Hey LeChat, What Are You Working On?

MozyBonz · Post by **MozyBonz** » Fri May 25, 2007 1:35 am

Counterbalance

Box Burner · Post by **Box Burner** » Fri May 25, 2007 2:54 am

Cool LeChat, Cool!

unjonharley · Post by **unjonharley** » Fri May 25, 2007 6:11 am

\/
The Chat,

I'm hoping the fun part will be all the junk to spin a 12v drill motor .. I can go that small because the sterio will take spit to run.. Could do it on batteries but no fun in that.. Besides being green and all.. There will be a battery to maintain current.. Along with a mix of solor for one of the amp..

This rig is for day time running and mooping..

So far phil has been silent about us raiding Camp Phil as a pivot for Contraptioneers..

While were at it,,,,,Where is Dragonfly¿¿¿ He did some great work last year.. Lets see if we can get him and Elliot board.. I know Elliot makes his stuff to race..

LeChatNoir · Post by **LeChatNoir** » Fri May 25, 2007 7:34 am

MozyBonz wrote:

Counterbalance

I had thought about that, but worried about the space to fit it in. It's pretty tight between that crank arm and the frame. And since much of this is decided on the go, I didn't leave room for that. DOH!!

So I decided on a flywheel instead, but that didnt' work. It may be an idea to revisit if the cam setup appears too "lumpy" once it's together.

The flywheel I made for the crank was really cute... like a baby brother to the big guy. But it just didnt' spin fast enough to bank any energy to carry through.

LeChatNoir · Post by **LeChatNoir** » Fri May 25, 2007 7:34 am

unjonharley wrote:While were at it,,,,,Where is Dragonflyï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ He did some great work last year.. Lets see if we can get him and Elliot board.. I know Elliot makes his stuff to race..

Yeah... where are those guys anyway?

LeChatNoir · Post by **LeChatNoir** » Fri May 25, 2007 7:41 am

MozyBonz wrote: In order to balance the weight of the piston-and-rod assembly, counterbalances such as are shown at B, may be used.

Actually... after going back and reading your post, Mozy, I'm thinking one like B just might work. Ok... gotta think on this today. But I still like the cam idea because its got "wonk".

MozyBonz · Post by **MozyBonz** » Fri May 25, 2007 8:36 am

Yes I like "wonk" sounds also but the cam will take people power away.

You must over come the spring tension like cards in the spokes of a bike enough cards and itâ€™s hard to peddle. With the counter weight inertia it just adds to the flywheel power.

The crank should be able to stay in the 3 o'clock and 9 oâ€™clock positions when balanced. Balance will help to keep up flywheel speed.

gyre · Post by **gyre** » Fri May 25, 2007 8:40 am

I understand a human can generate about .3 horsepower in ideal conditions.

A friend of mine bought a steam locomotive, just in case you guys don't have enough fiddley stuff to do, you could help restore it.
I loved getting on that steam tractor last year at burning man.

unjonharley · Post by **unjonharley** » Fri May 25, 2007 9:48 am

They have a thing called Power Land 5 min north of Salem.. There are different festivals held over the summer.. They will have a steam-up for any reason they can think of..

I go and look at all the old farm machines while at a balloon fest..

There are steam tractors and some donkeys from the logging day.. They are in all states on restore.. Along with many harvest machines..

Tiahaar · Post by **Tiahaar** » Fri May 25, 2007 2:32 pm

Unjon that sounds like a fun festival, I'll have to swing up that way some day.
Righty LNC, I see someone is trying to pry you away from a wonky cam, can't have that! Nice idea on the counterweight though Mozy. Good thing I am checking in from the cleanroom at work heheh. The Contraption can have a counterbalance weight up on the opposite pump handle to account for the pump rod weight and a 'b' type counterweight down on the shaft to balance the crank but you'll still need the bit of cam action to ensure no sticky spots top/bottom especially at startup. You can go with a lighter spring though and most of its energy gets put right back into the action, yes? OK, carry on!

LeChatNoir · Post by **LeChatNoir** » Fri May 25, 2007 8:51 pm

Ok... so I got the cam follower arms forged out and mounted temporarily. I may change them just a bit yet. I also put as much of a counter weight as I could cram in there on the longest arm possible to see what would happen. Didn't seem to make much of a difference, oddly enough. I just don't think it was enough mass.

Changing the cam geometry did make a difference. I'm tweaking the slope on the backside of the lobe to let it ease past the "over the sticky spot" portion of the cam's profile, rather than "pop" over it.

I'm still wanting to mess around with that couter wieght idea as an additional aid to the crank. I want this thing to be as smooth as possible at all points of the rotation.

