Restoration and motorization of a 110yr old cane mill

[Richard Hash]

Jerry, I had a metal worker mill a key slot into the main roller shaft that matched the key slot in the bushing that fit into the main chain sprocket. Pretty typical setup for anything sliding onto a shaft. If you PM me your email address, I can send you a link to an entire Google Photo album of the entire restoration, there are a few pictures you might be interested in.

[Jerry Johns]

Wonderful! Thanks.

[Davy Hammons]

Part II - the fun part - motorizing it.

I spent a week doing RPM/torque calculations, trying to figure out the least expensive way to drive RPM down and torque up. I settled on a 60:1 gear reducer, and an 11:40 gear ratio, driving by a 240v 1.5 HP 1725 RPM motor.
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I had never welded in my life (but always wanted an excuse to learn, this seemed like the time). I got some 2" tubing from a guy off Craigslist (who insisted we meet behind a Taco Bell near the Houston ship channel, highly dubious transaction). It was pre-painted so I had to do alot of grinding to get bare metal to weld. For a first ever project I was pretty pleased:
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I ended up putting 600 lb lockable casters on it so I could roll it around my driveway, and capped off all the open pipe ends:
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The motor sled was a bit tricky, I used a 3/4" bolt to push the sled away from the mill, acting as a chain tensioner (worked great), but the height of the gear reducer 11-tooth gear had to match the height of the 40-tooth gear mounted to the mill shaft.
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A bit of paint and it was ready for the mill and motor sled to be mounted:
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My first ever "machine" ready for action. I must admit there was a bit of trepidation when I first turned it on. It's one of those situations where you are immensely gratified that "in practice" matched "on paper".
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And hey, it even works!
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Now I'm thinking about an evaporation pan project for this year ;-)

I have a Chattanooga No. 11 Cane Mill that I'm trying to put a motor on.Where did you get the motor and the Gear Box?

[Richard Hash]

Davy, replied to you via message - if you have any issues, just holler, I'll see if I can remember. The honest truth is that I had alot more fun renovating and motorizing that mill than I had actually using it (processing cane is back-breaking work!).