Minimum Torque to operate electric motor for Star Sizer

[chloe123]

I was able to get a Star Sizer to operate fully while being attached to an electric AC motor; however, the muscle wasn't great enough to depress the 45 boolits through the die. Seeing the circular rotation of the rotor translate into full up down travel of the punch and feeder was rewarding, until I realized that none of it mattered if boolits weren't being lubed and sized

Of course, surface area and alloy hardness affects the force. I was trying to size pistol 452s. Based on the way things felt, I'd guess that 32 cal pistol would have dropped but can't say as I didn't have 32 cast boolits for that die. I also had made sure the heater was on for a bit(normal temp) and added a little lubricant to the boolit. forgot to mention, torque for motor was rated at 120in/lb for 115v. When the motor stopped, I had thought I probably needed double the torque. But that's really an uneducated guess and the reason for the post.

[Gofaaast]

Could a heavy flywheel be incorporated into your setup, or am I thinking to far out of the box.

[chloe123]

Good point. I used what I believe is a pulley that would be used for a swamp cooler. It, is well ss most other parts were bought at the local hardware store. Which makes it convenient, though not refined I guess.

it is cast iron with probably 6 holes drilled out at various spaces to accommodate the linkage. I did remove half of the assmbly(basically half of the "V" design (reduced to "/") to reduce the weight and to make it easier to work with.

[HATCH]

What rpm motor did you use?

[oneokie]

What hp is the motor?

[Tom_Highway]

Can you upload a video?, please.
Thank you!.

[bangerjim]

You told us everything about your boolits and sizer.........but nothing about the motor!

Type (cap start/run, universal brush, etc)
HP
RPM
Pulley A size
Pulley B size

All those makes a big difference in us helping you.

[HATCH]

I plan on using this
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Bodine-42A3B...item43e055f390

310 inch lbs

[bangerjim]

Jus make sure you have a 25A 12VDC regulated power supply! That thing sucks a lot of amps. Torque will spiral down rapidly as you load it down if you do not have a power supply that can crank out the high amperage at 12V.

Motors like that work like a breeze in a car or truck that has a constantly charged 12V battery. A 120v-12vdc power supply of that amperage is a big one!!!!!!

Made for a cable wench probably.

bangerjim

[Tazza]

I like the idea of a fly wheel, but it would need to be heavy and moving at a higher speed, ideally straight off the motor shaft.

Hatch - yeah, i think that motor could handle the job

As for the high power power supply to run the motor, if you didn't have one, why not just have a car battery with a charger hooked up? I would highly doubt sizing would require the full power of the motor.

Either way, i for one would like to see both builds

[VHoward]

I plan on using this
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Bodine-42A3B...item43e055f390

310 inch lbs

Will you be posting a build thread for yours? I remember seeing a you tube video of MiHec's set up and he had a geared motor with a lever on the star and a rotary hook up on the motor. Very slick.

[HATCH]

Yes but it's going to be a while.
My 6yo niece came to live with me. I buying a bigger house, have to fix and sell my current house , and I am still working on the master caster clone build.
It's just piling up

[Tazza]

Hatch - I know what it's like when things just pile up..... I bought a house 2 years ago, renovations are going very slowly. With work, that and new projects or emergency things that come up, it just never seems to end. On top of that, i got a wrecked car to migrate parts into mine as i have quite a few k's up on the clock. The wife's car needs work too, it just never ends!

[chloe123]

You told us everything about your boolits and sizer.........but nothing about the motor!

Type (cap start/run, universal brush, etc)
HP
RPM
Pulley A size
Pulley B size

All those makes a big difference in us helping you.

Though I only recognize some of the terms you mentioned, I really didn't think motor specs mattered. As a starting point, I think it's ok to assume that I have hooked up this motor correctly . There's one pulley and its 4 3/4" . It's not a brushless motor. It's 1/8HP, 30rpm

I figured stating the torque specs would give someone who has a similar design an idea of whether it's too low or not. Another approach would be to know how much torque is need to drop different sized Boolits from a Star sizer and the amount needed to move the apparatus


Adden., 9/1: i realized that just looking to the automated-air-Star sizers gives a good reference point. The psi is provided by the manufacturer for the air cylinders.

[VHoward]

I assume that the pulley has a rod coming off it to connect to the handle of the star? With that low of torque, you might need to experiment with the size of the pulley and the point at which you hook up the output to the star handle to get it to work. To get enough force to push those bullets through, you might need a smaller pulley and a longer lever. But doing that might mean that the star will not move enough to go through the whole cycle.

You could probably get the 120 inch/pound motor to push the bullet through, but then it would not move enough to pick up the next bullet from the feeder.

Pictures of your set up and connections would make talking about it easier.

[VHoward]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXbLxgJnBnI
I've been meaning to do something like this. MiHec isn't interested in making a kit out of his. At least he doesn't respond to anybody in the comments.

[hunter74]

If he would make s kit for sale I bet he could sell a big bunch of them on this site. I would buy one for sure!

[chloe123]

I assume that the pulley has a rod coming off it to connect to the handle of the star? With that low of torque, you might need to experiment with the size of the pulley and the point at which you hook up the output to the star handle to get it to work. To get enough force to push those bullets through, you might need a smaller pulley and a longer lever. But doing that might mean that the star will not move enough to go through the whole cycle.

You could probably get the 120 inch/pound motor to push the bullet through, but then it would not move enough to pick up the next bullet from the feeder.

Pictures of your set up and connections would make talking about it easier.

Youre definitely right about expurrmejting with the positioning of the tierod on the pulley . I don't work a huge amt of hrs but travel . Along with household chores it limits time for stuff like this


i basically watched a few videos online courtesy of YouTube. Then I tried to replicate with my limited know-how. It is possible that I'm robbing motor of some torque by not utilizing more leverage . Appreciate your feedback . I'll try to post a pic when I get back

[VHoward]

I plan on using this
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Bodine-42A3B...item43e055f390

310 inch lbs

I bought one of these motors. Using this power supply: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ilpage_o01_s00 . This set up does size .454 powder coated bullets down to .452 without much effort. I did not set up a speed control on the motor and left it at the 41 rpm it's rated at. If it is truely doing 41 bullets per minute, then that is 2460 bullets per hour. The star with feeder is functioning fine at that speed. I will probably end up putting a speed control between the power supply and motor so I can slow it down a little. As it is set up now, I plug the power supply in and it starts running. U used a 5 inch pulley on the motor, but drilled a hole in the side at 4.75 inches out from center and connected the rod to that. The other end is a metal strip that is 1.5 inch wide, 6 inch long and 3/16 inch thick that is mounted on the side where the handle tighten down bolt goes and put this metal strip on in place of the washer that was on there and hooked the rod to that. Since I'm not a machinist, I don't have the skills to make a connection piece as nice as what MiHec made for his in his video.