Nut harvester repair

[Nutfarmer]

Lost the front axle on the nut harvester. Only half way through with harvest so have to repair to keep going. This time of the year nothing else matters. The whole years paycheck is laying out on the ground. This is why we have a shop. The shaft that broke was cold rolled steel. The other side broke two years ago. I replaced this side with 4140 thinking it would hold up better. The broken shaft was welded in place , so I set the mill up to bore it. I think an angle drive is in order for the mill. Would have made the set up easier. The only 4041 I had was 2 1/2 in dia. Took a long time to turn it down to 1 3/4 inches. The good part was I already had it. One major mess up on my part was I miss located the key way when welding the shaft in place. To cut the key way where it belonged led to a hokey set up , but it worked. The good news is we are back harvesting. Finished the walnut today. Will start the pecans tomorrow. We are half way done with harvest. Nice to up the shop to work and pull us out of a bind

 

[MrWhoopee]

And THAT'S why we do this! Nicely done.
Did you realize that you need a new piece of tooling?

 

[Nutfarmer]

Always need new tooling. A 90 degree head would have been a lot easier than tilting the head 90 degrees. A good thing the Acra is a heavier machine than a Bridgeport. A lighter duty machine would not have put up with some of the so so setups

 

[extropic]

You got'er done.

IMO, the Bridgeport type angle drives are not vey heavy duty. I'm not sure what the rated drilling capacity is, but I'd be surprised if the drill shown in the picture would be OK.

 

[Nutfarmer]

drilled it out to one inch then finished to 1.750 with a boring head.

 

[markba633csi]

That's the way to bust your nuts

 

[Janderso]

Lost the front axle on the nut harvester. Only half way through with harvest so have to repair to keep going. This time of the year nothing else matters. The whole years paycheck is laying out on the ground. This is why we have a shop. The shaft that broke was cold rolled steel. The other side broke two years ago. I replaced this side with 4140 thinking it would hold up better. The broken shaft was welded in place , so I set the mill up to bore it. I think an angle drive is in order for the mill. Would have made the set up easier. The only 4041 I had was 2 1/2 in dia. Took a long time to turn it down to 1 3/4 inches. The good part was I already had it. One major mess up on my part was I miss located the key way when welding the shaft in place. To cut the key way where it belonged led to a hokey set up , but it worked. The good news is we are back harvesting. Finished the walnut today. Will start the pecans tomorrow. We are half way done with harvest. Nice to up the shop to work and pull us out of a bind

Steve,
The 90 degree head swing is new to me, I've never used mine that way. Hey, it worked great!!

It looks like your big Acra has similar features as my Sharp.
Much more robust that a Bridgeport, 3HP, a 10x51" table and weighs in at 3,300#

Looking forward to seeing you.