Folks,

Had had in my head for a long time ideas to use the humble a series for various industrial purposes. The key drivers are availability, and low cost. In fact the lower the cost, the better.

1. Air compressor. (long term project) Get a lump of steel machined to fit a block with one way valvles fited into each cyclinder and run and electric motor on a pully to the crank. As long as the rings seal well enough to give 100psi, and its rotating at 500rpm would give the same as a 17cfm compressor. (17 ft³ = 0.481386 m³).

2. Short term project. Wood coarse ripping saw. Due to recent events in my local area, my supply of firewood from my place is in high demand, and me on the saw cant keep up. Thinking using an A10/12 to drive a shaft with a 18" ripping wood disk/blade. This way, once the wood is cut into manageable chunks, I can cut the stumps into usage sizes.

I was thinking that to achieve the low cost requirement, that I could use a 4 speed box, connected to a h15 diff cut in half, with once axle driving the blade. Weld the centre up of course to drive the one side.

This mounted in a trailer or a frame that fits in a trailer means portability.

I have seem a similar setup, but with a 25hp stationary motor. This struggled with a larger stumps, so a 50hp a12 should have ample power.

The gearbox would give me options about disk speed and torque, although it would probally sit in 4th all the time with a 4.11 dif centre that the h145 usually had.

Ideas and opinions?

This looks like it will be this summers project as it wont be done by this winter, but ready for next winter.

Id like to see a ute combined with your saw idea... somehow run an auxiliary driveshaft off the same engine to power the saw, nice draw for tools in the tray under a flat top and you got yourself a portable mill!

Ute would look sick with a big ripsaw blade sticking half out the back of it too ;)

My godfather once made a rudimentary ride on lawn mower from a 120Y. He used a 2nd diff (with welded centre) as the driveshaft between gearbox and diff. The input shaft of that diff aimed straight down and had the cutting blades attached to it (spun at 3.9 x the driveshaft speed

Must find some pics....

If you're using a whole A-series engine for an air compressor a custom cam would do the job. Two bumps on each actuator and open the exhaust valve when the piston is 3/4 of the way up, would be reasonably efficient.

Just a thought.

Had an a14 on my sawbench a few years ago, worked better than the 10 horse honda thats on it now.

Can you get a custom cam like that so that its basically a two stroke?
That was the path that i wanted to go down, but didnt think that you can get that done. I spose its cost really. If a custome cam like that is more than the lump of machined steel, then there is really no benifit.

You couldnt regrind a std cam for that. It would have to be completely recast i could think.

I sooo wanna see this 120y Lawnmower SX-510...Funny as I was going to suggest that but thought it was a bit far-fetchetd! :)

Does anyone know if you can get a cam to make a 4 stroke into a two stroke for the A-series?

On the old farm, dad ran a VW engine tha run on two cyclinders and run the other two as a compressor. Sounds terrible, but cheap, simple petrol compresssor.

At the end of the day, a 17cfm compressor either electric or petrol are cheap enough, and I have a perfectly good 17cfm electric compressor already, which is why its a long term project.

Its the firewood processor that i am intrested in. A small commercial unit starts at around $10,000 so buying one is out of the question, but they really are awesome.

Was thinking of either a drop saw design or a push bench design. Ive seen both in action, and I think that the drop saw design is probally safer. and eaiser to design.

If i direct drive an engine to a drive shaft, which is then connected with belts to the cutting disk, it would be pretty straight forward.
australian firewood processor design

Ill upload some sketches to get some feedback.

For a compressor, just pull two plugs out and run it as a two cyl engine with the other two running to a reciever tank. The inlet manifold would have to be cut from two cyl`s aswell. You might have to run a very heavy flywheel but you`d get a lot more than 17 cfm.

yeah i did think about doing that Sikyne. Its fine if you dont mind the noise. I want to run the compressor from a electric motor to reduce noise, and they still means that you only get the air every 4th stroke from the two cyclinders. Seems a little pointless really to do that since there are other options.

Looks like the block of steel with one way valves fitted into each cyclinder is the way forward. Run an electric motor off the front pully to drive it, and run the lines to a reciever tank with an auto cutout switch.

An A10 at 1000rpm in two stroke mode should give out 1000litres of air/minute which is approx 35cfm! (an a12 would give 42cfm, a14 - 49cfm )More than enough to run any air hungry tool including my 3/4" rattle gun.


Still the compressor is the easy one to do.

Its the firewood processor that is the challange!