Combines Gleaner EZ Steer

[R_O_M]

Hi Ed. I mounted our EZ-steer motor on the floor of our spray tractor and the Cat Challenger 65. Used the shaft out of an adjustable steering column together with the universals from of a ford auto to go up from the motor to the steering wheel. A small pivoting spring tensioned bearing mount is clamped to the steering column to carry the friction drive wheel which I arranged to flip over centre when disengaging. Gives a very low weight, simple mounts and full adjustment up, down and in, out on the steering columns and very easy to transfer from one machine to another. Did not need to cut or damage any thing on the steering columns. Will probably mount the motor inverted, down low and at the rear of the R62's steering column with a chain drive and a very small electric clutch to engage and disengage the combine steering shaft from the motor ro reduce the drag of the disengaged motor. That is, of course, if it ever rains around here again and we actually have something to harvest!

 

[Ed_Boysun]

Hello, Sorry to hear about your dry. I did have enough reserve moisture to make a fair crop, but many with lighter soils are leaving later seeded wheat un-harvested because there is not enough there to justify cutting it. A question on the upside-down motor mounting: What wires need to be hooked differently to make it turn the proper way to account for the reverse rotation that occurs when you do thatIJ I ran into that characteristic when I made a speed reducing jack-shaft for my shop drill press. I had to replace the shiny new motor with an old one that could be reversed - new one didn't include instructions for reversing.

 

[R_O_M]

Hi Ed. No need to reverse direction of motor with motor drive shaft down and a chain drive to the steering shaft as it turns the same direction as the steering. In the normal drive shaft up position the motor turns the opposite diection to the steering wheel. We are looking at mounting the motor shaft down and about 6 inches above the floor on the back or seat side of the steering column standard. It is very simple to mount the motor in this position. A very small drive sprocket mounted on a small "Warner Electric" electric clutch on the motor shaft. A larger driven sprocket inside of the steering shaft's housing and mounted on the steering shaft. I will probably split the this drive sprocket to enable fitting onto the shaft without dismantling the steering column. The steering motor can then be disengaged by a manual switch of some sort. Thanks for the expression of support. We are looking at being completely wiped out for the fourth time in 12 years with the combines in a lot of areas possibly not even coming out of the sheds. In those 12 years we have only reached our 100 year average rainfall twice. A lot of our guys down here have reached the end of the line financially and mentally and some will simply and literally walk away from their farms as there is nothing left. Our governments have given some help but it, as usual, is very uneven and even unfair in the way it is handed out. The situation is also too bad and too large for any government to provide a fix. After all these tears and sobs! Cheers!

 

[R_O_M]

The manual switch comment is very misleading! I meant that the motor can be disengaged by a switch, probably on or near the steering wheel, that disengages and engages the small electric clutch on the motor drive shaft. This will remove the drag of the motor when manually steering and eliminates any need to have a moveable motor mount. It also allows a chain drive. The very small electric clutches can be found on Warner Electric's site. I used to have a belt driven drill press like yours but got totally sick of changing belts all the time to get the correct drill speeds so we switched to a Taiwanese built multi speed gear driven drill press. Took some time to find the right one but it is definitely one of our better buys in the metal working side of things.

 

[Ed_Boysun]

Good Morning, OK I see what you're up to now. Sure would like to see some pictures when it gets done. This guidance thing is still in it's infancy, we're on the bleeding edge of technology, the stuff is way over priced yet, and the interface is kludgey but we'll get it simplified and cheapend up soon; I think. Great fun in the meantime though. I also got tired of changing the belts on the drill press and when I discovered that there was such a thing as a Frequency Drive, I replaced the motor with a 3_4 HP 1140 RPM unit and got rid of the jackshaft and just replaced it with a 2:1 pulley arrangement. Now a simple little twist on a small knob lets me vary the speed from 20 RPM up to 600 RPM. I could make it go even faster if I reprogrammed the controller a bit so it would make 120 Hz current, but I seldom run more than 200 for drilling steel so I haven't done that yet. Couple button presses also make the drill go backwards too. Have you fooled with VFD's any, yetIJ They are simply quite amazing and now available on the surplus market for really decent prices.

 

[jiw]

Ed; A few years ago, the Fitters Shop at work got a nice big new drill press (we inherited their old one) and they found out real quick they couldn't run it slow enough for some of the large drilling they needed to do. We changed out the single phase OEM motor for a three phase motor and a small Toshiba VFD. They loved it and as far as I know haven't had a bit of trouble with it. Almost infinitely variable speed and high torque even at low speeds.

 

[jiw]

Ed; A few years ago, the Fitters Shop at work got a nice big new drill press (we inherited their old one) and they found out real quick they couldn't run it slow enough for some of the large drilling they needed to do. We changed out the single phase OEM motor for a three phase motor and a small Toshiba VFD. They loved it and as far as I know haven't had a bit of trouble with it. Almost infinitely variable speed and high torque even at low speeds.

 

[R_O_M]

Hi Ed. All single phase 240 volt 60 cycle power out here in rural Australia so we can't use some of this stuff. Most power is also single wire, earth return as well. Converting from single phase to 3 phase with rotary converters is just too costly for the use we would have for it. The towns and cities are all 3 phase, 240 volt, 60 cycle power.

 

[Ed_Boysun]

Not a problem. Buy the 3-phase motor you need and a VFD that's either rated for single phase to 3-phase or just get a 3-phase one that's twice the HP rating (or more) of the motor you intend to drive with it. VFDs make dandy phase converters too, even if you don't care to change the motor speed. Most are also programmable so you can set accelleration and decelleration rate of the motor you are driving. Takes some of the shock load off drive components. Ed in MT

 

[R_O_M]

Thanks Ed for the info. Will look into it. Cheers.