miter gear solution or ... 1

[rufcut]

I want to move a horiz. mandrel down to vert. and back as needed. Background to question: Miter gear A is drive. B and C gears are at right angles and engaged to gear A somewhat like idlers. Gear D is on original drive axis engaged with B and C. A yoke is installed outside B/C gear axis. A sleeve from the yoke surrounds a mandrel coming from gear D. The yolk is locked into position and when power is interupted can be repositioned and relocked 90 degrees. When this is encased, a slot must be provided to accommodate the pivot of the mandrel. The slot is then somehow sealed to keep the lube in/grit out. WHAT IS IT? I've never seen one. Is this already retailed or is it a custom job? Maybe there is another way to do this. This is a one time thing for a sawmill but would prefer buying one to building it. (20" Circular blade cuts horiz. and vert.) Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge!

 

[dvd]

Take a shaft-mounted right-angle gear reducer and mount it on a shaft, cantilevered or through. The traditional "output shaft" would become your input shaft. Mount your blade to the gearbox's "input shaft" which now becomes the output shaft. By using a low ratio reducer you would have a speed-up drive, which might not be a bad thing. By running a lower rpm motor you would end up with not too much speed up. You could use an air cylinder or machine screw actuator attached to the torque arm attachment point to effect rotation of the housing and achieve your desired results. The machine screw actuator would be pretty sharp because of the infinite positioning posibilities, if you wanted to produce quarter-sawn boards

I'm sure that many gear box manufacturers would even put the gears in to make this a 1:1 ratio gear box. You should use an efficient gearbox so that you don't end up with too much heat-generation. And as always run this by the manufacturer.

 

[rufcut]

Thanks for helping me think of the solution. A "secondary drive" pulley is mounted on the input shaft of the 90* speed increaser. The mounting plate is slotted to accommodate the pulley and the hinge is in line with the axis of the input shaft. Unlock the locating pins and it will lower right into the other position. Now I just have to figure out how to lock it horizontally without putting things in the way. Thanks again.