OffTopic: How to make Flywheels?

[cabu]

Hello,

I hope it's allright to open this thread here.

I need to split wood. For the axe it's to much and the hydraulic stuff is to slow. Crazy people at youtube use an open flywheel with a axe welded on...

I found this: supersplit (http://www.supersplit.com/)

http://www.supersplit.com/images/principle.gif


I love to watch the video, how easy and fast the wood is splited.

(For small fire starter pieces this is eaven better.) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX0JXybkcB4)


But SuperSplit is not available in good old germany.
The question comes up: How to built it by my one.

I figured out that the flywheels are spinning with 300 rpm. So the balancing is not critical.

But how to make flywheels? It does not need to be nice and shiny. My idea so far is to bend a tube to a circle and fill it up with lead. Or just bend some flat bars and weld them together.
Or has somebody an idea where to get flywheels? Not easy to find in the internet.

carl

[skeets]

I would start looking around the scrap yards where they scrap old heavy equipment. or out around some old strip pits, old mines, old mills and so on these places always have some neat stuff that can be used for other things. Even turning at only 300 RPM,, im thinking you might have a problem with balancing it if you made some thing,, just MHO you understand
Peace
Skeets

[cabu]

I would start looking around the scrap yards where they scrap old heavy equipment. or out around some old strip pits, old mines, old mills and so on these places always have some neat stuff that can be used for other things.
Peace
Skeets

Thanx for your help...

But in Germany it's a little different. Most old mining/mill/steamengine stuff is taken away by Russia and France after WWII. And because Germany is a little bit small, broke factories are quickly removed. Most stuff is melted back to new products. So it is really hard to find flywheels at the scarp yard's.

Maybe I can find some wheels from a train waggon...

carl

[Eric McCarthy]

Try out West Kentucky Tractor, they are a huge junk yard here in the U.S for old tractor and parts!

http://www.wkytp.com/default.asp

[cabu]

Try out West Kentucky Tractor, they are a huge junk yard here in the U.S for old tractor and parts!

http://www.wkytp.com/default.asp

Nice try... ;)

But have I mentioned that I live in GERMANY. Do You have an idea how much the transport would cost?

But they have a nice picture at their homepage. I have never seen such collection in germany. And that's the problem.

Thanx for trying

Carl

[Milo Holroyd]

This is crude, but you could use a car or truck tire and rim assembly.
Leave the tire on the rim, make sure to relieve any pressure.
Then cut a hole in the tread portion of the tire, and fill it with concrete.

Milo

[cabu]

This is crude, but you could use a car or truck tire and rim assembly.
Leave the tire on the rim, make sure to relieve any pressure.
Then cut a hole in the tread portion of the tire, and fill it with concrete.

Milo

This sounds a little bit dangerous. I don't think that the tire will be strong enough if the stone will break...

carl

[dusty-t]

Hi Cabu. In Canada on some of our cars the spindels bolt on to the axel. if you take the spindle assembly and the wheel and put a coffee can large tomato can in the centre, then fill around the can with cement. You can put some wire in the cement to give it strength and to hold it together.When the cement dried take the can out. This will allow you to bolt the spindle on to the wheel and the other end of the spindle to your frame. You can weld a steel plate across the wheel for your pivot point. Just an Idea.:D Dusty P.S. Use the centre of the rim as a pulley.

[gmtinker]

Hi Cabu

I live in Alberta, Canada and I have seen a couple home-built wood splitting machines using the flywheel idea you are talking about, made from old square balers. Some old balers had rather large flywheels and a crankshaft reciprocating mechanism which I have seen adapted to splitting wood. My grandfather even had one of those old balers when I was a kid and the baler had its own engine mounted to it, driving the flywheel (no PTO!). I don't have pictures of one right now from the ones I've seen, but they're along the lines of the one shown in this video:

http://wood-splitters.com/blog/05/wood-splitter/

Most likely not approved by Occupational Health and Safety, but they are quite effective. Not sure how many old balers there are in Germany, or how much they would be, but that would be one option for you if you can find a cheap one.

[JWB]

Hi,
Try a wheel from a rail car or the trucks of a locomotive. These come in different sizes. When the wheels get worn down they replace the wheels. These wheels are balanced and quite heavy. One can be purchased for scrap prices at a local train repair yard.

Good luck.
JWB

[skeets]

I just thought of maybe useing a wheel weight maybe a smaller one like 50 or 70 pounds bolted to a wheel,, just a thought