DIY Swirler Stein

[miwoodar]

Originally posted by MeuserReef
He he he... I can hear it now:

Wife: "honey... why wont the glass in the microwave turn???"

Me: "uhh... I dunno... ...you should come check out this cool powerhead turner that I built."

That reminds me of the time I filled the back of the toilet tank with frag plugs. I had to 'fix' the toilet afterwards.

[dngspot]

Or you said I want a new tank and she said while you have the old one out lets put a new floor in. Which lead to new doors and trim through out the house? I am still working on the house and have not finished the cabinet for the tank. I will be going home tonight and putting on a new door bell. I had put on a new one to work with the brass glass trim on the new oak door I installed this weekend.

[DeathWish302]

Originally posted by dngspot
What changes the degree of rotation are the arms on the motor and the down tube. If you increase the motor to the same arc as the down tube arm you should be able to get 180 degrees but, will also go over center and lock up the motor. This stuff works sort of like sprockets on a bike, the closer you get to the same radius the closer you get to the same amount of movement per stroke. Shorten the motor arm and you move less. As for the down tube arm make it shorter, more movement and longer less movement. The tie rod is like a bike chain if it is too long it will push the down tube arm at it highest point and lock the motor. To short and it will not allow the motor to complete rotation at it lowest point. I set mine up by moving the motor arm to the lowest point away from the down tube arm, then rotate the down tube arm so it is closest to the motor and fit the tie rod to the arms.
I hope this helps.

dngspot,

This is partially correct....

Some vocab first:
Ground = distance between center of motor shaft and pvc pipe and also the 'zero' plane when considering angles.

*Also when talking about the PVC pipe arm, I'm referring to the total distance from the center of the pipe to the attachment point of the connecting link.

"What changes the degree of rotation are the arms on the motor and the down tube."
Actually the PVC pipe arm, the motor arm, ground, and connecting link lengths are all important. The angle between the ground and the motor arm is a very important angle along with the angle of the connecting link to the 'ground' as well.

"If you increase the motor to the same arc as the down tube arm you should be able to get 180 degrees but, will also go over center and lock up the motor."
The motor will never lock up if the shortest arm (likely the motor) and the longest (SHOULD ALWAYS BE GROUND) are less then the connecting link and PVC pipe arm in total combined length.

"This stuff works sort of like sprockets on a bike, the closer you get to the same radius the closer you get to the same amount of movement per stroke."
Agreed...

"The tie rod is like a bike chain if it is too long it will push the down tube arm at it highest point and lock the motor."
To prevent this condition, make certain the motor arm and connecting arm total combined length does not equal the ground and the PVC pipe arm combined length.

I have an Excel spreadsheet if you know the following that may make the design the linkage system easier. You need to know the following to use this spreadsheet:
1)Desired angle of rotation of PH
2)Link lengths for ground, PVC pipe arm, and motor shaft arm
3)Initial angle of the motor shaft to ground.

There is also a image depicting the Free Body Diagram of this system in a more technical approach with rough shapes of the box, motor, and arms for visual sake. Let me know if anyone is interested in the spreadsheet. It should be used for the time I put into it to only use it for 10 minutes during design of my system. I have more time in fine-tuning the spreadsheet than I do in the actual build portion of this project.

[miwoodar]

Hey DeathWish302, long time no see! I've been wondering what ever happened to your skimmer mods.

I'm interested in seeing your spreadsheet. I was actually looking for it the other day (recalled seeing a link in another post) but couldn't find it.

[swannking]

Check out this one. 3/4" seaswirl+Tunze 6201.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkh1oxctgSU

[Aqua Keepers]

miwoodar, the link on pg1 for the rc car tie-rod is dead. Can you help me out? I ordered two motors from the guy on eBay.

[miwoodar]

These look pretty close (http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXSGU2&P=7). They might be a touch longer than you need, I can't tell. If they are you'll need to shorten them a little (wire clippers).

In case the link dies....Traxxas Turnbuckles Camber Link 36mm

I got mine from a local RC shop. I went in and asked for their cheapest options and came out for $5.

[Aqua Keepers]

what about these? Looks like 4 for $4 & no shipping cost if you use USPS Mail or UPS Ground!!!
http://www.hobby-estore.com/11tierod204p.html

[miwoodar]

The pic doesn't match the description. It says they are 200mm but the pic shows something much shorter. Assuming that the ends are as shown in the pic I see no reason they wouldn't work if you clip them shorter.

