Non-Chemical Hammer Mill

[dtectr]

Thanks Rusty for the great info and pictures, very, very helpful. Is there any manufacturer info for the one in the 2nd picture(Name and/or Model #)? I think I understand what the PTO does, but what does it stand for? Did you have to modify yours? Thanks, again.

PTO is farmer-speak (everyone-speak, really, i guess) for Power Take Off, consider it a mechanical "power out" fitting from a tractor or other piece of power farm machinery. Some run off of a shaft from the rear whose particular hook-up i can't recall; the older ones also had a drum on the side which could be hooked up with a wide rubber belt, thrasher-style.

 

[rusty]

You may want to check the magnetic bits for your silver.

You still have some contacts that haven't been hammered?

About ten pounds give or take.

 

[rusty]

Thanks Rusty for the great info and pictures, very, very helpful. Is there any manufacturer info for the one in the 2nd picture(Name and/or Model #)? I think I understand what the PTO does, but what does it stand for? Did you have to modify yours? Thanks, again.

The only information on the mill itself is " Farm King " these are fairly generic sold under many names and colors all use a standard diameter screen with different hole combinations.

Take a good look at that mill, it has a design flaw, the impeller shaft is only supported on one end. You could easy bend the shaft and this thing could go into orbit running a 3600 RPM.

Make it a habit to check the pins that hold the hammers in place are not overly worn you would not want to throw a hammer, I once had a blade form a fan break off going through the fiber glass hood of my gravel truck. The worse part of that was I thought the truck was going to shake to pieces.

The motor is a 5 Hp single phase.

 

[Harold_V]

I once had a blade form a fan break off going through the fiber glass hood of my gravel truck.

Yep! It happens.

I did an engine transplant years ago---a 430 Buick engine installed in my '68 GMC pickup. I used to drag a travel trailer with the truck and needed more performance than I was getting from the original 327.

After installing the Buick engine, I removed the fan clutch and replaced it with an adapter to mount the fan, which drove the fan full time, to insure adequate cooling. Big mistake. I lost one blade on a road trip, but got away clean. As Gill alluded, the shaking was unbelievable.

Bought a new fan and drove for a few more months, then, again on a road trip, tossed another blade. This time I wasn't so lucky. Ended up exiting the engine compartment out of the bottom, but not before taking out the radiator and battery.

Harold

 

[joedirt]

It sure got quiet! Rusty, how is your Hammermill holding up? What have you been destroying ? Has any body else out there been using one? I still haven't found anything, but I'm not giving up. Has anyone else in the Houston, Texas area been looking, or know where I can find one?

Thanks

 

[dtectr]

joedirt,
are there an dairies near you? Some of them had portable feed mills, some truck or PTO powered. they would use them to grind their own silage, which is chopped corn stalks, which is sprayed with molasses & allowed to ferment. my dad drove one when i was a child, and the hammers took the end of his finger off when he was trying to clear a jam.

anyway, very powerful hammer mills.

 

[rusty]

joedirt,
are there an dairies near you? Some of them had portable feed mills, some truck or PTO powered. they would use them to grind their own silage, which is chopped corn stalks, which is sprayed with molasses & allowed to ferment. my dad drove one when i was a child, and the hammers took the end of his finger off when he was trying to clear a jam.

anyway, very powerful hammer mills.

I think your confusing the silage chopper with the hammer mill, these are two completely different animals.

The silage chopper has knives affixed to the face of a rotary disc which also doubles up as the blower.

 

[dtectr]

joedirt,
are there an dairies near you? Some of them had portable feed mills, some truck or PTO powered. they would use them to grind their own silage, which is chopped corn stalks, which is sprayed with molasses & allowed to ferment. my dad drove one when i was a child, and the hammers took the end of his finger off when he was trying to clear a jam.

anyway, very powerful hammer mills.

I think your confusing the silage chopper with the hammer mill, these are two completely different animals.

The silage chopper has knives affixed to the face of a rotary disc which also doubles up as the blower.

No, this was a portable feed mill that was attached to a truck frame - to a kid it looked almost like a cement truck.
they would drive to the farmers' feed lots & provide custom feed milling. If you wanted a mix with X5 protein, X% fodder,
& etc. they would feed the grain, supplements & fodder, usually straw or corn stalks into a chute with a conveyor - just inside the chute
was a series of hammers which would shred whatever feedstock you used for easier mixing further inside the mill. as i recall
(i was 5), you could set the degree of coarseness of the chop. The resulting mix was shot into the storage bin, combine-style.
i know it was hammers, as Dad tried to free some cornstalks which had jammed & he got too close to the hammers & one caught the very tip of his middle finger & whacked it off as neat as you please.

They may use something completely different now, like what you described at the dairies, esp. the big ones. I have not seen
another one of these mills since. They couldn't have been cheap to operate or maintain.

 

[Barren Realms 007]

joedirt,
are there an dairies near you? Some of them had portable feed mills, some truck or PTO powered. they would use them to grind their own silage, which is chopped corn stalks, which is sprayed with molasses & allowed to ferment. my dad drove one when i was a child, and the hammers took the end of his finger off when he was trying to clear a jam.

anyway, very powerful hammer mills.

I think your confusing the silage chopper with the hammer mill, these are two completely different animals.

The silage chopper has knives affixed to the face of a rotary disc which also doubles up as the blower.

No, this was a portable feed mill that was attached to a truck frame - to a kid it looked almost like a cement truck.
they would drive to the farmers' feed lots & provide custom feed milling. If you wanted a mix with X5 protein, X% fodder,
& etc. they would feed the grain, supplements & fodder, usually straw or corn stalks into a chute with a conveyor - just inside the chute
was a series of hammers which would shred whatever feedstock you used for easier mixing further inside the mill. as i recall
(i was 5), you could set the degree of coarseness of the chop. The resulting mix was shot into the storage bin, combine-style.
i know it was hammers, as Dad tried to free some cornstalks which had jammed & he got too close to the hammers & one caught the very tip of his middle finger & whacked it off as neat as you please.

They may use something completely different now, like what you described at the dairies, esp. the big ones. I have not seen
another one of these mills since. They couldn't have been cheap to operate or maintain.

You are describing a silage machine. The machine you describe and the silage machine Rusty is describing are both doing the same thing just different styles of machines. Neither one are considered to be hammer mills. Both the machines you are describing have fixed blades to chop up material. A hammer mill has hammers that swivel like the pictures Rusty has poated before.