I'll take some pics tomorrow...

Bin Noddin · Post by **Bin Noddin** » Fri May 25, 2007 8:55 pm

Dusky Feline, I continue to follow this project with astonishment and admiration. Amazing how concepts are turned into sketches are turned into contraptions. WOW!

Tiahaar · Post by **Tiahaar** » Sat May 26, 2007 12:29 am

Here's a counterweight story for you.
For about 8 years, summers mostly while on school breaks, I worked for a rancher up the road. He was originally a college chemistry professor but none of his other siblings wanted the land after his father passed so he took it on...had quite the original style, but that's another story.
Anyways he used to go to the farm auctions and buy the beat-up stuff nobody else was bidding on and bring it back to have us "kids" fix it up and get it running. Swathers (hay mowers) were a regular purchase, we'd use parts off half of them to keep the others going.
One model used a gigantic counterweight system up in the cutter head; the sickle knives would push one way and the weight would go the other, back and forth five times a second or so. Was supposed to smooth the running out but the things weren't built the best and would blow out the shaft bearings regularly. Thus the machines were often at auction.
I was repairing the shakerbox (again!) one week and had an idea: dump the counterweight, put solid rubber bushings in instead of the pivot bearings and let the thing run. And it ran, and ran, and ran....was still cutting hay when I left several years later. Sometimes the engineers get it right, and sometimes the farmboys have to make it better

unjonharley · Post by **unjonharley** » Sat May 26, 2007 6:05 am

Desided to go Mad Max for the generator.. Just grab parts as they come to mind.. Wheel from a wheelborrow, another from a culavator, half a bicycle, part from a exercycle and the chuck with it's planitary gears of a drill.. To drive a 12v drill motor to produce 12v to 14v dc..

But today is play day.. Cryed yesterday, had to fill the van.. First time to gas station in over a month.. Got some work ahead of me after BM..

Will build a cab for the electric scooter.. Getting 22mile on a
charge from a pile of two 36v gang (3 12s) batteries.. I'm going to up the pile to four.. Android? Blue tooth, glasses mounted rear view mirror, cops bike helmet, Hanable Lector face mask stuffed into a polished aluminun can.. Got the base idea from the playa cupcakes..

gyre · Post by **gyre** » Sat May 26, 2007 5:04 pm

I thought you might like this, being a cat.
The car is a little interesting too.

gyre · Post by **gyre** » Mon May 28, 2007 7:06 am

Kinetic Sculpture by Arthur Ganson
I saw some of his stuff on Nova.

http://www.arthurganson.com/pages/Sculptures.html

MikeVDS · Post by **MikeVDS** » Mon May 28, 2007 7:23 am

Sometimes the engineers get it right, and sometimes the farmboys have to make it better

Pretty much the farmboys (or whoever is using it) always have to make it better. Their system probably looks better on paper but the real world is always a different story. Systems are way to complex to really know exactly how everything is going to work and fail, we just make the best guesses we can and the engineers out in the field make improvements (And I mean engineer as someone who engineers something, not necessarily someone with a degree). Companies that are in it for the long haul usually make improvements based on how things work in the field. Honda has been a great example of this in the past. While American car companies were completely redesigning, Honda would make small improvements only on things that needed improvements and the American cars would just get a bunch of new problems.

Also having gone to school and working with engineers for years, I can tell you that many of you are smarter and more inginuitive than most of them. They could probably do math in circles around some, but when it cam to designing, fixing or just making something work, they were lost unless someone give them "the equation".

LeChatNoir · Post by **LeChatNoir** » Mon May 28, 2007 9:12 am

Great link, gyre...

which also led me to this fellow:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Tinguely

karine · Post by **karine** » Mon May 28, 2007 9:24 pm

Which led me to this guy, and now my head hurts .. I've been there spinning it all day!

http://www.timprentice.com/index_framev2.html

Toolmaker · Post by **Toolmaker** » Tue May 29, 2007 12:00 am

This guy has some neat solar powered "bugs".

http://www.danroe.net/portfolio.html

LeChatNoir · Post by **LeChatNoir** » Wed May 30, 2007 9:32 pm

Contraption Update:

The cam and follower arms are done and temporary mounted in place. It hit me that they did not have to have two different pivot points and so I put them on the same pin and let one spring do the work for both of them.

The links gyre started got me thinking about using bicycle parts again. Since I couldnâ€™t fit a counter weight of any benefit in the space I had, I took Mozyâ€™s idea of weight to keep it moving round, and reverted it into using the little flywheel I had built before. A trip to the local dump for a scrap bicycle, some cutting/welding, and a bunch of sweat later and I had the mini-flywheel mounted and geared up 3:1 to give it enough momentum to keep the crank crankinâ€™.

It was a bit tight to get all the workings in there, but it works great now. Iâ€™ll get everything finish mounted and polished off later this week. The pics below show the mechanisms. It was getting dark outside so took them with the flash on to better pick up the gears and chains.

The cam and followers:

And a view of the crankshaft flywheel driveliinefrom the main flywheel side:

Oh yeah...

Here's a current pic of the progress, too. It's hard to pick out, but the rumbleseat frame is roughed out at the back.

Tiahaar · Post by **Tiahaar** » Wed May 30, 2007 10:22 pm

Oh Wow! Super Coolness LCN!! Your dual self-sprung cam design is brilliant. Love it that you've got your mini-flywheel and more cogs and chains spinning down in the clockworks too, gotta be entrancing to watch it all spin

Hey and is that your were-self stretched out on the floor there in front???

LeChatNoir · Post by **LeChatNoir** » Thu May 31, 2007 6:21 am

AHA!!!

Not quit out of the shot before the timer went off I guess.

Yeah, I'm pretty happy with the extra chains and gears, plus I was able to use the bottom bearings from the bicycle to mount the flywheel. And the brilliance is truly in the fact that we can all work together on a project over such a great distance. It's great fun to sit and watch it all spin. the pump action is now nice and smooth. I think I'll actually loosen the spring just a bit. I've got to post a video to photobucket soon.

I was so tired last night that I wasn't in the place to tell long-winded stories as usual. I forgot to mention that I'd changed the drive cog on the flywheel. I went from a 19 tooth to a 14 tooth. Last weekend we had a get together here at the ol' homeplace and timed how many pumps per minute seemed reasonable with two people. We came up with 50RPM as a realistic number. Changing that cog will insure that the flywheel RPMs stay up around 200 or greater.

robotland · Post by **robotland** » Thu May 31, 2007 7:27 am

Damn, that's a good-looking rig! I really like the front operator's station with tractor seat, steering tiller and levers. If it had a hood, I'd donate the bonfire-cast aluminum wildcat that I made shortly ago as a hood ornament...Find a place for it and it's yours.

LeChatNoir · Post by **LeChatNoir** » Sun Jun 03, 2007 7:37 pm

Hood ornament, you say?

Hmmmâ€¦

Let me think on this.

Today was flea market day. Iâ€™m on the lookout for a couple of lamps to act as headlamps for The Contraption. I didnâ€™t find any headlamps, but I did come across a couple of other items that I believe will be of use.

The first is an old License plate from 1923. There was a fellow there who had milk crates full of plates and I sorted through until I came across the oldest Kentucky plate I could find. The lighting makes it look almost good, but itâ€™s actually much more beat up and hard to read in real lifeâ€¦ perfect.

The second is an old kerosene road lamp. Apparently it was used to mark road work and hazards at night time. Itâ€™s got a red lens so I figured it would make a good rear marker light. I at first thought of converting it to solar LED, but its in such great shape that it would be a shame to mess it up. Iâ€™ll test the tank for leaks tomorrow, but otherwise everything is there and intact, so a new wick and it should be just fine.

Grand total for todays fun was $9.00 I LOVE flea markets.

unjonharley · Post by **unjonharley** » Sun Jun 03, 2007 7:44 pm

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But the flea bath wil cost you $12 and Advantage for le Cat..

LeChatNoir · Post by **LeChatNoir** » Sun Jun 03, 2007 7:52 pm

Flea bath?!?!?

ibdave · Post by **ibdave** » Sun Jun 03, 2007 8:05 pm

LeChatNoir wrote:Flea bath?!?!?

Its a joke.. a itchy joke, but still a joke...

gyre · Post by **gyre** » Mon Jun 04, 2007 2:11 am

It might be a railroad lamp.

robotland · Post by **robotland** » Mon Jun 04, 2007 6:35 am

LeChatNoir wrote: I at first thought of converting it to solar LED, but its in such great shape that it would be a shame to mess it up.
.

No reason why you couldn't make a temporary LED coversion kit. Just create a little diode cluster on a long lead that runs from the lamp to solar or batts. There's probably an existing LED cluster (like a Maglight conversion kit) that would serve, or I can dig one up and send it to you for fitting.

And yes, flea markets ROCK. There's one west of here that I go to for produce, junque and peoplewatching whenever possible. There's even a giant outdoor electrical supply tent!

Hey LeChat, What Are You Working On?

Birds