[dngspot]

The type I used, the plastic ends were much to long. I used a dremmel cut off tool to cut away about 3/8 of an inch from each end. I also used all thread and fit to my own needs.

[HDToys]

http://*******.com/5b5ak8

These units have a heavy duty motor with a 90 degree swing.

Comes with a prewired on-off switch and an outlet for the powerhead to plug into (handles 1500 W heaters so is heavy duty enough for our usage).

Remove the plate the heater sits on, extend the existing central tube with a piece of 1/2" PVC and connect your powerhead.


Little construction skill needed even if you take all the parts out and build your own mounting box.


Forgot to mention. The ebay post isn't mine. It's just the only place I could find a usable photo / description. I bought mine at a local hardware store, but I've never seen them again.

[Aqua Keepers]

Anyone understand that^^^???
Wanna break it down??

[swannking]

Originally posted by pito
Anyone understand that^^^???
Wanna break it down??

It is a rotating device to rotate home heating device back and fore to provide better heat distributions. You just place your home heater on the plate. You must be thinking of aquarium heater instead. So I guess if you take off the top plate and mount the pipe, then put it upside down, you can use it to rotate your powerhead.

[HDToys]

It is a pre-built unit that can be used to do exactly the same thing the DIY units described here will do.


Take the plate off where the heater would sit.

There is a small tube sticking up in the center -- it is driven by the motor.

Super glue a piece of PVC to that tube (make the tube as long a you need to mount the unit out of the water and ensure the powerhead will be in the water).

Mount the Powerhead on the other end of the PVC.

Mount the unit => upside down so the PH is in the water and the base uint isn't.

Plug the PH into the outlet on the unit.

Plug the base unit into an outlet and turn it on.


It's just simpler than building one.

Or as mentioned, take it apart and you will have the motor, switch, outlet, etc already wired. Put it in a utility box as in this thread.

I paid $5 ea for 10 of these at the end of winter so they were much cheaper than other sources of the motors.

[dngspot]

How fast does it turn?

[Aqua Keepers]

I get it now. It's pretty awesome!! Any probs mounting it upside down? What are the dims?

[lovetoreef]

couldn't you also mount it upright and simply do a connecting arm to a down pipe and avoid having to mount it upside down??

[miwoodar]

I want to see what it looks like on the inside. Do you have any pics HDToys?

[lovetoreef]

regarding the connection lengths, could we do a longer connecting link (larger gap between the motor and down tube) as long as the connecting link length plus the PVC pipe arm is longer than the length of the ground and motor arm??

[HDToys]

Unit is 6 1/2" x 5 3/4" x 2".


http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/...tmPostable.jpg


Motor on Right bottom, outlet on left bottom, orange device is a safety switch (held closed by a plunger when the unit is in use as a heater base - have to bypass / remove / tape down - ), on - off switch in center top.

Takes 10 seconds to swing 90 degrees.

[TorontoBoy]

any pics upday

[DeathWish302]

miwoodar-

I'm @ home for Turkey Day and travel next week, but I will get the spreadsheet when I return next weekend.

DW302

[Isayso]

happy to see hundreds of happy people...LO

[Kenzy]

Isayso: its been a while, still posting on AP?

[dngspot]

The bushing design has proven to be a bit of a problem. I did get them to work and they are not such a problem at this time but they have failed several times and will require servicing them with grease to keep them running smoothly. So the solution was to get sealed bearings and use them. These are for a fellow some one here on RC that asked me to build them for him. I have made the guy wait for a wile, so I could work out any problems. This is the solution to several. Thanks miwoodar for the idea but, partner I just cannot wrap my mind around how you installed your bearings so this is how I did it.

I took new pvc down tubes to work and machined them down to accept a bearing. This can be done with a dremmel but it took much less time using the lathe. The lathe did not do such a good job cutting the O.D. but it did leave a nice step.



Here is the down tube with the bearing on it. The down tube is a little larger than the I.D. of the bearing so the down tube is held in place by the bearing, it can be removed by pulling with a little muscle but, will not come out by the weight of the power head.



I had to pop the bushings off of the box, both the one on the inside of the box and the one on the outside of the box. The super glue came apart pretty easy. I had to grind the area that the glue was at. The down tube is lowered from the top of the box and rest on the bottom. It is held in place by two screws and a acrylic bracket. The hole in the bottom of the box is wide enough to allow the bearing inner race to move with out contacting the box.



Here it is in its finished form



These are the finished units for the fellow I mentioned earlier.