I am assuming the judges main criteria is awesome blog titles.
So I have had a little more luck with the build on the mechanical side though I warm you after that whole CD gear idea, everything seems to have taken a left turn into Recyclaville. I kinda like Recyclaville it requires more creativity, and give every thing a cool look.
So I went to our local building material supplier and bought some chain, I bought 3 meters but am only using 2. I joined the chain ends together to make a loop. I found some cheap bearings so I garbed them I was originally just going to grease the axial but this is nicer.
Then a pallet (I assume the neighbors are done with it), more CD's, some automotive foam (that was thrown out by my employer) and an empty silicon tube.
initially my chain rollers were going to be 3D printed, then I was just going to cut wooden rollers and the but ... insert lame excuse here ...anyhow I ended up just running it on the bearing and putting in some rubber for give and sound proofing and some sexy CD flanges.
the components of a roller |
I cut the CD,s hole larger and glued the cd to the outside of the bearing |
The Rubber was cut into strips and the strips cut at regulat intervals to aid in bending and chain gripping. |
|---|---|---|
The rubber strip is rolled around the bearing and glued in place |
A second CD is glued on the other side and a nut and bolt put through the bearing |
chain on rollers is bolted to the pallet so that I can move it and work from all sides and angles |
I imagine I will need to reinforce the front side CD as it will end up taking some of the baskets weight as it goes around, I plan to put on some rails to guide the baskets too.
It tuns much nicer and smoother than I expected, and the foam strip grips the chain really well. we will have to wait for the next blog to see if it can handle the weight of the baskets and the drive of the motor.
In glorious fashion while trying to figure out the best way to mount the motor and gear into another gear box I collected somewhere I realized something magical. this motor squeezes perfectly into the cylinder of a silicon tube and then I can just glue the tube onto the gear box. done and done.
until next time.
