Star Roller

[Blaf]

Hello guys!

Here we have a nice and simple (people got shot for far less than this...) piece of tool. And again, I started from scrap and purchased only an Inox dish and base. So can you too.

First, the base - the black square stock with wider bottom. It is simple table leg which I cut to approx. 15cm lenght. Setup on the left is swinging joint which goes screwed on top of the base-leg (long brass arm with black plastic tip is swing forward/backward handle). L shaped piece of Al on the bottom goes under swinging joint and acts like swing-stop.


Those are pieces of the ABS plastic frame which holds bearings and main shaft. Screw and washers are there to tighten the frame to the swinging joint. As simple as that...


Talking about bearings and main shaft – here they are. These are cheap bearings I bought a few years ago, dozen for 1,5 Euro. I made nests of milky PVE bar, bearings go tightly in and then main shaft is being slid through. Funny thing in the middle of shaft has no specific purpose than being useful when screwing drive pulley and fly-wheel...but more about it later.


Here we go with motor setup. It is 24V DC motor, God knows from where. A friend of mine says it should be from an older PC printer or something. I do not really care as long as it works good. Which it does. You can also see the back drive pulley, rubber belt and a small drive pulley which goes on motor shaft. I made it from brass stock on my micro-lathe in a few minutes.


This is how it looks like half-assembled. No motor and no rotating dish here yet.


Here comes the motor – it is brush type of motor and gets fastened to piece of brass held by two screws on plastic frame. It hangs on one screw only but for this kind of setup it holds quite fine. Round plate on the right is not a pulley, it is fly-wheel and its purpose is twofold. First – it gives more support for dish which comes screwed on it. Second – it's meaty piece of alloy heavier than Al and helps to retain inertia.



And finally, his majesty – the Roller. Set of keys are there to keep it in balance, that's all. No secret mission for them this time. Now, at 12V DC the dish (thin Inox made in China, 21cm in diameter) spins too fast so I use regulated power supply and at some 6-8V it works fine, rotating at 2 revolutions per second. But, the thing is – I haven't tried it yet!!!



My experiences will be posted here, of course...

Blaf

[deadman]

Blaf,
I knew you were going to make one of these ever since the "round stars" topic.
What do you plan on using as cores?
Please keep us up to date.

[Tyneman]

And again... Awesome.
In my eyes you are truely a master mechanic. Making such great machines from scrap. Did you ever think of entering the 'junkyard wars' TV-show?
So nice looking, I can't wait to see the results as in finished stars.
Gr33tZ

[The Freak]

Blaf... You're amazing! It's very nice!
Please post some results when you made some stars with it or perhaps the machine in action.
I'd realy love to see that.

Greatings, The Freak

[timberman]

Hi Blaf, youre really a genius to make something like that its really nice. I cant wait to see youre machine in action ;)

[Pretty green flames]

Blaf, it looks VERY nice. The only thing i'd like to mention is that your speed is much to high. For a star roller you should be looking at max. 40 revolutions per minute. At 120 revolution per minute the stars will not tumble very well. Somehow slow it down and you should get better results.