KC3KNM
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Does anyone else enjoy making tools? Between saving money, killing boredom and tailoring something to a specific purpose I find myself doing this pretty often. I think it'd be a neat idea to try to compile some different scratch built tools or building aids that we can draw ideas from, I know that I've come across some neat stuff in the past that sparked an idea for something of my own. I'd like to share my most recent build, hopefully you guys can take something of worth away from it.
I just finished a small rotary tumbler to assist in making black powder and eventually mixing other propellants. I threw this together using things I had lying around the workshop. The body is a plastic coffee can, which works well, but runs slightly out of round. I may try a similarly sized tin can, but with the low RPMs I'll be using it at the plastic should be fine. The motor is from an old cordless drill and is controlled by a cheap PWM controller I had left over after I installed a brushless spindle in my desktop mill. It's getting power from a PC power supply that I use to power my chargers, so the entire power setup didn't cost me anything. I'm using a few rubber bands as a belt which, admittedly, is a little janky but they've held up to about 12 hours of run time so far. I may 3D print one from some ninjaflex if they become a problem.
The rails are PVC coated with plastidip and have bearings pressed into them which ride on 1/4 steel rods anchored into the 3D printed mounts. They run pretty true and the plastidip grabs the rubber bands around the can really well. The base was laser cut from a sheet of acrylic I had lying around, but I plan to move towards something else as it's a little too flexible and brittle for my tastes but for now it works. The motor mount and frame pieces were laser cut from a clipboard (it appears to be some type of particle board), which worked out surprisingly well. It's very stiff and flatter than the light ply I was originally planning on using. Cheaper, too!
Out of pocket the whole project ended up costing around 5$, I had to grab some screws and bits to tie it all together.
![IMG_0943[1].JPG](https://cdn.imagearchive.com/rocketryforum/data/attachments/274/274250-d1d9dd5fb887ddb5249bcf86e9441b95.jpg "IMG_0943[1].JPG")
Here's a quick video of it in action. In the video I've got 4oz of powder in it, and even at higher RPMs it's stable, albeit a bit loud.
If anyone has some homemade building aids to share, I'd love to see them. Thanks!
Does anyone else enjoy making tools? Between saving money, killing boredom and tailoring something to a specific purpose I find myself doing this pretty often. I think it'd be a neat idea to try to compile some different scratch built tools or building aids that we can draw ideas from, I know that I've come across some neat stuff in the past that sparked an idea for something of my own. I'd like to share my most recent build, hopefully you guys can take something of worth away from it.
I just finished a small rotary tumbler to assist in making black powder and eventually mixing other propellants. I threw this together using things I had lying around the workshop. The body is a plastic coffee can, which works well, but runs slightly out of round. I may try a similarly sized tin can, but with the low RPMs I'll be using it at the plastic should be fine. The motor is from an old cordless drill and is controlled by a cheap PWM controller I had left over after I installed a brushless spindle in my desktop mill. It's getting power from a PC power supply that I use to power my chargers, so the entire power setup didn't cost me anything. I'm using a few rubber bands as a belt which, admittedly, is a little janky but they've held up to about 12 hours of run time so far. I may 3D print one from some ninjaflex if they become a problem.
The rails are PVC coated with plastidip and have bearings pressed into them which ride on 1/4 steel rods anchored into the 3D printed mounts. They run pretty true and the plastidip grabs the rubber bands around the can really well. The base was laser cut from a sheet of acrylic I had lying around, but I plan to move towards something else as it's a little too flexible and brittle for my tastes but for now it works. The motor mount and frame pieces were laser cut from a clipboard (it appears to be some type of particle board), which worked out surprisingly well. It's very stiff and flatter than the light ply I was originally planning on using. Cheaper, too!
Out of pocket the whole project ended up costing around 5$, I had to grab some screws and bits to tie it all together.
Here's a quick video of it in action. In the video I've got 4oz of powder in it, and even at higher RPMs it's stable, albeit a bit loud.
If anyone has some homemade building aids to share, I'd love to see them. Thanks!
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