Slab roller retrofit - part four

My last post ended with the motor belt being too loose, so I had to figure out how to add some tension to it. My good friend Dan pointed out that I could simply slide the motor off to one side, thus increasing the distance between the two pulleys.


Yup.. but wouldn't that have made it too simple?


So I removed the shelf and experimented with a few different thicknesses of shelf material, to come up with the right spacing.


Making sure everything is lined up properly.


I had to remove the old shelf and make a new one, with an extension on it, to mount the motor. That meant taking the leg off (again) and sliding the old shelf out, and the new one in place. Here's the new shelf.

Yes, if you're paying attention, it's upside down. (The countersinks should be on the bottom.)

Of course, I noticed that before I bolted the leg back on. Not.


Here is the new shelf, right side up, in place.

It might look simple, but it took me a few days to do all this work. Although it sounds like a luxury, having two studios is a pain. I always find myself in need of a tool that's at the other studio, or needing to cut something when I'm not near the proper tools.

Oy, it's always something.

I knew that even with the new shelf cut, the motor was going to be a tad too low, so I decided to lift it up by placing a fat washer underneath each mounting hole.


The best way to accomplish this is with a big cup of coffee, a nice assortment of washers and bolts, and some patience.

After a little experimenting, I decided one fat washer underneath each mounting hole was all it needed.

Bolted in place.


The suspense is killing me. I want to get this baby cranking.

Recycled Houses in the NYTimes

This New York Times article on Recycled Houses might be the coolest thing I've read in ages. I've been working on a line of furniture made from recycled materials, and this article dovetailed nicely with what I'm attempting.

You MUST check out the slide show, the mosaic work and the ceiling made of old picture frame samples are my favorites.

Slab roller retrofit - part three

Turns out that mounting the motor to the shelf of my slab roller turned into a much bigger job than I anticipated. The motor itself has four threaded mounting holes.



So it was easy to lay out the hole spacing on a piece of Baltic Birch plywood, and drill the holes.


Of course, I had to countersink the screw heads, so that the plywood would sit flush on the shelf.


Even with that huge assortment of screws that I had, I still didn't have four matching ones. So off I went to the local hardware store.


Of course, once I got to the store, I couldn't remember the length I needed, so I bought a few different sizes, just to be sure.


With the right hardware, this part was easy.


And I'm so fussy, of course I had to align all the screw slots.


Here's the motor mounted to the plywood, awaiting the next step - mounting the pulleys.


On the rollers, there is a 5/8" arbor, where I'll mount the top pulley. But first, I had to knock this pin out.


So I grabbed my "go-to" baby ball peen hammer. It doesn't look that small, but here it is, next to a normal sized one.


Then I grabbed a punch, to knock the pin all the way out.


And then mounted the pulley with a set screw.


With a level, I tried to roughly align everything.


Before I could mount the lower pulley to the motor, I realized I needed a piece of keystock for the motor shaft.


Luckily, I had a long piece of it sitting in a drawer.


So I put it in a vice and cut off a small piece of it.

Then filed off the rough edges.


With a little bit of coaxing, the pulley was mounted to the motor shaft.


The next part was easy - place the motor on the shelf below, and slip the belt onto both pulleys.



The only problem - the belt was a little long, making it way too loose on the pulleys.

Do you think I could wait until I had the right sized belt? Hells no, I clamped the motor/plywood down and flipped the switch on for the motor.


And I have to say - watching that motor slowly turn the rollers was a moment of sheer joy. My buddy Dave, the designer of this system, not only included a speed control for this motor control, but he made the motor reversible. It's an incredibly sweet system.

But because the belt was so loose, I didn't try running any clay through the rollers.

Next step - either lowering the shelf to make the belt tighter. Or buying a smaller belt. Hopefully, my next (and final) post about this slab roller retrofit will include a short video to show how great this works.

Stay tuned...

Pretty interesting video

The third installment of how I added a motor to my slab roller is coming, but I haven't quite finished everything yet. Meanwhile, here's a pretty fascinating video showing how a trailer is built, thanks to some time elapsed videography

Enjoy!

Motorizing a slab roller, part two

When I ended Part One of how I added a motor to my slab roller, I'd just finished adding a shelf to the legs, thus giving myself a place to mount the motor.


Even though the motor that will drive the slab roller looks wimpy, it's not.


I decided mounting the motor control box would be my first task. It's location is important, and I didn't want it to be in an inconvenient location.


Looking at the end of the slab roller, it made sense to use some of the same bolts that were used to connect the legs to the apron. That metal is fairly beefy, and I didn't feel like drilling new holes, if I didn't need to. So I removed a couple of the bolts on each leg.


After a little measuring to determine the size for a piece of plywood, I propped the control box up against the plywood, to make sure I'd done everything correctly.


Of course, I couldn't use the old bolts that I'd removed from each leg, they were now too short, with the addition of the plywood. So I went over to my "bolt drawer".

Doesn't every one have one of those?

OK, it's a big mess. (I knew you were thinking that.) But it had exactly what I was looking for - longer bolts.

Then I drilled some holes for mounting the box to the plywood. Don't pay any attention to that dried blood on the handle of my drill. That's from a while ago.


Everything was going according to plan, I bolted the plywood in place, and then hit my first snag.


The location of the holes meant I needed to drill some new holes in the legs.


But remember that I mentioned those legs were made of heavy gauge of metal? I had to drill holes in the metal when mounting that shelf, and it wasn't any fun. In fact, it was probably the worst part of that whole task. So I put on my thinking cap and decided I'd add a couple spacers behind the plywood, so that the bolts wouldn't have to go through the legs.

Spacers? No problem... just a short walk over to the "Washer" drawer.


Pure washer heaven.


A couple of spacers later, and the control box is mounted. It's location is perfect.


It really went together quite easily.


Well, sort of. I scratched the crap out of my arm while reaching for something.

Considering how hot it was in my studio, I thought this would be a good time to quit for the day.


Oh, what was I thinking? I can't stop in the middle of something like this. So I started examining the motor, to figure out how to mount it.


Dave was kind enough to put a warning label on the plug that CANNOT be plugged into a regular wall outlet. And he left me a note that said I could mount the motor in one of two ways. I chose the four holes on the bottom.


Bolts, anyone? I'm the queen of bolts.


A couple of measurements, to determine the size of the plywood I'll need to cut.



A little more measuring, which brings up a pet peeve. Notice the tape measure, and how it reads upside-down?

That's why I bought several of these from Lee Valley, made for right-handers like me.



Isn't 93% of the world right-handed? Can anyone tell me why ALL tape measures don't read like the Lee Valley tape measure?

Just as I was ready to start mounting the motor to a piece of plywood, I realized I was running out of time. I have a class to teach in a few hours, and I need to clean up and print off a few hand-outs.


Stay tuned, the next step will be interesting....

Summertime grilling

Don't you just love grilling in the summertime?