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Step 4We've Come This Far, Now How Will We Drive The Cheese Pumps?
Our original plan was to drive all the cheese pumps with one continuous drive belt as shown in illustration 1. below. Based on this plan, and based on the rotation of our motor (counter-clockwise), we made our pumps run clockwise. Once we had the pumps made we realized that there would be too much resistance from the semi-fluid cheese, so we decided to go with a three belt design. The problem with thee belts driven as shown in illustration 2. is that the pumps will be driven counter-clockwise, and because our pumps are already made we will need to twist the belts, as shown in illustration 3. Luckily the round belts we've chosen will do this little trick with no problem.
Round belts are commonly found on vacuum cleaners, but are also sold by the foot at motor and bearing supply houses. We paid .99 a foot for 12 feet, and from this we made four belts. We stretched a string around the pulleys to determine the proper length of our belt, then we cut the round belt to this length minus 1". We did this because we knew that the belt would stretch once it gets warmed-up, and we want a tight fit.
To make a belt, cut the round belting to length with a razor blade, and using a Bic lighter, slowly heat the cut ends until they become soft and wet. Press these ends together firmly and align so as not to produce a step where the ends meet. Hold the joint firmly for a minuet and allow to cool for ten minute before stressing. The ends can be cleaned-up with a razor blade to smooth the joint.
The motor was salvaged from a planer and features a variable speed rheostat, so we should be able to get the speed just right. We bolted it to a slab of OSB (Oriented Strand Board) and screwed it into pre-drilled holes in the top of each of the fountain segments.
We could have purchased the pulleys, but it felt right to make them. We cut them with a tool called a fly cutter (aka: holesaw) on the drillpress, and then spun them on a lathe and added a shallow groove for the belt. The motor pulley has three grooves as it is driving three belts. The pulleys are mounted to the 1/4-20 bolts using nylock hex nuts, while the motor pulley is fixed to the motor shaft with Fastcap 2P-10 CA glue (aka: Superglue) and a set screw. We often drill and tap threads into wood for jigs and fixtures in the shop, and we find that after tapping drizzling a few drops of CA glue strengthens the wood threads. Also we use as long a setscrew as we can without risking that it extends beyond the rim of the pulley, in order to spread the stress over more threads. A short setscrew will easily strip the wood threads even when reinforced with CA glue.
For this step we used a razor blade and a Bic lighter, a hole saw on a drill press and a wood lathe. Oh yeah, and a piece of string.
Don't miss the VIDEO of the Six Cheese Fountain in action on Step 9!
Round belts are commonly found on vacuum cleaners, but are also sold by the foot at motor and bearing supply houses. We paid .99 a foot for 12 feet, and from this we made four belts. We stretched a string around the pulleys to determine the proper length of our belt, then we cut the round belt to this length minus 1". We did this because we knew that the belt would stretch once it gets warmed-up, and we want a tight fit.
To make a belt, cut the round belting to length with a razor blade, and using a Bic lighter, slowly heat the cut ends until they become soft and wet. Press these ends together firmly and align so as not to produce a step where the ends meet. Hold the joint firmly for a minuet and allow to cool for ten minute before stressing. The ends can be cleaned-up with a razor blade to smooth the joint.
The motor was salvaged from a planer and features a variable speed rheostat, so we should be able to get the speed just right. We bolted it to a slab of OSB (Oriented Strand Board) and screwed it into pre-drilled holes in the top of each of the fountain segments.
We could have purchased the pulleys, but it felt right to make them. We cut them with a tool called a fly cutter (aka: holesaw) on the drillpress, and then spun them on a lathe and added a shallow groove for the belt. The motor pulley has three grooves as it is driving three belts. The pulleys are mounted to the 1/4-20 bolts using nylock hex nuts, while the motor pulley is fixed to the motor shaft with Fastcap 2P-10 CA glue (aka: Superglue) and a set screw. We often drill and tap threads into wood for jigs and fixtures in the shop, and we find that after tapping drizzling a few drops of CA glue strengthens the wood threads. Also we use as long a setscrew as we can without risking that it extends beyond the rim of the pulley, in order to spread the stress over more threads. A short setscrew will easily strip the wood threads even when reinforced with CA glue.
For this step we used a razor blade and a Bic lighter, a hole saw on a drill press and a wood lathe. Oh yeah, and a piece of string.
Don't miss the VIDEO of the Six Cheese Fountain in action on Step 9!
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