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belt powered equipment ?

S

swindave

Member
has any one used, or still used a belt powered piece of equipment?
what kind of tips or tricks to use one?

ive never used a belt, so im just curious,
whats the most popular used back years ago, threshing machine? feed grinder? or what other things
could be belt powered?

thanks for your help!
 
I have a almost new thresher and a silo filler,, have put on a few demonstrations with the thresher but have not yet belted up the silo filler,,
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At the home place it was the hammermill, corn sheller, and long table ensilage blower. I still have the hammermill, although converted to PTO, and not used in years.

Dad made a fence wire winder which mounted on a JD 50 and ran off the belt pulley. Neighbor had a tractor mounted buzz saw.
 
I have a 26" wood planer that we still use on occasion. I allso have a hammer mill and feed grinder but no longer use.
 
I spent a lot of time in my teen years feeding a darned hungry Huber thrashing machine (they were called seperators in this area) The heads had better be placed to the right side or the owner wouldn't like it at all. A few years ago his son and I seperated some oats on the 4th of July and it drew a lot of people with a lot of questions.
 
My Dads last year of the threshing machine was in 1952, about all i remember i used to get to go start the M, on the threshing machine after diner, he had the throttle marked with a nail, But i remember the straw stack gave a lot of shelter to the cattle in the winter,but you have to have the tractor lined up just right to keep the belt on! You got to come to Rollag, Minn for the Steam Thresher Reunion, they got a very nice Belt Driven Dyno,with a big visible scale, that will test a 110 hp steamer, on down, after that Demonstration, they put on farm tractors !
 
Keith, they got a big Thresher they use at Braddock North Dakota,its got a Double feeder,it's in a Y formation, on it,i think 4 people can pitch into that, they use a WD9 , on it and its barking, a little, but that 9 has got a Simms Injection pump, on it run like a dream! I pitched into a few seperators,it's not for the weak!
 
When home had a Wetmore hammer mill, JD corn sheller(small), buzz saw and one time filling silo with a long table blower. A young farmer who was a die hard JD guy ask me one time how come old JD tractors all had a belt pully on them and others didn't. Told him you could not remove them on JD's. Brings up another question what about SC and DC Case's? I still have dads endless belt.
 
When I started farming in 1974, I still had a forage blower for dry hay powered by an 8N Ford on the belt. Here are some pictures from a local(Covered Bridge)show with belted equipment.
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Years ago I worked with belt driven buzz saw,hammer mill, and silage blower....I still occasionally run a belt from tractor to tractor to help start one that I am having trouble with.
 
Lots of belt powered forage blowers when I was very young but they were being phased out as guys were building taller silos. The IH 40 we had could be run by belt or PTO but I only remember the PTO being used on it.
 
I have to ask. Why are they putting a twist in the belts? I'm guessing to change the rotation.
 
A twist top to bottom will change the direction of rotation. On some belts you can also use a twist inside to outside. It doesn’t change direction, but it will
keep the belt from flopping in the wind. (Some splices or belt material prevent this)

A long belt with no twist can get blown off the pulleys when working in windy locales.


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This is a shingle saw that I have.
 
We had a belt drive blower when I was very young. I would say it went away when I was about 10 or so.
 
I have a New Holland saw for firewood.
Gonna pull it out soon.
Have a Turner sawmill that is belt driven.
Also have a big syrup mill that is belt driven.

Have a pulley for my 8N.
Have a 42 John Deere H that has pulled the New Holland saw and the syrup mill a bunch.
Also have a 51 Case VAC with a belt pulley.

In the past, I had a Massey Harris 101 SR that I used on the sawmill. It did very well.
Had a 39 JD A that was used on the syrup mill.
Have had a Case D and LA case with belt pulleys.
Pulled my sawmill a long time with my LAE Case power unit.
Also used an 88 Oliver on the sawmill a while as well as a Farmall M.

Here are some photos of the JD H on the syrup mill.
That Case is just hooked to the syrup mill hitch for stability.
Richard in NW SC
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I remember helping dad grind feed with a WD Allis and a David Bradley hammer mill. Have pics of dad using a husker and shredder on some corn he had made into shocks. Tom
 
Though I never used either, I had two Dearborn three point mounted buzz saws as well as multiple blades, belts, PTO pulleys, buzz saw brackets, etc.

I sold both saws, a couple of the PTO pulleys, a couple belts, and all but 2 of the blades recently.

