshine anymore. I hadn't detected any issues on this earlier but yeah I'm missing some speeds in the gear box....

Gotta drain the gear box and take off the operators panel again.... Fortunately this time nothing is seized or difficult to get off, took 5-10 minutes.



And the cover is off. The cover contains a timing clockwork mechanism and this moves change gear clusters around for various speeds in the gear box. I noted that this is slowest speed setting 40 rpm so I know how the forks are to be positioned for lowest speed. I think I am going to have to try and cycle through the speeds and see if there's anything amiss.









Not really seeing anything wrong with the gears, one of them looks to be only half engaged as I left it so maybe it's a timing issue, or just got rustled a bit from removing the cover...

Here's a view of the gearbox diagram, big so I linked it:

https://i.imgur.com/tF81lmy.png

I also found this pretty good video explaining a FP3 gearbox, from what I can see it looks near identical to the FP2 gearbox.

So if I understand this gearbox correctly, the timing mechanisms lower wheel moves the two three-gear clusters according to some "clockwork logic" and the upper wheel switches the big central gear to go between low and high speeds. The clockwork logic moves the two clusters of 3x gears in various combinations that gives a total of 9 possible speeds, for either high and low speeds.

In the lower and higher gears it's the 2nd highest speeds I am having issues with. Though in the higher range the I am also having issues with 800 rpm. Perhaps there is something with the lower gear at the corresponding speed but I did not detect it. Perhaps the spindle is still driven through friction or something and this works at low speeds but not high speeds as there are no loads. Something makes me suspect the spindle might stop rotating at the equivalent low speed of 100 rpm under load if I were to try anything. Gonna sit on my ass and think for a while now.

[RichR]

Not really seeing anything wrong with the gears, one of them looks to be only half engaged as I left it so maybe it's a timing issue, or just got rustled a bit from removing the cover...

The large gear in the center of the lower shaft appears to have a shear pin. Maybe check the rest of the gears to make sure they are locked to the shaft.

[DennisCA]

I believe I have found the error earlier today, one of the three gears that are supposed to be locked to the upper shaft is free to rotate. But I cannot see any pins there. I believe that explains all the issues I've seen though and why only certain speeds are affected.

[olf20]

Getting dry here and the pasture for the cattle (3) is drying up.
Time to get the 3hp Pace water pump out and take it down to the
creek and start flooding the pasture. I power the pump with propane
so I get extended run time, and don't have to worry about spilling gas
around the creek.
This thing has always been a bear to start so I'm going to remove
the recoil part of the starter and drill a hole in the recoil part of the
starter so I can put my M18 Milwaukee on the starter clutch and elminate
the cranking.
It has a vacuum lock off for the demand valve so you have to squirt a little gas
on the paper air cleaner to get it started then turn on the propane.
What we go thru to grow pasture grass.
olf20 / Bob

[bborr01]

.... I power the pump with propane
so I get extended run time,....
olf20 / Bob

Propane has 80% of the btu's of gasoline so for every 10 hours of run time you get with gasoline you will only get 8 hours of run time on the same amount of propane.
There are other advantages to using propane like cleaner oil though.

Brian

[RB211]

Ordered a used heater control cluster for our 2011 Kia Sedona. One switch broke so you have to replace the entire cluster. $55 used, or nearly $400 for a new one. Lots of plastic parts starting to fail. Last item was a little tab on a plastic trim piece on the shifter that broke and fell down, jamming the shifter!

Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk

[MattiJ]

Propane has 80% of the btu's of gasoline so for every 10 hours of run time you get with gasoline you will only get 8 hours of run time on the same amount of propane.
There are other advantages to using propane like cleaner oil though.

Brian

80% per what? cubic feet?

Propane has slightly better heating value than gasoline per weight. 46.3MJ/kg for propane and ~44MJ/kg for gasoline (depends on exact composition)

[DennisCA]

I have found some images showing the parts of the gear shaft on my FP2 and it has two shaft keys locking the gear in question (2001-345).

The current theory is the mill crashed and sheared the two keys off clean. So if that is the case, a replacement is needed and disassembly of the shaft as well.

[Corbettprime]

80% per what? cubic feet?

Propane has slightly better heating value than gasoline per weight. 46.3MJ/kg for propane and ~44MJ/kg for gasoline (depends on exact composition)

Propane weighs about 4 1/4 lbs per gallon, gasoline weighs about 6 lbs per gallon, so per weight yes, per volumn no.

[DennisCA]

I have begun disassembly of the gear shaft on the Deckel. I had to get the cover plug off from the Z-axis to remove the nuts holding that end of the shaft in place.

I made my own tool, not that pretty, but it's what I was able to make without a mill. I use two 4 mm drills clamped between two plates of steel. With the the drill bits loosely clamped I oriented them so they fit in the holes of the plug, then I tightened it up with bolts so the drill bits would retain their positions. then I cut off the excess bits sticking out the back and tig welded the backside together. Then I had a suitable large bolt I welded that part to. I could then put the new "tool" into my large socket wrench with a 38mm socket, and then I got the leverage required to open it.





This is the lock nut I assume, was easy to remove, the single set screw was pretty tight but not unreasonably so.





This last nut only required fingers to unscrew, nothing aside from the plug itself was that tight. I had been expecting more problems really.





Next step is to remove the upper pulley and drive belts from the back of the machine so I can access the rear of the shaft. I have already removed the back cover and side door (it's one unit on this machine).

[Tungsten dipper]

Got to see this..

This weekend. They flew it in here to Spearfish for the Sturgis Rally.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[olf20]

I use a BBQ grill tank. Approx 5 gallons. It will run over
12 hrs. 2" hose that is alot of water. Has worked well
when we need it. Move hose 2 or 3 times and whole
pasture is watered for a few weeks.
olf20 / Bob

[jdedmon91]

Posted this up this morning. Chris wanted a simple holder for our bathroom so she could use the towel rack under the cabinet for decorative towels. So I made this up and installed it for her. https://youtu.be/tH2B1HL7p2U


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk