Print PDF
Favorite
Email
Step 12Setting up and Installing the Drive Motor
Drive Motor
SAFETY NOTE: If you are unfamiliar with electrical wiring, and associated safety GET A QUALIFED FRIEND TO ASSIST YOU WITH THIS STEP. ELECTRICITY KILLS (and burns down houses). This step assume you have skills handling 110V electricity, or you've found someone who does.
For my drive motor, I chose to use a $20 ceiling fan motor from Lowe's (shown below).
You can use any motor you might have laying about that you think might have adequate torque, and RPM's (the later of which you could achieve with underdrive or overdrive pulley systems). I wanted a direct drive (no pulleys) so the ceiling fan was my best bet. It may burn up eventually, but at $20...it's an affordable consumable part.
Remember, that nearly all ceiling fan motors are set up so the motor body rotates, and the shaft stays 'fixed' (hence how it hangs from the ceiling from the center shaft). So...that mean you need to modify the fan motor to have a coupler to affix to your axle.
Un-box your new fan, and put all peripheral parts aside (blades, light, etc).
Remove any light assembly that might be attached (see pix).
You will have to pull all of your switch wiring back through the hollow center shaft. I cut off the lighting fixture/switch, and drew all wiring in reverse up through the center shaft. The you will be using the opposite side of the fan motor to affix your coupler (the opposite side of where the fan blades were intended to be installed by the fan manufacturer).
CAREFULLY remove the fan's cover by removing the retaining screws (photo below).
Cut two lengths of 1" square tubing 3.5" long. These will be affixed to the fan housing, and make up part of your 'coupler' to the axle. Drill two mounting holes in these pieces. I was fortunate, and my fan motor housing had pre-existing holes which I matched on teh tubing, allowing me to easily center my pieces. After cutting and drilling the two pieces of tubing, use four 1/2" bolts to affix them to the fan housing.
Cut one length of 3/4" x 1/8" thick steel flat stock, wide enough to perfectly span the two pieces of tubing you just bolted to the fan housing. Center that piece of strap on the two pieces of tubing so it is perfectly aligned in the center of the fan housing 'circle', and tack weld to your two pieces of tubing already bolted to the fan housing.
Now, TACK weld an 11/16" deep-well socket to the dead center of your assembly you just built (see photos). This will act as the actual 'coupler', mating to a slightly smaller nut (around 9/16", or any size that fits loosely in your chosen socket size)
Next...using C-Clamps and a couple pieces of flat plate steel, perfectly center your bolt onto the top of your axle (as pictured below). Once placed and perfectly centered, tack weld in position. REMEMBER...once you weld this in place, you CANNOT pass the axle back through the upper bearing block (design flaw #299).
Next, you'll need to build a mount on the upper support for the motor. Simply cut two lengths of 1" square tubing, and weld (as shown in photo) vertically onto upper support bracket, at such a height, as to accommodate your fan's ceiling mounting bracket. I chose to weld (as shown) two plates on top of my towers, and drill them, so the motor could be unbolted and removed. You may choose to do that, or you may simply weld the fan mount to the towers.
SAFETY NOTE: If you are unfamiliar with electrical wiring, and associated safety GET A QUALIFED FRIEND TO ASSIST YOU WITH THIS STEP. ELECTRICITY KILLS (and burns down houses). This step assume you have skills handling 110V electricity, or you've found someone who does.
For my drive motor, I chose to use a $20 ceiling fan motor from Lowe's (shown below).
You can use any motor you might have laying about that you think might have adequate torque, and RPM's (the later of which you could achieve with underdrive or overdrive pulley systems). I wanted a direct drive (no pulleys) so the ceiling fan was my best bet. It may burn up eventually, but at $20...it's an affordable consumable part.
Remember, that nearly all ceiling fan motors are set up so the motor body rotates, and the shaft stays 'fixed' (hence how it hangs from the ceiling from the center shaft). So...that mean you need to modify the fan motor to have a coupler to affix to your axle.
Un-box your new fan, and put all peripheral parts aside (blades, light, etc).
Remove any light assembly that might be attached (see pix).
You will have to pull all of your switch wiring back through the hollow center shaft. I cut off the lighting fixture/switch, and drew all wiring in reverse up through the center shaft. The you will be using the opposite side of the fan motor to affix your coupler (the opposite side of where the fan blades were intended to be installed by the fan manufacturer).
CAREFULLY remove the fan's cover by removing the retaining screws (photo below).
Cut two lengths of 1" square tubing 3.5" long. These will be affixed to the fan housing, and make up part of your 'coupler' to the axle. Drill two mounting holes in these pieces. I was fortunate, and my fan motor housing had pre-existing holes which I matched on teh tubing, allowing me to easily center my pieces. After cutting and drilling the two pieces of tubing, use four 1/2" bolts to affix them to the fan housing.
Cut one length of 3/4" x 1/8" thick steel flat stock, wide enough to perfectly span the two pieces of tubing you just bolted to the fan housing. Center that piece of strap on the two pieces of tubing so it is perfectly aligned in the center of the fan housing 'circle', and tack weld to your two pieces of tubing already bolted to the fan housing.
Now, TACK weld an 11/16" deep-well socket to the dead center of your assembly you just built (see photos). This will act as the actual 'coupler', mating to a slightly smaller nut (around 9/16", or any size that fits loosely in your chosen socket size)
Next...using C-Clamps and a couple pieces of flat plate steel, perfectly center your bolt onto the top of your axle (as pictured below). Once placed and perfectly centered, tack weld in position. REMEMBER...once you weld this in place, you CANNOT pass the axle back through the upper bearing block (design flaw #299).
Next, you'll need to build a mount on the upper support for the motor. Simply cut two lengths of 1" square tubing, and weld (as shown in photo) vertically onto upper support bracket, at such a height, as to accommodate your fan's ceiling mounting bracket. I chose to weld (as shown) two plates on top of my towers, and drill them, so the motor could be unbolted and removed. You may choose to do that, or you may simply weld the fan mount to the towers.
| « Previous Step | Download PDFView All Steps | Next Step » |
 |
Add Comment
|
