I make 4-5 yards per year of compost from my animal and garden waste. The area I have available for building compost piles is an old gravel pad that a house trailer used to sit on. As a result, I get a lot of rocks in my compost in the process of turning it. To solve that problem, I'm building a power driven screener.
The big Briggs has a different mounting bolt circle, so I had to build an adapter plate to mate it to the final drive. |
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Here's Plan C. The Briggs had too many RPM even at idle, and my choices were another jackshaft for gear reduction or a gearbox of some sort. I came across this 5.5hp Honda with a 6:1 reduction built in. This solves a whole raft of issues. At idle with the variable drive set at the lowest speed, it gives me 24 RPM at the lower sprocket or 12 at the upper. That gives me plenty of room to speed the engine up a bit and take advantage of the increased HP at higher RPM. With the integral gas tank, throttle and choke, it eliminates a lot of plumbing. Being pull start, it eliminates the battery, solenoid and cables. Sweet! |
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Another few months have passed (good thing I wasn't in a hurry on this project...) and I have the Honda engine mounted. After some head-scratching, I decided to mount it on a hinge. This has two advantages: It uses the weight of the engine/drive assembly to tension the chain and it makes the engine removable for winter storage. |
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I'll need to fab up a chain guard. The only remaining task is to install a slope sheet to direct the screenings out the back of the unit. |
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