My homemade rotary processor

Elijah Willert · Mar 20, 2022

Here is my homemade rotary processor. It's made out of an old Nesco roaster, a pool aquastat(doesn't work that well) a motor and gearset from a paper shredder, sewing machine belt and pulley and a homemade pulley made from an old cutting board, framework from an old shower stall, some aluminum tubing and some urethane rollers. Could be better but sort of does the job when it isn't broken.

Neal · Mar 21, 2022

Look out Macgyver!

choiliefan · Mar 21, 2022

You'll put your eye out!

Elijah Willert · Mar 21, 2022

Neal said:
Look out Macgyver!

I call it the Hobo, it's the poor mans Jobo

Elijah Willert · Mar 21, 2022

choiliefan said:
You'll put your eye out!

More like burn myself That old roaster gets hot on the outside

gone · Mar 21, 2022

No duct tape. It has to have some duct tape and bread ties somewhere. Just because.

Elijah Willert · Mar 22, 2022

momus said:
No duct tape. It has to have some duct tape and bread ties somewhere. Just because.

It does have some zip ties if that counts

Donald Qualls · Mar 22, 2022

Zip ties count, but don't fully replaced duct tape.

choiliefan · Mar 22, 2022

No hot-melt glue...?

Don_ih · Mar 22, 2022

Definite potential electrocution device. A+

choiliefan · Mar 22, 2022

Calling Dr Kevorkian...

VinceInMT · Mar 22, 2022

Congrats. I love these DIY projects that have a Rube Goldberg thing going with them. Some years ago I wanted to copy hundreds of data CDs to a hard drive and built a “thing” that would pick a disc up from a stack and drop them into the drawer of the player and, after copying, pick them up again and drop them in a stack. The main mechanism was a repurposed dot matrix printer chassis with a rewired stepper motor with a controller rescued out of a 5-1/4” disc drive.

Elijah Willert · Mar 23, 2022

VinceInMT said:
Congrats. I love these DIY projects that have a Rube Goldberg thing going with them. Some years ago I wanted to copy hundreds of data CDs to a hard drive and built a “thing” that would pick a disc up from a stack and drop them into the drawer of the player and, after copying, pick them up again and drop them in a stack. The main mechanism was a repurposed dot matrix printer chassis with a rewired stepper motor with a controller rescued out of a 5-1/4” disc drive.

See, that's the area I'm lacking knowledge in. Digital/automated controllers. I would like for this to switch rotation after every 6 revolutions of the tank, but I really haven't had any development issues with it only rotating in one direction. I would also like to figure out a better temperature control device. I bet you'd like to see my homemade sewing machine table and controller, it's made from an old science lab table, an old multi-meter case, printer parts, a large resistor, and a broomstick and various other stuff.

ciniframe · Mar 23, 2022

You should get the ‘Miroslav Tichy’ award for that. Or, alternatively it puts me in mind the scene in Young Frankenstein….
Life!….Life!…Give my creature LIFE!!!

VinceInMT · Mar 23, 2022

Elijah Willert said:
See, that's the area I'm lacking knowledge in. Digital/automated controllers. I would like for this to switch rotation after every 6 revolutions of the tank, but I really haven't had any development issues with it only rotating in one direction.

Working with stepper motors is lots of fun and relatively easy. Back in the day I’d use any old desktop computer that had a parallel/printer port and a single IC chip. Steppers are primarily used for precise positioning but can also be used for forward or reverse rotation. Today I’d use an Arduino or a Raspberry Pi as the controller. The latter has lots of options for doing the type of controlling you are into.

While this page is really old, I put it together to show how to play with a stepper motor. Just follow the stepper motor link.

http://www.codecooker.com/projects_how_to_do_stuff/

Yes, back in the day my kids and I did lots of Rube Goldberg stuff. My oldest and I built a control system for our underground sprinklers. Yes, we could buy a box to do that for a few bucks but where’s the fun in that? We used an old computer and, like with steppers, we controlled things via the parallel port. This connected to box that had a 12/24V power supply, a bunch of power transistors for switching, and some 12V relays. We wrote the software in BASIC and Perl. This was when our ISP provided a static IP and didn’t care what we did on our end so it was connected to the Internet. Later we added a webcam. It was fun while it lasted but we dismantled it as reused the parts for something else. My kid liked this stuff. He is now a software engineer for a big tech company named after a type of fruit.

Elijah Willert · Mar 23, 2022

VinceInMT said:
Working with stepper motors is lots of fun and relatively easy. Back in the day I’d use any old desktop computer that had a parallel/printer port and a single IC chip. Steppers are primarily used for precise positioning but can also be used for forward or reverse rotation. Today I’d use an Arduino or a Raspberry Pi as the controller. The latter has lots of options for doing the type of controlling you are into.

While this page is really old, I put it together to show how to play with a stepper motor. Just follow the stepper motor link.

http://www.codecooker.com/projects_how_to_do_stuff/

Yes, back in the day my kids and I did lots of Rube Goldberg stuff. My oldest and I built a control system for our underground sprinklers. Yes, we could buy a box to do that for a few bucks but where’s the fun in that? We used an old computer and, like with steppers, we controlled things via the parallel port. This connected to box that had a 12/24V power supply, a bunch of power transistors for switching, and some 12V relays. We wrote the software in BASIC and Perl. This was when our ISP provided a static IP and didn’t care what we did on our end so it was connected to the Internet. Later we added a webcam. It was fun while it lasted but we dismantled it as reused the parts for something else. My kid liked this stuff. He is now a software engineer for a big tech company named after a type of fruit.

Hmm, this give me ideas. Arduino or Raspberry pi would be best for this project due to their small form factor but I have an old TI-99/4a computer that runs basic. I could use that to control stepper motors for some type of project. I have quite a few old 80's and 90's computers that would be cool to put back in use! I wish I had someone that new more about this stuff to help me along the way. my adhd gets the best of me sometimes, if I get stuck on something I move on to something else and the project sits unfinished.

VinceInMT · Mar 23, 2022

Yes, old computers are great to repurpose for projects like this. The advantage of the Arduino or the Pi is that there are a slew of accessories for projects like this.

Regarding the adhd, as a retired high school teacher, I am quite familiar with that challenge. One of the accommodations that helps is to identify the “getting stuck” early and walk away from the project before the frustration that tends to compromise the motivation sets in . Re-entering the project that was left at that emotional level always threatens to reignite it.

The last project I did with my Pi was to install NGINX (web server), PHP (programming language), and MySQL (database server) on it, a Wi-Fi dongle and an external hard drive to act as a web server on my home network. I have all of my digital music, old time and new time radio shows, and, lately, all my film since 1973 scanned. I wrote custom software that lets me search and play or display the results. Not so much Rube Goldberg except the software which my son, the programmer, rolls his eyes over when he sees how I do it. But, hey, it works.

mshchem · Mar 23, 2022

I have a friend who grew up in a rural area. They saved everything, made do with what they had. He excelled in school, is a gifted mechanical engineer. Many years back, I observed him straightening used nails.
I pointed out that he could probably afford new nails

Cobbling stuff together is fun, still......

My homemade rotary processor

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