24, Some progress is made.

March, 2003. The floor was finally done. I completed this one section at a time, mixing it in my concrete mixer.
My son, Edward, is looking at the frogs that had found their way into the settling tank. As the roof plumbing was connected to our main water tank, I had some odd roof sheets laid out to collect rain water. The floor slopes toward the hollow on the right where the heavier sediment will collect. The water from here, via a raised drain, will flow to the settling tanks. The groove, central between the rails, is to accommodate the endless cable. This will be operated from a drive system positioned below the floor panels on the left.

This isn't what I had in mind when I started, I'm feeling, by this stage that I've bitten of more than I could chew! It's a bit late to turn back now.

I sourced a pair of axles for $100.00 that, with lengthening, would be suitable for the trolley.


Scrounging was unable to find me a suitable arbour, at least for a reasonable price, so I had to have this one made for $450.00. Thread was tapped to suit a large large lock nut which I had procured and a hole with a keyway was machined into the end to allow the hydraulic motor to be fitted directly to it.


I made a mock up of a bracket from mdf, on which to mount a pair of 75mm pillow blocks that I had paid $20.00 for, to establish the correct positioning of the saw. The tilt on the head was necessary as the pivot adjusting gear was damaged at the point where it sat vertical. This would have made it very difficult to adjust the blade to run true.

The bracket, shown above, which I cut from 1inch plate, tacked together and ready for final welding. I thought that my little 240volt welder might be a bit small for this and had it professionally done for $50.00.

The power source that was attached to the gearbox was a 240volt, 67hp, 230amp DC motor, as there was no way that could I could supply this power I needed to do a bit of head scratching.
My solution was to completely strip the guts out of the inside of the motor, leaving only the main shaft. To this I mounted a hub, machined to attach a motor bike chain sprocket. On the outside of the housing I fixed a frame to hold a standard AC mains supply, 1hp motor. A surplus 3 phase motor mounted in between serves as a support for a reduction pulley and a way to convert from belt to chain drive.
I later replaced the AC motor with a 4000rpm, 180volt, 2hp, DC motor, removed from an exercise treadmill to enable me to control the speed.