RCP Compound

[RCP57]

Yesterday the weather was beautiful and warm here so I decided to cut firewood instead of working in the shop. My wood pile needs a major boost before fall and I'm getting soft spending so much time in the shop so the exercise was great also! In the afternoon I was getting pooped out so I thought it was the perfect opportunity to bring out some toys for a bit and move some sawdust around. It was fun!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dg4T...tJ-DusnO8Onw7A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_H9...tJ-DusnO8Onw7A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_pQ...tJ-DusnO8Onw7A

[RCP57]

Not much to look at but I've gotten drawn into the conveyor fad...

I used a tube from my MX bike. I wish I hadn't made tapered rollers because they suck lol. The belt is turning now and maybe with some adjustments it will stay on straight. For now it wanders up on either side and won't stay centered. The speed seems pretty good so at least one thing worked out...

[j_hammer]

Should make a couple training rollers there a set of rollers on a pivot with upright side rollers. that helps center the conveyor. We use them on all our conveyors at work.

[RCP57]

Yes I plan to add more rollers and a pair at each end that are more vertical. I scooped a picture of a setup I liked on the net that I believe has what you described but this was all in managed to get done in a few hours this afternoon. I was more interested to see if I could get something moving with pieces I had lying around before I spent more time on it. I think it will work for my needs whatever they are.

[RCP57]

OK, so I ditched the first conveyor in favor of what I had wanted to do in the first place. I've had a nasty cold the last few days so I decided to take it easy and use the long weekend to get started. This one is quite large at nearly 5 feet. The belt is 3 1/2" wide. The treadmill I used still worked but was slightly disassembled(controls were off). I thought it would have had a brushless motor but it turns out to have a 90v brushed motor instead. This worked out awesome as I was able to power it up with 12v and cut the strip off with a razor blade. I just held the blade steady and the treadmill did the work! What I have done so far is very basic. I have yet to make any rollers other than at the ends but it still runs pretty true. I have a ton of work to do on it yet so this will be an ongoing project.

http://youtu.be/eKVmfTlKWbA

[Cooper]

Ha ha!! Looks good reg!!! Hope your feeling better buddy!!

[Supermario]

On going project you say?..... Tell me about it!
The latest is looking great! And your getting ahead of me on this one! Must have something to do with the fact you have no winter!
That's my story.

[RCP57]

Originally Posted by Cooper

Ha ha!! Looks good reg!!! Hope your feeling better buddy!!

Thanks RW. Feeling a little better today but not great. Perhaps some salt air tomorrow will fix me up!

Originally Posted by Supermario

On going project you say?..... Tell me about it!
The latest is looking great! And your getting ahead of me on this one! Must have something to do with the fact you have no winter!
That's my story.

I guess what I was trying to say is that this won't just be a conveyor when finished Shouldn't winter be the perfect excuse for you to be working on this stuff? It's not like you can do much outside... Anyway, I have a long list of other things I should have been working on but sometimes I need to get some stuff done of my own. Freshens up the brain and gets me feeling in the mood to work on stuff I have to let go of... Either that or I get mad and wish I was fishing instead!

[Supermario]

Originally Posted by RCP57

Shouldn't winter be the perfect excuse for you to be working on this stuff? It's not like you can do much outside...:

So true and point taken! Game on buddy !

[RCP57]

I made up the hopper yesterday afternoon. Today I got to give it a quick test. I use a cordless drill trigger when I'm bench testing things and I was using it here. I had it pinched under the weight of the conveyor but it got knocked around stopping the belt a couple of times. I think it will work OK though with some more effort. I was concerned that the speed would be too slow but it actually looks pretty good. If it were any faster I couldn't feed it quickly enough...

http://youtu.be/vUvI5S-ZL34

[Lil Giants]

Fantastic showing of metal fab skills again Reg, that hopper sits over the belt perfectly!

I got to get busy soon with my own conveyer system, I'm running out space to store dry fines again already!

