corn sheller rebuild

[DavidBarkey]

New Idea 329 Super Sheller with a 325 2 row corn picker . Sheller needs a shaft and pulley repair due to failling bearings over loading main drive jack shaft

This thing has done a lot of work .

time to take off the auger

this is the failed pulley and shaft

[DavidBarkey]

one rusty bolt at a time , one panel at a time coming off to get to the shafts and bearings .

top end of auger shaft has seen some abuse

[JSinMO]

Wow overall it looks like it’s in pretty good shape. I’m betting it got parked in a shed when not in use. After 60 years I suppose it deserves some new bearings! Can you imagine how many bushels of corn have been run through it over the years?!

[DavidBarkey]

After talking to Chris , I understand how and when these are used . He , like many of the farmers up here back in the day used these but twice a year . Once in the fall to pull enough for the winter , leaving half the crop standing in the field . Then again in the spring as soon as things were dry enough. Storage only needed to be half as big that way . So like many other pieces of equipment used on a farm , it sits about 360 days a year . I guess the number of hours being lower than what a non farmer would expect and the fact that the RPM of most of the bearings is low is why it made it this far , some 60 odd years .

[DavidBarkey]

What my shop looks like right now .

18 bearings done now . 2 idler pulleys taken apart (riveted) and new bearing put in and bolted back together . Today we are going down to the Outlaws parents and change over the mower deck to the snowblower . On route a stop at metal suppliers and the welding suppliers to stock up on supplies .

[Harry]

What my shop looks like right now . 20241111_084220.jpg
18 bearings done now . 2 idler pulleys taken apart (riveted) and new bearing put in and bolted back together . Today we are going down to the Outlaws parents and change over the mower deck to the snowblower . On route a stop at metal suppliers and the welding suppliers to stock up on supplies .

David, sounds like a man on a mission. Harry

[DavidBarkey]

The main drive pulley for the sheller section is a 3/4" belt "C" section. V belt . grey cast iron with a worn out spline and the shaft spline was in bad shape as well . There is not enough material to bore and bush . So I brazed the bore to give me material to true up the bore and cut key way to go on new straight shaft . The hub section cracked in 3 spot when cooling . . Done this before and never cracked brazing . Not an easy pulley replace because it is a 3/4" wide belt . Sooo off to PA where I got a weldable hub , and 2 weld on sprockets big enough to have what I need with the pointy bits cut off in the lathe . With sprockets turned down , one got welded to the hub .

You can see the centre hub gone as it sits in the new hub/plate drilled to hold the pulley . The second sprocket will be drilled off the first to make a matching set to clamp the pulley in between . 1/4" key 2" long will drive the new 1 1/8" shaft instead of a spline, all the rest of the keys on the shaft are 3/16" x 1" as per the original shaft .

[JSinMO]

Wow nice work! This sheller is going to be ready to work for the next 50 years when you’re done!

[DavidBarkey]

drilling out the second sprocket

finished pulley

[DavidBarkey]

Finally got it all back together . Sorry guys didn't have time to take pictures . Battling the weather trying to get this thing back together outside was a challenge for sure . But it is done and tested . A repair that turned into a rebuild became one big job . The picker head part of it will get a going over after spring harvest of the last of the standing corn . It is actuality 2 machines on the same frame .