Rod Turner idea

Well hello again all, and let me first say Happy Holidays to all!!!!

Well, last night I finally had the light bulb go on between the ears! After being a little less than pleased with the rod turning motor I bought from Cabelas, I have been trying to find a substitute. Now first of all, the motor I bought is the one that rotates at about 4 rpm. It worked well for the first rod with thick epoxy. But on the next one, I am wanting to thin the epoxy down a bit and put on multiple coats of it. I am wanting a rod turner that turns at around 15 rpm to make the thinner coats work a little better.

Now the problem is that finding a reasonably price motor is not very easy to say the least. I went to Radio Shack for help in making one and got the "beats me" expression.

Well, last night I did a google search for 16 rpm motors, and guess what it gave me. RECORD PLAYERS!! For those of us who remember them, a light may have just gone off in between the ears as well. It seems that the large records players used 16 rpm!!!

So now my question, does anyone out there think it might be possible to take an old record player and convert the power and motor section of it to rod turner use? I think it should work, but don't have an old record player to try it on. It has a power cable already wired into it for electrical power. I am thinking all you would have to do is to take it apart, and mount the motor horizantally, mount something to hold the rod handle or blank ferrule, trip the switch to make the thing start to turn and voila!!!

So, any thoughts if this may be a wasted effort?


Sincerely,
Reg

Reg, there are many motors out there in the synchronous series that will do the job for you. Keep an eye on Ebay. I bought several off of there that were in the 35 RPM range and they work really well. I found that the slower the rpm motors will work ok but are not fast enough for thin coating. The 35 RPMs that I have do very well and the faster rpm make application easier as well. Another "idea" that came from another rodbuilder was to use pullys to change the output speed. I used some pullys from an old erector set, worked like a charm, then found some plate aluminum and made some real pullys on the lathe.

It seems to me that half the fun of rod building is in devising the contraptions we use good luck on your quest.

The old record players used wheels and belts to achieve the lower rpms. the motors turned much faster.

Motors in the rpm range you want are fairly easy to come by. I've bought from a John Fleisher who sells complete rod turners for under $30 and motors for a lot less he can be reached at (714) 957-6138. He's a good guy to do business with.

You can find a lot of motors at surplus places on the Internet but but buying from someone like John means you are getting something that will work for the purpose you want. He's a rod builder.

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Joe

A couple other motors that some have used -- one from a microwave and a rotiserie.

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Bill

Take a look at allelectronics.com. I bought some motors from them before I got my Sully system, and their prices are cheap. I think that they have a 30 RPM gear motor for around $3 or so. They have a bigger one for around $12 that is also 30 RPM. They worked fine for me, and since I'm an electronics idiot, it didn't hurt so bad if I wired my things wrong and smoked one.

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I took a Black and Decker variable speed (0-800rpm) corded drill and taped a piece of foam to my reel butt and stuck it into a film cannister that had a drywall screw through the bottom of and chucked it into the drill. Then I taped the drill trigger to spin at the slowest rate possible and set up the rod in the Vee-Notched box with cloth pads and another pad to support the rod tip near the last guide and THEN with everything lined up and the Flex Coat mixed, just plugged it in. The drill ran flawlessly for 7 hours! perfectly smooth guide wrap coatings! I was thrilled for the first time rod to come out as nice as it did. It may have been spinning on the fast side but not so fast as to sling Flex Coat or bulge the adhesive. It worked for me.

Steve

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I fish, therefore I swam.


[This message has been edited by featherchucker (edited 23 November 2005).]

I did the same as Ol' blue. I bought a couple of timer motors that I use and turn at 30RMP. The only problem is they have a 1/8 shaft. With a little yankee ingenouity you can make some adapters to turn all sizes of rods. Check out allelectronics.com
Happy Holidays!!