Westfield Grain Auger

Yesterday I picked up a brand new Westfield grain auger 4" tube by 11' long. The idea is to put in into my 4'x4'x4' Medium Buckwheat coal bin to feed the hopper on my Yellow Flame boiler. At first I am going to run the auger manualy, but later I would like to have the auger run whenever the stoker motor runs. This will make it a completly automatic feed system. Then I will have to see if I can come up with an auto dial system to call the coal supplier when the bin runs low.

Easily fits in the back of an 8' bed pickup.
For $295 this is what you get. the only thing missing is a motor, motor pulley and a way to hang it from the ceiling.
Motor end.
Auger end.
Here it is mocked up. I bought a few pullies on the way home yesterday but I thought I had a 1/2" shaft motor, turns out it's a 5/8' shaft. Back to the hardware store today.
The manual states that with the suppied 8" pulley, 440-490 Flight Speed (RPM) will be acheived with a 1725 RPM motor driving a 2" pulley. Recomended horse power is 3/4 to 1. The motor I am using is 3/4 horse 1725 RPM.

I don't think I want to run 440 RPM. I am going to try to reduce that as much as possible. For the motor, I will get 1", 1.5" and 2" pullies. I am also going to get a 12" or possibly 14" aguer pulley to further reduce the flight speed.

More later.

-Don

Don,

When exactly do you sleep? locsh project, yellow flame burner one and two, auger system... Im startin to feel like a slacker

waldo

StokerDon wrote: ........... Then I will have to see if I can come up with an auto dial system to call the coal supplier when the bin runs low.

-Don

We already have one of those....................... It is called "Rick"

Rick

Hello Don,

About your auger,

Buy the biggest pulley for the auger even if you
have to order one and then buy the V belt-preferably the size needed for a
gas engine driven hay elevator which will run very slowly for you.

You will be better off installing an off on switch as you will need to install a
pair of mercury tilt switches on metal paddles/PVC pipe for high and low
bin limit levels that would be hung from the ceiling.

StokerDon wrote:Then I will have to see if I can come up with an auto dial system to call the coal supplier when the bin runs low.

Components from Radio Shack can be had to send a message (text or email I think) on an input trip!! An old garage door opener electric eye triggered on a low level in the coal bin and you have your input!!

http://www.radioshack.com/littlebits?utm_source=b ... &gclsrc=ds

How cool would that have been to have when we were kids and had gobs of time to create stuff??

I would turn the motor around and add a jackshaft with two pillow block bearings and you could reduce the speed easily with a two extra pulleys.

coaledsweat wrote:I would turn the motor around and add a jackshaft with two pillow block bearings and you could reduce the speed easily with a two extra pulleys.

Perfect !!!

waldo lemieux wrote:Don,

When exactly do you sleep? locsh project, yellow flame burner one and two, auger system... Im startin to feel like a slacker

waldo

You are no slacker Waldo. I have gotton a few good ideas off of you!

Sleep? Hummm,,, I will try it some time.

-Don

titleist1 wrote:

StokerDon wrote:Then I will have to see if I can come up with an auto dial system to call the coal supplier when the bin runs low.

Components from Radio Shack can be had to send a message (text or email I think) on an input trip!! An old garage door opener electric eye triggered on a low level in the coal bin and you have your input!!

http://www.radioshack.com/littlebits?utm_source=b ... &gclsrc=ds

How cool would that have been to have when we were kids and had gobs of time to create stuff??

That would have been realy cool as a kid!

The only problem is, I don't think my coal supplier (Ben) has a cell phone OR internet sevice!!!

-Don

coaledsweat wrote:I would turn the motor around and add a jackshaft with two pillow block bearings and you could reduce the speed easily with a two extra pulleys.

Humm,,, That would also solve the problem of my motor turning the wrong direction. For now I think I am going to try the big pulley first.

Thank you,

-Don

I went to to E. H. Herr south of Lancaster today. It's a big True Value Hardware store. Great store, if you need something, anything for your farm, they have it! They also have the biggest selection of pullies I have ever seen.

Once you start getting into the bigger pullies, they have weld in hubs. I got a 14" pulley and a 7/8" hub and buger welded them together.
I will finish painting it tomorrow.

Unfortunatly all of the motors I have turn counter clock wise. The auger needs to turn clock wise. So, I currently have the motor opened up to see if I can find the starter winding so I can reverse the wires. That should reverse the direction.
That's it for today!

-Don

With that speed reduction you could probably use a 1/4 horse motor.

Well, auger work is currently at a stand still. Motor rotation reversal is a bit complicated on this motor. Very basicly I need to switch the two wires on the starter coil. I can find the end that goes to the capacitor easy enough. I think the other end may not be broken out of the windings. In that case I will need to go in deeper OR use another motor that is easier to reverse the rotation. Trouble is, all the other types of motors I have are less horse power. That may be an option as I will be running a much greater gear reduction then these normaly run.
I did get the 14" pulley painted. It's a little sloppy but you WILL know when it's rotating!
I guess I won't get to try it this weekend.

-Don

I found a great RPM calculator. http://www.blocklayer.com/pulley-belteng.aspx

You can enter pulley diameters, RPM and shaft center to center.

According to the calculator, with a 2" drive pulley and a 14" driven pulley, my auger will be turning at 246.4 RPM. That's still to fast. Using the calculator, about the slowest I will get down to with what I have and 2 pulleys is 230 RPM.

Coaldsweat has got the right idea, turn the motor around, this solves the direction of rotation problem. Install a jackshaft with a pulley at each end, this makes another gear reduction possible.

Using the calculator, a 2" dive pulley at 1725 RPM driving a 6" jack pulley = 575 RPM. A 2" jack drive pulley at 575 RPM driving a 14" pulley = 82 RPM = flight speed.

A 2" dive pulley at 1725 RPM driving a 8" jack pulley = 431 RPM. A 2" jack drive pulley at 431 RPM driving a 14" pulley = 62 RPM = flight speed.

So it looks like I need to do some fabricating so I can put pillow blocks and a jackshaft on this thing. If I can auto fill the hopper this way, it will be well worth it!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

-Don

I take it you did not want to purchase a drive unit
for this auger from the distributor?

Happy holidays