Mill Motors

[Camo6]

Rigged up my MD motor and speed control on the weekend and did away with the old wiper motor jobbie. This probably belongs in the ghetto thread as I improvised with whatever I had lying around ( a trait from living on a farm near half my life and also being a habitual tightarse) but reckon it'll do the job nicely.
Test run on the 33A power supply passed a loaded start with a small amount of grain, interested to see how it goes with 10kg in the hopper. Used a DPDT switch I had in case I bother with a reverse.
Can anyone tell me what what rating potentiometer they use or @MotionDynamics : do you sell yours separately? I like the look of the silver knob on your site but can't find them on evilbay and haven't had the time to get to Jaycar.

 

[NewtownClown]

Mine came with the silver knob....

 

[Spiesy]

Can anyone tell me what what rating potentiometer they use or @MotionDynamics : do you sell yours separately? I like the look of the silver knob on your site but can't find them on evilbay and haven't had the time to get to Jaycar.

Hey mate, we have your silver knob - Sir Cock-a-lot will be in touch with you today, if he hasn't already.
Sorry about that.

 

[Camo6]

Mine came with the silver knob....

Mine does too! All good. The boys at Full Pint's customer service can't be faulted.
I was too busy staring at Cocko's beard to not check the box on pickup. I wanted to pet it but wasn't sure if it was friendly.
Cheers Spiesy, see you at the BB.

 

[MattSR]

Finally got time to put it all in a box. Hopefully the new current limiting controller is a similar size so I can easily add it in!

I also used an Anderson PowerPole connector on the motor wiring, just to make it a bit cleaner

 

[MattSR]

Further to what the guys at Motion Dynamics have said about power supplies under-performing, I thought I would add a little volt/amp meter to my PWN controller. It only cost $6 and it will give me a great indication of how hard the motor is working and if the power supply is up to the task..

Link here:- http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/131280511716

For only $6 with the shunt resistor included I figure its a cheap and effective way to monitor the mills performance...

Cheers,
Matt

 

[motiondynamics]

Camo,
the Aluminium knob and potentiometer should have been provided with the kit. For general information, its a 10K linear potentiometer!
Matt, that's pretty cool and cheap as chips! Just gotta watch the induction created by the shunt, so if you use one of these mount it as CLOSE to the controller as possible (and as far from the motor as possible)

Actually, they are pretty cheap, I should buy some as an option to include with the kits.
Love the builds on this page too, some really creative people here!

This eBay seller has consistently supplied good PSU's (we have no affiliation with them, but they sell a good product at a good price)

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/400469998223

We bought one about 3 weeks ago and played around with it and then tore it down. Its as described and pretty decent quality too.

 

[MattSR]

Im debating weather or not I should put the shunt inbetween the power supply and controller or between the controller and motor.

It's probably not that critical and I figured that putting it on the power supply was easier.

What do you think?

 

[motiondynamics]

Matt,
From the PSU is easiest by far.
Having it hooked to the motor load is never a good idea because of the inductance.

 

[MattSR]

Excellent, yeah thats what I was thinking - it's easier to locate it there too.

One thing I did run into was that putting some tough wheat grain into the mill was enough to stop it from turning - however it didn't jam hard, it just made a low frequency grunting noise which I believe was the power supplies current limit being hit. I twiddled the speed control knob and found a point where it managed to slowly chug through the grain so all was not lost but it got me thinking...

Three things I'm going to do. First is add the volt/ammeter so I can see what's actually going on. Second is add a second Anderson PowerPole input in parallel with the power supply so I can connect it to battery power to do a back-to-back comparison. Three - replace the power supply when I finally discover that I got shafted and it's not actually capable of delivering its rated current

Cheers
Matt

 

[Camo6]

Nice find on the ammeter Matt. Bought one too.
I'm also waiting to see if my psu is rated at 33A. Might get a wheat beer brewing this weekend and get the clamp meter on it.

 

[takai]

What couplers do people use for their motors? I grabbed one from my box of 3D printer spares and did this:

Ooops.

Are the interlocking jaw ones any better?

 

[zwitter]

Hi
Some use the lovejoy couplers but expensive.
There is one on ebay with 12mm one side and 1/2 inch the other delivered for about $12
I think there is a link earlier in this thread?
James


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[takai]

Hi
Some use the lovejoy couplers but expensive.
There is one on ebay with 12mm one side and 1/2 inch the other delivered for about $12
I think there is a link earlier in this thread?
James


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

Thanks. One of the links i found was dead, ebay had removed it. But the other i foudn was live. Ordered one now.

 

[mikk]

Finished at last. No dramas with the motion dynamics stuff, though the power switch got replaced with a far less fragile item, and the speed control knob is located where it won't get snapped off.

The hopper and stand are strong enough to take a whole upended 25kg grain sack, and I expect the mill to be able to put up with years of use/abuse.

Rivets still to attach permanently once a few bags have gone through with no problems...

Grain bin to be replaced with something a bit classier ASAP!

 

[Jase]

Hey all,

Looking for some help.

I have a monster mill which has a 3/8" shaft. I grabbed a 3/8" to12mm coupler. However, the coupler spins on the mill shaft. I measured them up and the shaft is 9.52mm, whereas the coupler is 9.54mm. Any ideas how I can fix this problem?

Cheers,
Jase

 

[Camo6]

I drilled a hole through the coupling and shaft of my old motor but that was aluminium and mild steel, plus you wouldn't want to do that to your mill shaft. If you can try taking a bit more metal off the coupling slot where it contracts to allow more clamping force. Otherwise you could always try a bit of Loctite Studlocker on it.
Other alternatives are to buy a better coupling or a drill press chuck.

 

[Spookhud]

Is it key and grub screwed?

 

[Jase]

Key screwed Spookhud.

 

[Spookhud]

As in it stuffed or grub screw over key