Seed plant plate valve

[Ironman]

I haven't posted a project for a while, house is eating the clock for me. I ended up with a new customer that I did not want to brush off, so I have been doing dome work for a seed cleaning plant. They seem as grateful as a puppy, and it turns out their machinery is full of parts that are no longer made. So they have been flogged to the point where they don't run. Shafts half worn through from crap rubbing on them. But clean, everything is clean, no mud or cowshit.

Except they had a drunk Satan worshiper that thought he could weld, and I had to remove some of his welds with a cold chisel. The blobs are big enough that they hurt to step on with running shoes.

So this project is a chute at the bottom of the bin. 8 inch square hole where it bolts to the bin, and it makes an elbow and reduces to 5x5 square. In the 5x5 section they had a plate butterfly for shutting off the grain flow. This would sooner or later have straw or crap wound up in it and stop working and they had to take it apart and shovel up the grain spill to clean the butterfly.

My plan is for a sliding plate at the 8x8 opening. I chiseled and ground out the offending welds, and re-welded it in areas that affect my contribution to the critter.
In pic 1 you can see the square butterfly and the discharge chute.
In the second picture are the slide rails I attached to put a 1/4" steel slide plate on.
In the last picture is the slide plate in place with the rails made of 3/8" round stock and a grain deflector welded above them to divert the flow over the rail and keep the plate from flipping out.

[Ironman]

Then I had to have some linkage to open and close it.
So off to the plasma table to cut some more. I drew up several ideas on paper and this one worked the best.
The linkage has to have an 8" stroke, as they want the throat wide open. And it has to close completely. When I had everything tacked the mechanism slid back and forth freely. Once I welded it up it has a little resistance in the last two inches of opening. Either the shebang warped a bit, or some weldberries are stuck within the slide mechanism somewhere.

I figure it will loosen up with usage.

It's the only excitement I had in the rain today.

[astronut]

I wish you and your customer well with the slide plate set up. Back in the 1980's while working for a grain and barge company, we had a few of the farmers arrive with slide plates in their grain trailers to off load their grain. Many of times they were not able to off load the grain due to the weight pressing down on the plate chute. Even with us assisting them it was still a no go. We sent them on their merry way. A slide gate plate is not the best solution to the problem.

[Tim KS]

Originally Posted by astronut

I wish you and your customer well with the slide plate set up. Back in the 1980's while working for a grain and barge company, we had a few of the farmers arrive with slide plates in their grain trailers to off load their grain. Many of times they were not able to off load the grain due to the weight pressing down on the plate chute. Even with us assisting them it was still a no go. We sent them on their merry way. A slide gate plate is not the best solution to the problem.

Slide plates work great if you have a hydraulic cylinder to make them slide.

[astronut]

Originally Posted by Tim KS

Slide plates work great if you have a hydraulic cylinder to make them slide.

True Dat! Or a geared drive set up to roll them open instead of the slide hammer setup that most of them had way back then.

[Ironman]

Originally Posted by astronut

I wish you and your customer well with the slide plate set up. Back in the 1980's while working for a grain and barge company, we had a few of the farmers arrive with slide plates in their grain trailers to off load their grain. Many of times they were not able to off load the grain due to the weight pressing down on the plate chute. Even with us assisting them it was still a no go. We sent them on their merry way. A slide gate plate is not the best solution to the problem.

Well, they were very certain what they want, and were out to check progress.
That covers my ass, but I tend to agree with you. It will need horsepower.
I have to assume they know what they are doing, as they built this so far. And I don't know how many bushels the hopper holds.

So we will see what happens. I'll get the feedback and report.

[JBFab]

I used to work for a company that built seed and feed mills. We used a rack gear welded to the bottom of the slide plate and a the pinion attached to a shaft with a handwheel. It worked pretty good. - In case you get some warranty work on this.

[Ironman]

Originally Posted by JBFab

I used to work for a company that built seed and feed mills. We used a rack gear welded to the bottom of the slide plate and a the pinion attached to a shaft with a handwheel. It worked pretty good. - In case you get some warranty work on this.

I expect that either the bin is small, and then it may still work, or they may have to re-consider their design.
They will put it in today.

[moe1942]

I hope they appreciate having the right man on the job....

[milomilo]

Nice to have a new customer, and if this all works as they designed, they will likely be a long term customer.