ataraktos
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since January 2020
Posts: 140
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Post by ataraktos on Jan 27, 2023 21:41:16 GMT -5
Thinking of cannibalizing the motor, shafts and pulleys of my covington rotary and putting those components on a homemade frame with pillow blocks because i'm tired of greasing the sleeve bearings so often. it's messy and time-consuming and maybe i didn't get as good grease as came with, originally, because i'm having to do it way too often, ever since I re-greased it the first time. (I was trying to be pro-active and re-grease BEFORE I had problems. wish I'd left it alone!)
Anyway, I bought some pillow blocks. I guess you'd call them the horizontal kind. Pretty sure the same "orientation" I've seen other folks use who have made cabinets. The pillow blocks I purchased will have my roller shafts sitting quite a bit further apart than they are currently. My question is - does that matter? Husband says as long as the barrel doesn't fall through, it should be fine but I'm suspicious it's not as simple as that. (Like load sitting lower will be harder on the motor, something like that? The covington is pretty fast, around 60 rpm, so a smidge slower would be fine, as long as it wasn't wearing out my motor.)
Thanks for any input!
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Jan 28, 2023 11:01:04 GMT -5
Pillow block bearings can be offset from each other to avoid the large gap between the shafts. This is an older design I made for someone This is my latest build. All offset bearings. Chuck
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jimmie
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since August 2021
Posts: 233
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Post by jimmie on Jan 28, 2023 12:09:54 GMT -5
I never thought of offsetting the pillow blocks. Luckily on mine when placed together the spacing is still good. Nice designs!
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ataraktos
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since January 2020
Posts: 140
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Post by ataraktos on Jan 28, 2023 13:36:28 GMT -5
Pillow block bearings can be offset from each other to avoid the large gap between the shafts. [...] huh, i thought i had replied to this, but now that i got the notification from jimmie 's post, my quick reply seems to have disappeared? weird, i'd seen it here, too, and in the "last posted" column on the home board. shrug, maybe it'll show back up later but in case not, i'll keep it short this time - thanks, chuck!! =) (that older design is very helpful!)
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Jan 28, 2023 14:00:08 GMT -5
Here is another shot of that design. The risers allow room for the large pulley and also allow access to the nuts on the bottom side of the pillow block mount platform. This design is just about the easiest to build but in my line of work all hazards have to be eliminated so I do not build stuff with open pulleys and belts. Back in the 60's and 70's nobody cared and companies were even selling items like that. Chuck
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ataraktos
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since January 2020
Posts: 140
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Post by ataraktos on Jan 28, 2023 14:55:45 GMT -5
Here is another shot of that design. The risers allow room for the large pulley and also allow access to the nuts on the bottom side of the pillow block mount platform. This design is just about the easiest to build but in my line of work all hazards have to be eliminated so I do not build stuff with open pulleys and belts. Back in the 60's and 70's nobody cared and companies were even selling items like that. [...] Chuck Yeah, after the Lot-o getting my kid's hair ... She's not interested/around the rotaries though. I have "box" covers too, from my Covington, I could figure a way to screw those on. My current shaft pulleys are 3 inch. I know very little about pulleys but if a 3 inch currently slows my motor enough from the tiny motor pulley, I'll just be able to put one the same size on the other end? (That pulley in your design looks really big! But then again, my Covington rolls around 60rpms so maybe my 3 inch pulleys are really small!) I think I might be able to squeeze my offset pulleys onto a 2 by 4 ... That might not be quite enough height for a 3 inch pulley to clear the ground, but almost. Though if I had extra room, I could experiment and slow down a little. Sometimes I think 60rpms is too rough. Going to lose a little shaft length to the offset and then a bit more to another pulley but I rarely ran my tumbler full, lengthwise, anyway. Thanks for the additional picture!
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Jan 28, 2023 15:00:06 GMT -5
Here is another shot of that design. The risers allow room for the large pulley and also allow access to the nuts on the bottom side of the pillow block mount platform. This design is just about the easiest to build but in my line of work all hazards have to be eliminated so I do not build stuff with open pulleys and belts. Back in the 60's and 70's nobody cared and companies were even selling items like that. [...] Chuck Yeah, after the Lot-o getting my kid's hair ... She's not interested/around the rotaries though. I have "box" covers too, from my Covington, I could figure a way to screw those on. My current shaft pulleys are 3 inch. I know very little about pulleys but if a 3 inch currently slows my motor enough from the tiny motor pulley, I'll just be able to put one the same size on the other end? (That pulley in your design looks really big! But then again, my Covington rolls around 60rpms so maybe my 3 inch pulleys are really small!) I think I might be able to squeeze my offset pulleys onto a 2 by 4 ... That might not be quite enough height for a 3 inch pulley to clear the ground, but almost. Though if I had extra room, I could experiment and slow down a little. Sometimes I think 60rpms is too rough. Going to lose a little shaft length to the offset and then a bit more to another pulley but I rarely ran my tumbler full, lengthwise, anyway. Thanks for the additional picture! If you are reusing the original covington motor it is probably a speciality motor that runs closer to 1,000 rpm. Most home built tumblers utilize 1725 rpm motors because they are super common and can be found pretty cheap. That is why the pulley is 10". Chuck
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ataraktos
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since January 2020
Posts: 140
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Post by ataraktos on Jan 28, 2023 16:00:37 GMT -5
Yeah, after the Lot-o getting my kid's hair ... She's not interested/around the rotaries though. I have "box" covers too, from my Covington, I could figure a way to screw those on. My current shaft pulleys are 3 inch. I know very little about pulleys but if a 3 inch currently slows my motor enough from the tiny motor pulley, I'll just be able to put one the same size on the other end? (That pulley in your design looks really big! But then again, my Covington rolls around 60rpms so maybe my 3 inch pulleys are really small!) I think I might be able to squeeze my offset pulleys onto a 2 by 4 ... That might not be quite enough height for a 3 inch pulley to clear the ground, but almost. Though if I had extra room, I could experiment and slow down a little. Sometimes I think 60rpms is too rough. Going to lose a little shaft length to the offset and then a bit more to another pulley but I rarely ran my tumbler full, lengthwise, anyway. Thanks for the additional picture! If you are reusing the original covington motor it is probably a speciality motor that runs closer to 1,000 rpm. Most home built tumblers utilize 1725 rpm motors because they are super common and can be found pretty cheap. That is why the pulley is 10". Chuck They say 1550 rpm on the stickers ... So a little slower than 1750, plus it's rolling a little faster with 3 inch pulleys. I count off, based on the painters tape labeling my barrels and estimate my (I think they're 6 inch?) barrels make about rotation a second? I should look at that pulley spreadsheet or website (I have it bookmarked from one of your old threads) and see that that comes up with. (But I figure if I'm just reusing parts, it'll be what it has been. Without all the grease, hopefully!)
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khara
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since September 2022
Posts: 1,684
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Post by khara on Jan 28, 2023 16:49:13 GMT -5
Drummond Island Rocks Cool designs. Great offset pillowblock solution. I like the vertical 3 roller design you show built. Nice space saver. What modeling program do you use?
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Jan 28, 2023 19:44:06 GMT -5
Drummond Island Rocks Cool designs. Great offset pillowblock solution. I like the vertical 3 roller design you show built. Nice space saver. What modeling program do you use? I was a an automotive CAD designer for 25 years. I am still in the trade in an estimator roll but that still involves using CAD every day. Currently I use Solidworks but I have used just about everything over the years. Chuck
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