Dean
 
My own experience, I belted up the hammermill a few times when I was a teenager. I remember the silage cutter and its replacement, the table blower, but I never ran them myself. The thrashing machine was gone before my time.
 
Up until 2004 I still ground feed for my heifers using a Wetmore hammer mill, belted to my W4 Mc Cormick International tractor. I had the hammer mill bolted down to the barns threshing floor, right outside the grainery door. And the tractor sat outside the barn. I could run oats from the grain bin with a 4 inch auger into the hammer mill, and the W4 would handle the load just fine. The hammer mill would grind the grain and blow the chop roughly 30 feet across the barn and 8 feet up into a feed bin. I used this set up for many years, but in 2004 we moved to a new farm, and just haven’t needed it here. I still have the Wetmore mill and the W4. While running the mill made about the same amount of noise as the blower on a feed truck. And there was always plenty of dust in the air. Hearing and breathing protection was a must.
 
We put up chopped hay with a belt powered blower and the DC Case for many years when I was a kid. Also had a buzz saw for firewood powered by the belt and WD.
 
We had a Mongomery Wards gravity fed hammer mill in the grainery. The oats were there, but we loaded a flare box with ear corn from the corn crib and hauled it to the grainery to grind. It did not handle wetter ear corn in the fall; easy to plug. Dad used a 1929 JD D to grind usually with a vee chunk of wood to help hold the belt tight. The D really barked when he was finished grinding, so I would have to be coaxed to remove the block when he backed up to ease the tension on the block so I could remove it.
When Dad built our new corncrib, he mounted a Montgomery Wards grain buster hammer mill with a travelling feed table on 2-7' channel irons so we could put it in the corn crib and shovel ear corn directly into it. We could move it up the alley of the corn crib because he buried 2 pipes in the concrete so we could stake it down several places. We used a 1946 A or a 1951 G to grind. When using the A, we had to feed it a little slower than the G which the mill would eat the corn as fast as we could shovel. Dad died in September, 1970 when I was almost 16. I used the mill another 7 years until the main shaft on the hammer mill broke off (it had a steel pulley on it that I could not keep tight and running smooth). That was a very sad day for me because it worked so well. I used a mix mill for a couple years (not nearly as handy!). Then I put up a use Harv for hi moisture corn. Except for Dad dying, I have a lot of good memories. I wish I could download pictures from my head to show you.
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I've got a shingle mill that I still belt up & use it at a local farm show for demonstrations.
 
Dad had a flat belt water pump. Used to pump water from our well to the holding tank, above the farm. I still have the war surplus Briggs engine. It was started by pulling the belt. Stan
 
The shingles (or shims in this case, cottonwood...) are the pile on the right. The stuff under the drag chain is just trimmings/saw dust.
 
The endless rubber V-belt was developed in 1917 by John Gates of the Gates Rubber Company. (Wiki) with that said, and flat belts in use everywhere, the use of flat belts stayed common until the 50s (0pinion). Flat belts are more energy efficient and have a very long life. V belts have more friction and thus wear more rapidly. Flat belts were used in industry from jack shaft systems, as well as in engines used on moving equipment. The best thing about V belts is staying on the pulleys, and small form factor. The worst thing about flat is staying on the pulleys and form factor. My dad's wood working shop from 1890s vintage was all flat belt. I have many hours working in it and it worked perfectly. I and my family sold the complete shop to a wood worker starting a historically accurate shop 150 feet away from the barn it was located in. Our family has perpetual permission to use it in its new location. Jim
 
(quoted from post at 11:52:33 01/09/21) I've got a shingle mill that I still belt up & use it at a local farm show for demonstrations.
Click to expand...

What kind of mill.

We have Perkins around here.
 
For me it was always the hammer mill. Helped my dad when I was a kid. Feeding hay and straw bales into it. Then oats for cattle feed. I just posted a video earlier this week doing my latest load of oats. When we still burned woodstoves it was a regular job to run the belt driven saw to keep up the firewood supply. Back in 2017 I got the chance to run a threshing machine with the Cockshutt 50 at a local threshing demo. It was interesting.

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Cockshutt threshing
 
(quoted from post at 16:50:44 01/09/21) For me it was always the hammer mill. Helped my dad when I was a kid. Feeding hay and straw bales into it. Then oats for cattle feed. I just posted a video earlier this week doing my latest load of oats. When we still burned woodstoves it was a regular job to run the belt driven saw to keep up the firewood supply. Back in 2017 I got the chance to run a threshing machine with the Cockshutt 50 at a local threshing demo. It was interesting.

