Newbe at 71

Hi everyone. I am new here but hope to fit in. I am a retired cabinet maker with years of woodworking behind me. I believe if you can make it you should do it. Money is to buy materials not expensive tools. Money is a expendable resource and I like to make mine last by doing it myself when possible and not waste money "over killing" a project. The worst crime to me is wasting valuable resources and materials when it is not needed for the project.
Thanks to everyone for letting me sign up.
BigMike71

Hi Big Mike71 - welcome to HomemadeTools.net :welcome:

You'll fit in nicely here with that attitude :)

What are you building next? Can we help out with any ideas?

Thanks Jon, As a great grandfather and a air rifle enthusiast I am working on some moving targets for indoor and out door recreation. I have built a couple already but my main problem is finding motors slow enough ( 1 to 3 rpm) and with enough power.
I would like to use an old washer motor but need to reduce the rpm for my purpose. I have routers and band saw to make pulleys or gears so I am looking for some ready made templates for gears to make a small overall package. Keeping cost to a minimum is a must. My first two projects used a Christmas tree rotator and I also used a rotisserie motor. these worked fine for vertical but now I am wanting to make pop up targets and need to go horizontal with drive.

Big Mike71, I would try surpluscenter.com for the motors (they have a bunch of different types ac and dc) and for the gears you might want to look at woodgears.ca There is a gear template generator on that that might help you out.

Hi Big Mike,
Try allelectronics.com

Motors | All Electronics Corp.

They have quite a few motors, AC, DC, Stepper, Gear Reductions, etc.

Gears also: http://www.allelectronics.com/category/253/gears/1.html
Cheers, JR

Thanks a bunch, I will be checking those sites out for sure. I also plan on checking out electric 12 volt window motors from car doors. They would have enough power and the rpm may be close to what I am looking for.

Sounds good Mike, I have used these:
12VDC RIGHT-ANGLE GEAR HEAD MOTOR WITH WORM DRIVE | All Electronics Corp.

They are very adaptable. The shaft can be cut off and a flat can be ground for a coupler. In addition the bracket on the shaft end is easy to mount.

Let us see your targets when you build them.

Cheers, JR

Try a microwave oven turn plate motor.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by aalv2003

Try a microwave oven turn plate motor.

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Hello aalv2003,

Great idea and a good speed for slower rotation.
Do you have a source for them (other than an old microwave oven) ?

Cheers, JR

I would say you should try a synchronous motor. These are greatly stepped down to 20 RPM and less. They are small and powerful but watch the loading on the light gearboxes. Some are also reversible.

Don't overlook Amazon as a source, e.g...

This one has many available input voltage and output speed options...

https://www.amazon.com/uxcell-50RPM-...c%2Bmotor&th=1

as does this one...

https://www.amazon.com/uxcell-Reduct...words=dc+motor

With the gear sets required for these kinds of speed reduction, even these small motors should be plenty powerful for your application.

Also, DC operation is ideal for field use. A rechargeable 12 volt SLA (Sealed Lead Acid) battery is compact and can probably drive one of these motors for hours.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Big Mike71

Thanks Jon, As a great grandfather and a air rifle enthusiast I am working on some moving targets for indoor and out door recreation. I have built a couple already but my main problem is finding motors slow enough ( 1 to 3 rpm) and with enough power.

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Hi Big Mike - I play continually with robots of varying sizes and shapes - what constitutes "enough power!" - I'd recommend for relatively low torque that steppers are easily available, cheap and extremely versatile as control is supplied by a driver and a controller - I'd heartily recommend Arduino and a single chip driver - both available for around $5 I'd guess on ebay.

Higher torque solutions - I've used a range of standard motors but these can be radically stepped down using cheap gear boxes - ebay can do them again for around $5 - you might want to include an H-Bridge for easy forward / reverse.

For a power supply - check out cheap Li-Po batteries - best power to weight ratio you can get

Ebay, flea or garage sale or the old broken aunt oven.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by aalv2003

Ebay, flea or garage sale or the old broken aunt oven.

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Thanks, I guess its\'s the bay again.

Cheers, JR

Great ideas here and I have bookmarked all the links. I have a short video of the rotating tree stand on my Dropbox but not sure if I am allowed to post a link on here or not. Never done a You Tube so not sure about that. I will see if I can find a couple snapshots. If the Dropbox is OK please let me know.

Took this off of video. This stand rotates a little over one rpm and is perfect speed. The tree rotator is rated for 100 lbs. It can be reversed by turning off and back on quickly. At $27 it makes a simple set up. I may try mounting one horizontal and place a gear on it pinned in position with a bearing to keep stress off the motor.Attachment 16237

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Big Mike71

Thanks a bunch, I will be checking those sites out for sure. I also plan on checking out electric 12 volt window motors from car doors. They would have enough power and the rpm may be close to what I am looking for.

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The trouble with window motor motors is that they have a very low duty cycle and will get pretty hot to cooking if used too long. Probably the best alternative is a wiper motor. These have a pretty good torque in the normal direction of rotation and will work almost as well in reverse. They are inclined to draw around 4 amps while running.

Hey Big Mike, that is a nice rotating target. Lots of targets. Looks like great fun. Looks like I may have another project to build. My son's gun club has the ability to setup your own targets and this is perfect. My range, Ben Avery, is for paper targets or you can go to the iron silhouette range.

I don't know why Drop Box would be any different than YouTube or any other video hosting server but that is just my take on it, not official.

Cheers, JR

Try this and see if you can watch the video. This was made for BB gun but using heavier target would work well for pellet rifles would be OK. Steel plates would be best for 22 or larger. There are plastic dinosaurs, crackers, balloons and since this was made I have added some 4 inch tall plastic toy soldiers for targets. It is pretty versatile. The table is a 30 inch dia. , a 24 inch dia. and a 18 inch dia. plywood circles. I used 3 inch pvc for risers between the platforms. I wrapped the pipe with 3 or 4 layers of canvas and then 2 layers of camo burlap to prevent bullets from bouncing back or breaking the pipe.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/hxm3wn53ms...04.23.mp4?dl=0

Works fine for me Big Mike. Looks like a windy day.

The two stands off to sides of the tree are old real-estate signs and spoons hanging on a rod for spinners. Around here the adults like this setup as much as the kids.

This is my modern version of the Red Ryder bb gun used on these targets. Complete with 4 power scope, bipod, laser , and tactical light for night hunts.

Attachment 16250

I like the "tactical night hunts"..
Cheers and happy target practice.
JR

Thanks every one for the replies and suggestions. Very helpful to me. I will post a picture of the revolving cans When I set it up next time.