57 years old grease
Like all mechanical devices, this turntable needs servicing. And it hasn't had any since it left the Black Forest.
I've taken the whole drive unit apart. Every part is going to get cleaned and every bit if old grease, gunk and oil will have to go.
I'm carefully checking what parts have been greased or oiled, because I should only apply new lubricants where needed.
Only one thing is worse than a badly greased turntable: one that has lube on parts that should be left clean.
I'm using two lubricants. A tube of automotive grease, SKF VKG 1/0.2 lithium, and fine white technical oil made by the Belgian company Vic Van Rompuy.
There are different opinions on the internets on what is the right product to lubricate these things.
For my own mental health, I'm ignoring the different powers that be, and I stick with these two products.
Once that's done, I can rebuild the drive mechanism and put it back in place. That's also a good time to start with the speed measurement mechanism.
I've built a prototype between the announcement of this contest and my selection (Make Speed Sensor from Scrap Parts and Sample the Motor Speed with Microcontroller).
I'm now going to make a proper fixture that can survive some shocks and abuse.
What you see on the bottom of this photo is an IR transmitter and receiver.
They are going to detect each rotation of the tapped pulley that you see in the upper right corner.
I've painted the bottom side of that pulley with a Sharpie. That part of the pulley will not reflect the IR beam.
In the middle of the photo you see a small mirror. That's going to be glued on the bottom of the pulley.
Only when that mirror is above the detector, the beam is reflected and we'll get a signal out of our IR receiver.
And that will happen just one time per rotation.
What's happening with the Arduino Kit?
I've given it to one of my kids. She's going to work through the workshops. She promised to take photos and videos along the way. Here's the first activity: Button State Change Detection (Edge Detection)
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Make some room
I'll need some room in the cabinet to place the electronic parts.
For that, I've removed all possible components that will not be used in the enchanted version of the turntable.
I store them away safely, so that the Perpetuum can be restored in its original state at a later time.
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Side story: Perpetuum Ebner
The Black Forest has an age old reputation for making the best and the finest automatons. You can argue over the style (remember the cuckoo clock?). But you can't argue over skills and craftsmanship. They were the masters of the automaton. That is also where the roots lie of our Perpetuum-Ebner. At the turn of the previous century, a Mr. Christian Steidinger started a small workshop in St. Georgen im Schwarzwald. Like so many other entrepreneurs of that area, he started with crafting parts for clocks. His brother Josef started his own workshop at the same time, in the same village. A few years later they joined forces and grounded a company together. But the peace in the family wouldn't last long... |
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