<img src="https://www.yesterdaystractors.com/cvphotos/cvphoto70650.jpg">
Cockshutt threshing
Click to expand...

Ya, I get to belt up to the thresher & hay press at the show sometimes.
 
I helped my uncle and his boys with a Farmall M and rock crusher. I was really young and don't remember much about it. I know he still has the M and the rock crusher is sitting in the fence row.
 
Dad always had and I still use with a belt drive from time to time is a Kelly Ryan elevator. It’s about forty feet long. The flat belt on the tractor drives the speed jack which drives the elevator. We’d run the JD B just above low idle. Ear corn into a picket fence crib after the corn bin got full. Oats into the bins inside the barn. Hay or straw bales into the hay loft. Our elevator isn’t very wide so bales had to be set at an angle so the flights could push the bales up.
 
In my youth most hammermills were belt powered. At my uncles farm the hammermill was in a shed addition to the barn below the granary so grain could be shoveled in easily. Tractor was in sight of the mill so alignment wasn't hard. My cousin had his hammermill inside the barn, tractor outside in the barnyard, out of sight. He had a stake in the barnyard to mark the position of the front wheels of his Farmall H. Another neighbor used a belt powered blower to put dry hay in a barn, I never had a dustier job. We used an F12 Farmall on that one. Lining up the belt isn't that hard, especially on something you use every week.
 
Old farmer I helped back in the 70's did things the old fashioned way. He used an IH W-4 on a belt to power his buzz saw. To fill silo he had an old table blower that he ran with the W-4 and endless belt. He put sides and a back door on his flat bed wagons and backed up to the blower. He had a head board with cables back to a pipe on the rear of the wagon. Then an small electric gizmo with a shaft that turned the pipe. We stood on the other side of the blower and used potato hooks to help drag the silage into the blower. Its a wonder I still have all my fingers and toes. He quite running his real nice thresher in the mid 60's when his half wit nephew got run through the belt and thrown against the thresher. I remember him telling me that the kid was not breathing when he picked him up, so he shook him hard and got him breathing again.
Great memories, but an awful hard way to make a living. He raised 5 kids on a 100 acre farm milking 25 cows. Carried the milk in pails out of the barn into the milk house, even after he had a bulk tank. I bought an old W-4 myself a few years ago for the heck of it. The old guy who owned it had died. But he used a really big pulley to run a front mounted buzz saw with it. The saw was gone by the time I got the tractor.

Tim
 
When I was young grandpa would put the JD B on the pumpjack during a power outage. When him and dad had a sawmill they ran the edger with a JD G, it would really bark when edging 2” oak planks. Later I had a IH hammer mill I ran with either a PowerBlocked 46 JD A or a 46 flat backed A. The flat back nearly killed me I walked back to check the temp and just after I passed it, it throw a blade off the fan. It embedded the blade in a board fence about 10 feet away. Recently I used my H FarmAll to run the same mill. I will say that PowerBlocked handled it the best.
 
Yes we still have 2 hammermills and a buzz saw.. One hammermill is in the center run of a grain crib.(case i think).. It gets used a Minimum of once a month when Im feeding hogs, If I happen to be graining the nurse cows its used even more often..

The second mill it a narrow JD mill (6 i think) that we have a screen that's fine enough to make flour with it..

We have a belt adapter for our fords.. Ive used from a 2N to an 841D to run em.. Ive even used a E3 co-op and AC WD with flat belt pulleys
 
That first picture with the Minnie, I thought that looked like Hot Rod. Then later I decided that it
was.
 
At our show here in northeastern Pa., when we can have it again, we run a thresher, stationary hay baler, silage blower, rock crusher and a saw mill. Lots of fun getting the tractors lined up so the belt will stay on. I guess that's one of the fun things at a show.
 
We had a dedicated tractor to pull the headboard. Cables over the blower table. Always had 2 guys raking, as you said. I was the "stomper" up in the silo, leveling the silage out, as the blower brought it in. Probably 8 or 10 years old. Nobody ever checked to see if I was covered up or not! (Belt driven JD blower) Women fixed a hugh noon meal.
 
I was lucky - never got stuck inside the silo for some reason. Reading stories about silo gas years later makes me shudder. I do remember walking into the barn one time and seeing strange colored vapor by the silo door. The cows were at pasture that time of year. He always ran the blower for a few minutes before sending the stomper into the silo.

Tim
 
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