It was a fun machine to build. It was a custom design for a Canadian customer. All it does is fill hanging baskets with soil and brushes off the tops of them clean.... then recycles the soil that does not fall into the pots. The customer wanted the whole thing portable and able to fit in a semi truck. Normally things are in a fixed location and shipped on flat beds... The hopper on it holds 9 cubic yards... (a lot of soil) I'm proud of it! <BR> <BR><img src="http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/messages/4387/773986.jpg" alt="Upload"> <BR><img src="http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/messages/4387/773987.jpg" alt="Upload"> <BR><img src="http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/messages/4387/773988.jpg" alt="Upload"> <BR><img src="http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/messages/4387/773989.jpg" alt="Upload"> <BR><img src="http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/messages/4387/773990.jpg" alt="Upload"> <BR><img src="http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/messages/4387/773991.jpg" alt="Upload"> <BR><img src="http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/messages/4387/773992.jpg" alt="Upload"> <BR><img src="http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/messages/4387/773993.jpg" alt="Upload">

Very cool. My father in law works for an onion farmer. He's come up with quite a few new machines to help pack onions. I have no where near the imagination to do something like this!

Familiar stuff! I've been designing screw &amp; belt conveyors for about 10 yrs now. Looks good. What's the deal with the one nice helical bevel gearbox, with the rest being worm drive?

In order to get the Shaft size and ratio we need for the hopper..... we have to go helical bevel. for the rest worm drive is sufficient and way cheaper. The ratio is in the 90:1's for a 3 H.P. motor and hollow bore for a 2" shaft. Plus it's a Dodge... I wish I could use something else that was less expensive.

Have you looked into SEW Eurodrive? I use them almost exclusively these days. Dodge's lead times turned me off a long time ago.

I know the junction/flange of the 2 augers is not ideal.... but it's the best I could come up with that worked good. I was sweating bullets hoping it worked once finished. It had to be easily removable for the customer. It was my 1st time fooling around with augers this way.... we normally do conveyors that take up a lot more room. We ended up going from a 2 H.P. Motor and 14:1 ratio on the vertical auger to a 3 H.P. Motor and a 7:1 ratio on it. It picked up the soil with no problem. On the short auger, we had a 1 H.P. motor.... and I changed it out to a 2 H.P. <BR> <BR>Worked like a champ!

Cool design. Thanks for sharing.