Guest guest Posted March 16, 2000 Report Share Posted March 16, 2000 Originaly we aquired an Ox-power unit (well actualy it was for horses and it was used for dressing flax -we think) from Ireland. It is probably over 100 years old. Very large wheels made from cast Iron and the shafts cast steel. We use it for crushing grains to feed to the cows. We also have a flour mill which is built to be powered from the ox unit. Because the ox unit has some broken parts and because it is quite worn in places we have not been able to mill flour. The torque required to mill the flour has consistently broken various parts of the old unit. Recently a devotee called Radhesyam came to the Uk for 4 months. He is very good at engineering and so i asked him to replace the ox power unit with modern alternatives. First of all he took the old power unit to pieces. Secondly we bought an old Ford lorry axle and a gear box. Huge big heavy things that could only be lifted by block and tackle. The Gear box means we can alter the speed the drive bars go at. we also bought 4 prop shafts each being 1.5m long. we may even get a second gear box to give an even greater selection of speeds. we want to build a machine so strong that it hums even when 4 ox teams are powering it. It should also last one hundred years. The intention is to use as far as possible parts which can be located in any country in the world. A prototype which can be copied anywhere. An essential asset to every goshalla and farm. As Gita-nagari once did we wish to have the option of cutting wood, milling flour, rolling grain and in fact to power anything that a static tractor can power. I will keep the members of this conference posted how it is going. ys Syamasundara das Bhaktivedanta Manor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 16, 2000 Report Share Posted March 16, 2000 "Syamasundara (das) (Bhaktivedanta Manor - UK)" wrote: > Originaly we aquired an Ox-power unit (well actualy it was for horses and it > was used for dressing flax -we think) from Ireland. It is probably over 100 > years old. Very large wheels made from cast Iron and the shafts cast steel. > > We use it for crushing grains to feed to the cows. We also have a flour mill > which is built to be powered from the ox unit. Because the ox unit has some > broken parts and because it is quite worn in places we have not been able to > mill flour. The torque required to mill the flour has consistently broken > various parts of the old unit. > > Recently a devotee called Radhesyam came to the Uk for 4 months. He is very > good at engineering and so i asked him to replace the ox power unit with > modern alternatives. > > First of all he took the old power unit to pieces. > > Secondly we bought an old Ford lorry axle and a gear box. Huge big heavy > things that could only be lifted by block and tackle. The Gear box means we > can alter the speed the drive bars go at. we also bought 4 prop shafts each > being 1.5m long. we may even get a second gear box to give an even greater > selection of speeds. > > we want to build a machine so strong that it hums even when 4 ox teams are > powering it. It should also last one hundred years. The intention is to use > as far as possible parts which can be located in any country in the world. A > prototype which can be copied anywhere. An essential asset to every goshalla > and farm. > > As Gita-nagari once did we wish to have the option of cutting wood, milling > flour, rolling grain and in fact to power anything that a static tractor can > power. > > I will keep the members of this conference posted how it is going. > > ys Syamasundara das > Bhaktivedanta Manor Sounds very interesting. A wonderful project. Definitely keep us posted. This is just the type of activity I would imagine for a varnasrama college -- to have about 4 or 5 projects like this going on at different places around the campus with several teams of devotee engineers competing with each other to provide the best examples of intermediate technology using ox power and scientific gearing. This would be very attractive to the outside public. At Gita-nagari we got quite a bit of press from our project. Yes, at Gita-nagari we used the gears from a cement mixer so we would have something strong enough to handle the incredible torque from the oxen (not sure I'm saying this right). Also, we geared up the movement using a high-torque drive unit (HTD) -- are you using such a thing, or has this been replaced by something newer. Oxen traveled around the main shaft at 2 rpm -- but the HTD increased the speed to 2000 rpm -- fast enough to saw wood. your servant, Hare Krsna dasi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.