The most important part of the motor lift assembly is the thrust bearing. The
thrust bearing is the blue disc between the two silver washers. This bearing
holds the weight of the lift, and the marbles on the lift. This motor is 12V 5rpm.
It works well, and is very strong, but its limit is a lift at about 20 inches tall.
When at a motor supplier's site, just search for DC gear motor and look for
low RPM. A DC converter, or power supply can be found at a lot of surplus stores.
I also use an AC gear motor available from McMaster Carr or a supplier like them. They
have face or side mount and several different rpm's to choose from. If your interested
they also have a full line of solid materials that you may need in your sculpture.
I haven't used a DC motor like the one in the picture for anything but Helical lifts.
I am now working on a chain lift, with ladder chain, and the motor I am using for that will
be a 5rpm AC geared down motor. It should have plenty of power to spare. A nice advantage
of the AC motor is that they are quieter than the DC motors.
This is a face mount AC motor, 5 rpm. Any number of suppliers
carry them. Use the ads here, or the search box below.
Search for AC gearmotor and look for low rpm (3-7 rpm)
The actual motor turns fast. The white fan spins at the speed
of the motor and keeps the body of the motor from overheating.
They get hot. There are 8 mounting bosses on the front, all tapped
for 8-32 screws.
This is another DC motor. Made by Tsukasa. It runs at 7 rpm.
Which
my seem slow, but if you think about it, that's 7 marbles
per minute
that will be released onto the tracks. If you have
marble traveling up
boths sides of the lift, then double that.
I have found that a rolling ball
sculpture works better if there
are less marbles going at once, not
more. One marble puts out
a surprising amount of resonant vibration all by
itself.
Want to use a DC motor but don't have the slightest idea of how
to get the screw patter correct?
Well, no problem, because her it is:
This shows the motor from the bottom of the mounting pad.
This shows the motor mounted, seen from the top.
This is also from the top, but at an angle to give you a different view.
Ok, now to the good stuff.
I am going to give you the dimentions in decimal.
Your starting point would be the from the motor shaft, that's your zero dimension.
Drill the hole big enough so that the boss (the thick part around the motor shaft)
will fit with a little extra so it can move around. Then move up .234 and then left
.266 drill the hole for the screw, and then back to zero, and right .266 and drill
the hole for the right screw. Go back to zero and then back down (.234) to the center
of the shaft. Now go straight down .523 and drill for the bottom center hole.
I have a large hole cut into the center of the pad, this is for the thrust bearing to sit in.
The screw holes are counter-bored so the screw head does not stick up,
and interfere with the thrust bearing. Off the top of my head I cannot remember
the screw size, but my hardware store carries them in stock. Bring your motor
with you and just fit the screws to the holes. As for what size to drill the holes...
just use your best judgement. The most important thing is getting the holes in
the right place!
AC MOTOR mounting guide.
I also have the mounting dimensions for the face mount and base mount AC motors.
I am not going to cover the base mount because it is very easy to do. The face mount
is much harder to figure out.
Again, your motor shaft will be the center point, or zero. Drill a hole that's .320 big
for the shaft. Now move .500 up and .781 to the left for the upper left hole. Now
go all the way to the hole on the right, moving 1.562. Once done with that hole
move down 1.562, drill, and move 1.562 to the last hole on the bottom left.
Now you will have the hole pattern drilled exactly right, and you can
move on to the next phase of construction. Do you find this a bit confusing?
Go to McMaster.com and look up AC motors. They have the dimensions on their
product page.
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