[RCP57]

Thanks Joe. I wasn't sure if it would work so I just had it clamped in place. Not much dirt gets by between the chute and the belt. I guess working with dry sand may require a brush or rubber between the two. I kinda had a feeling that the sides of the hopper were too flat but I wanted a 10"x10" area without a lot of height so that small machines could load it too. This soil is very wet and sticky at the moment so hopefully when it dries out a bit it will be fine. I had thought about rubber mounting the hopper and adding a small vibrating motor but I am afraid it will vibrate the belt causing the material to roll back down. I guess I will just do some more trial and error and see what happens. So far I am pretty pleased with the way it works considering there are no rollers mid belt and the most expensive piece on it is the $15 gear motor.

[73blueblazer]

Just an idea for your screener all the vibrator motors we use at work have two equal counter weights with set screws to lock them to the motor shaft so if they are directly cross from each other there isn't any vibration and so you can loosen one and turn it towards the other to create more vibration ect. This way you can adjust how much vibration you have without changing the motor speed. Just a thought if your still using your screener it might cut down on noise or change the direction of the motor to horizontal position.

[RCP57]

That's a great idea with the counter weights. The motor I had only has the shaft sticking out on one end so I am only using one weight. I made a weight out of aluminum first but it wasn't heavy enough. Next I glued a strip of lead sheet to the aluminum weight but it still wasn't enough so I ended up making one out of brass. It seems to be a good setup now as too much vibration will start to effect the material moving up the belt. I also added a roller underneath along with a foam wiper and rails up the sides of the belt. I had to make adjustments during filming but after a few trips back into the shop it was working fairly well. I need to make some changes near the top of the belt as that is were dirt is being introduced onto the inside of it causing it to build up near the bottom roller. The wiper I made helps but isn't doing a great job. Next time I'm at a store I will be looking for a stiff brush. Perhaps a windshield scraper type brush will do the trick....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXGt...tJ-DusnO8Onw7A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iB5s...tJ-DusnO8Onw7A

[RCP57]

Spent some time working on the pile today. It was a gong show of broken parts and horrible driving but I had some fun too....

http://youtu.be/XPnXeGgaGnw

You'll get a kick out of this one Mario...Karma is a B***H
http://youtu.be/CSAz3N9uE_o

[Supermario]

Reg, I've got this great white stuff you can use as material to haul. Would you like me to send you some? I've got plenty to spare as you well know. Lol.
My new word I came up with to describe west coast people......Forget tropicana, how about tropicanadian!

[RCP57]

In all honesty we could use some of that white stuff here. The weather has been amazing but only a fool would be so short sighted not to see where this is going. I'm not a "global warming", "Green peacer" type at all and I do my fair share of polluting when I can but this is getting scary! We have had no snow at our house other than a very light dusting for 3 years running. We ran the fish boat up the island last week to deliver some fish and the mountains on the central island have no snow at all other than the stuff that doesn't go away. The way the mountains look now is the way they should look in September and it's very dry. Even if we get a bunch of rain it will only be a temporary fix. It's like all the cold weather has moved east and we don't get a winter anymore....

[bigford]

i'm on long island New York you can have all my white stuff back
along with those geese you guys keep sending south

[JDH429]

Amazing Reg, I wish I could come play too. Your conveyer is sweet! Great design, I was watching the vids and you mentioned the belt slips to one side, it may help if you still have an issue in the future to crown the rollers to help center the belt under tension? Not sure if you still have an issue with that problem but just a suggestion. Keep up the great work and keep posting.

[RCP57]

I have been wanting to add some dirt to my play area for a bit now and since I had an unexpected day off do to windy conditions this morning I thought today might be the day. I took the battery out of my pickup and another off the shop floor and got our old Euclid running. It hasn't ran for a couple of years(see blackberry vines) but a little shot of ether in the blower and she was up and running. I asked my Dad to give me a hand and he was happy to load it for me. We hauled three loads of dirt so I am guessing that with the fines I had already, I now have at least a 20 yard pile to play in! I had a blast driving to old truck and it brought back some memories from my teens when we used the truck to build a motocross track. Good times!

https://youtu.be/JJf9z0OUQhY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Miw6...tJ-DusnO8Onw7A