Tank Tumbler ?'s

[cool_hardware52]

At any rate, I'm pretty good with math but was surprised that the numbers don't add up exactly right. I bought the pulley and shaft parts through McMaster, but a 10" pulley isn't quite 10" ID. I did make some estimates to account for the difference

The PD or pitch diameter of V sheaves is a function of the belt profile they are used with, not the nominal OD of the pulley.

Look here Emerson Power Transmission

Some sheaves allow adjustment of the spacing between the two faces or V's. This allows the PD to be adjustable to fine tune the resulting RPM. This requires some other means of varying the C to C of the two sheaves.

For a tumbler my first choice would be a small AC induction motor with gear reduction. No open belts to mangle fingers. If variable speed is needed add a small VFD.

Tobin

 

[NorthWoodsDiver]

thanks for the great tips but I know little to nothing about electrical work (outside common residential wiring) so the acronyms are leaving me

are there any good "for dummies" type sites that will help me figure this out. I'm handy with most anything and I can build just about anything too but I avoided electronics classes in school and avoided any DIY projects involving electrical components until just recently as electricity has always kinda scared me a bit. go figure I am a welder now.

I will look into the motors you suggested tobin. Thanks

 

[NorthWoodsDiver]

will this work for the "VFD" you suggested or am I way off base here?

Variable Speed Control Rheostat potentiometer motor AC - eBay (item 300223366877 end time May-15-08 18:00:00 PDT)

 

[cool_hardware52]

will this work for the "VFD" you suggested or am I way off base here?

Variable Speed Control Rheostat potentiometer motor AC - eBay (item 300223366877 end time May-15-08 18:00:00 PDT)

Read the description, the ebay auction is for a "Universal" motor. Think drill motor, skill saw etc. Motors with brushes that will run on either AC or DC.

Induction motors and Universal motors are two different beasts.

A VFD is Variable Frequency Drive. The rpm of an Induction motor is a function of the frequency of the AC voltage imposed. The RPM of a Universal motor is a function of the voltage.

Tobin

Tobin

 

[NorthWoodsDiver]

well it looks like a VFD is gonna cost wayyyy to much so gear reduction it is. To bad surplus center doesn't have any good deals. ANyone know of other places with deals on say a 330 RPM 115VAC gear reduction motor with at least 1/4hp output, a mounting base, and continuous duty rating. Yeah its alot to ask I know.

 

[cool_hardware52]

well it looks like a VFD is gonna cost wayyyy to much so gear reduction it is. To bad surplus center doesn't have any good deals. ANyone know of other places with deals on say a 330 RPM 115VAC gear reduction motor with at least 1/4hp output, a mounting base, and continuous duty rating. Yeah its alot to ask I know.

You only need VFD if you want variable speed. You need some means of speed reduction, pulley's, gear box etc.

You work in a machine shop. I bet somebody there has a pretty good understanding of motors and power transmission. (Or they spend a lot on service calls)

Tobin

 

[icantdive55]

This is made out of stuff just lying around at a friend house. The motor, pully and drive shaft are out of an old swamp cooler. I added 1.5" pipe to the drive shaft then wrapped a 1/4" piece of rubber around it for traction. Making the drive shaft 2" in diameter. I don't recall the exact RPM's for the different size tanks but all were less that 100 rpm amd over 50. I think the steel 72 were around 60rpm but I could be wrong. Anyway the drive shaft was easy to change so I worked with what i had in a motor and a pully and adjusted the drive shaft diameter until I got what I needed. Well actually it was my first try but I had help with the math. Works good for home use so I went ahead and made my entire VIP station out of it.

Rod

 

[pescador775]

Here is a pic of my tumbler. It uses a Baldor "industrial" motor, catalog GCP24138. It draws one amp. Power rating is 1/12 hp. Speed is 68/82.5

 

[james croft]

I got real lucky and found a very nice tumbler at an estate sale in Florida while on vacation. The person selling it did not know what it was and he sold it for $12. The old lady did not like having to carry it around with us for a week in the van but I did not mind.

 

[NorthWoodsDiver]

You only need VFD if you want variable speed. You need some means of speed reduction, pulley's, gear box etc.

You work in a machine shop. I bet somebody there has a pretty good understanding of motors and power transmission. (Or they spend a lot on service calls)

Tobin

I should not have used the term machine shop. I am the only one working there besides the owner who is only there for maybe 4-6 hrs a week. Its a kinda fab shop. I do welding and light machine work. we have a TIG machine, 3 wire feed machines (1 aluminum, 1 hardwire .035", and 1 .045 fluxcore dual shielding wire), a 3 axis vertical bridgeport, a lathe with 3" though bore, 100 ton 10 ft breakpress, 10 ft sheet metal sheer that cuts 1/4" steel plate and 3/8" aluminum, ironworker with punch and die setup, 100 ton press with 8" ram, a 35ft 4.5ton stationary crane w/ 270 degrees of rotation, a backhoe/loader, a couple bandsaws, and the ordinary shop tools.

the place is a disaster with some nice tools really but its the best pay that a guy with no college can get at $13.5 an hour. I work 40hrs a week and have every weekend off. I can work as much over time as I want if I want any. No benifits like medical or dental and not future really.

Every project I work on is totally unique and has a learning curve attached usually, although I have been welding and fabricating off and on since 10th grade.

The boss takes in work of all sorts from fixing the neighbors lawn chair to fabricating whole catwalk systems to fixing boat skegs. The stuff I like best is the big stuff like repairing heavy equipment and fabricating large projects.

If I knew how to sew and was good with electronics I could make any dive gear I should ever need but alot comes down to time and money. I have made several projects thus far and they have all cost more time or money than just buying something that already exists so its only practical when I want to improve appon something that already exists. a tank tumbler is a good example of a project that "can" be done better than what is commercially available and things like drysuit driers just dont exist commercially so thats a practical project but making a backplate or a canister light or a scooter just is outside what I want to do.

wow that turned into a quite a ramble.

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