3 head sphere machine.

[jakesrocks]

My attempt at building a home brew 3 headed sphere machine.

In the beginning there were parts. Lots of parts. And my supervisor Jake.


The motors are salvaged from old IBM copy machines. They're gear head motors with an output speed of 105.7 RPM. These motors are now almost impossible to find. I was wise enough to buy a couple extras while they were available.

A friend machined 3 adapters for me which will adapt 3/4" pipe bell reducers to the 1/2" motor shafts. The bell reducers will be my cutter cups.

The tracks for my motors to mount on are aluminum T- track extrusions. I bought factory off cuts for the tracks, and bought the special t- nuts and bolts to go with them at the same time.

Also in the first pic, right by Jake's nose are bottles of aircraft grade nuts & bolts of various lengths & sizes. These were salvage from an aircraft plant my father worked at many years ago.

Still more parts.


A 6" square water tight box and watertight feed thru fittings for wiring were purchased at the local Menards store. This will contain the 3 motor condensors, a terminal strip a power switch and bunches of wiring. Also in the second pic is a Mil Grade water tight switch.

To be continued after supper.

[jakesrocks]

2 - 1/2 BLT's with home grown tomatoes & a big slice of strawberry pie later.

Next I layed out & drilled mounting holes in the tracks. It helped that I had counterbores & countersinks left over from my sheet metal worker years.

Back to Menards for a 3' square piece of 3/4" MDF to make the base. Also 3 rattle cans of automotive primer & a can of green hammer tone paint.
(Note to self) Never try to lay out a piece of MDF for cutting & drilling while suffering through a case of pneumonia. It took 3 tries to get all of my guide lines and drill holes layed out accurately.

After laying out & cutting the MDF, I used a 1/4" rounding bit in my router to round off all exposed edges. Then sanded the base & put 3 coats of primer on top & bottom, allowing 2 hours drying time between coats. Let the whole thing dry overnight, then sprayed a top coat of green hammertone.

After the paint dried for 24 hours, I ran a drill bit through all of the track mounting holes, and mounted the tracks. The 3 larger holes, 1 near the end of each track are to feed the motor wiring through to the bottom of the base.



I the realized that I needed a filler block to fill the hole in the center between the tracks. So I cut & fitted a piece of pine, painted it, put a gob of contractors adhesive in the center & clamped the filler block in place. Another 24 hour wait while the adhesive cured completely.

[jakesrocks]

In the first pic I posted, there are 3 pieces of aluminum bar stock. These are for the motor bases & uprights. They're 3/16" X 4" 6061-T6 aluminum for strength. I laid these out for drilling & cutting before cutting the lengths. The holes for the motor are critical as the larger hole for the output shaft isn't centered with the mounting holes. I cut several paper templates before getting the measurements spot on. The blue on the pieces is layout ink. This makes all cut & drill lines easier to see.

Pieces laid out, ready for cutting.



After cutting the pieces and smoothing off the cut ends, the bases & uprights were joined together using spring loaded fire door hinges.



After attaching the motors, I found that the spring loaded hinges weren't quite strong enough , so I used 1" l brackets and springs salvaged from a couple of drafting lights I had laying around.





3 springs in place.



And this is how it's sitting right now. The motors still need to be wired, and I need to buy bell reducers for cutter heads.

[opalcreations]

Looks like a nice clean build, great job!!
Chris

[PinkDiamond]

Wow, you're a genius to figure that out and put it all together, making adjustments as you went. Looks clean, and professional. Awesome.

[jakesrocks]

Thanks guys. My wife wasn't too happy about me assembling it on the living room carpet, But it was December & too cold to work in the shop.

[jakesrocks]

The only real reason that my sphere machine isn't up & running is that I found a bigger toy to play with. One that has been taking up all of my spare time.

I'm trying to get it ready for the local college home coming parade, so I can drive in the parade with a couple of foxy young things in the rumble seat.

[SwordfishMining]

It's all looking good. And you know the saying; Brains Before Beauty could be on sashes made for the doors.

[PinkDiamond]

Wow, I love your new toy! We see a lot of them around here, especially when they do the vintage auto parades and shows. Ya gotta love the classics, no matter how ancient they are.

Tell your wife she's lucky that's all you did in the living room. My husband announced that he was bringing his motor cycle in 'for a few weeks' over 7 years ago. He does all sorts of things in there acting as if it was his garage, so I've been boycotting that room all these years.

I finally gave up and just write "test dust for NASA, do not disturb" in the dust.

[jakesrocks]

Oh, but that's where you're wrong. I have at least 500 lbs of boxed up rocks in the living room too, + my genie sitting on the kitchen counter. But then you can barely move in my wife's sewing room. Plastic totes full of material stacked everywhere, and at least 6 sewing machines. (I lost count when her mother moved into assisted living, and she brought all of her moms machines & material home).