As I see it the primary reason behind the original design of Mr. McCain's mixer was to take advantage of items close at hand for minimal cost and maximum effect. The fact that the drive-line was originally powered by a 100 hp is more incidental than necessary.
Like I said, I can pull the mixer around (empty) all day long without breaking a sweat.
I've pull-started a 16,000 pound, 500 hp semi tractor with a 1984 Chevette diesel weighing in at under 2,000 pounds and 50 hp...
more than once.
I dragged my mixer out today & after I raised the wheels I spun the blades easily with two fingers.
Almost everyone who has a mixer has shot half a load of slurry into the air by using more than a fraction of the (let's just say) 100 hp available at the pedal.
I've seen long conveyors being driven by little 4 or 5 inch tires attached to smallish little electric motors that are just simply amazing on the face of it.
I don't see it as trying to move the blade through 60 or 80 pounds of paper.
I see it as trying to move the blade through whatever amount is in contact with the cutting edge of the blade.
Or more succinctly, to move the blade along with whatever is in contact with it.
Eventually the paper will surrender.
The 15" tire drives a 2' pinion.
The 2" pinion drives an 8" ring.
The 8" ring drives a blade that is 3/16's of an inch thick.
OVERKILL!! to say the least.
A treadmill might not drive the tire.
It certainty won't do the same job as pulling the mixer.
But the 2x6 belt on the treadmill is driven by a 3" or 4" wheel attached to a 1/2' shaft.
Fascinating...
but then again, I'm easily amused. :-)
I think a person could raise one wheel, get on the tire and WALK paper into slurry...
eventually.
Yeah, a load of phone books would really put a crimp in your day but there are already people here who shred paper before making slurry to accommodate the mixers that they've fashioned so I'm thinking if it works at all it would benefit some since the point is cheap & easy.
On Mon, Mar 19, 2012 at 10:54 PM, joel
<joelincalif@aim.com> wrote:
--- In
papercreters@yahoogroups.com, "jungleblood2" <freightlimo@...> wrote:
>
> What about using a re-purposed treadmill to drive a tire on a tow mixer??
>
We shouldn't forget that the standard tow-mixer is a seriously heavy duty mixer, made with the re-purposed rear end of a car or truck that was driven by a 100+ horse power engine, now being towed by a car/truck still providing 100+ horse power. This is a mixer capable of applying hundreds of pounds of horse power to the task of mixing paper.
We've not going to be able to cheaply replace the paper mulching capability of this low-cost heavy duty mixer with an old treadmill or electric AC/DC motors. We may be able to get the blade to spin with a treadmill but the first phone book or cardboard box will quickly tear it up.
