Well, That Didn’t Take Long.

I wired up the motor controller to the vibratory deburrer today.  Since I had already bench tested the motor and controller, I had no real concerns other than making sure I was using the right terminals on the controller.  I put a tub of ceramic media with some aluminum parts into the unit, and gave […]

I wired up the motor controller to the vibratory deburrer today.  Since I had already bench tested the motor and controller, I had no real concerns other than making sure I was using the right terminals on the controller.  I put a tub of ceramic media with some aluminum parts into the unit, and gave it a shot.   The media swirled around the tub much like it had in the suspended version, which was something I was hoping to eliminate.  After realigning the weights to 90 degrees apart, I found that the swirling was eliminated if I ran the motor at about 60% of full speed.  I covered the tub and left it run – thankfully the noise is a little less than the suspended version (but just a little).  About 45 minutes later, I heard what sounded like a muffled crash, and ran downstairs to see what had happened.  The bucket frame was leaning way over, and after powering off the motor controller, I had a look at the damage.

Snapped spring
Snapped spring - given how tough these were to grind to length, I'm amazed that it broke.

One of the 4 springs that support the tub frame had snapped from the vibration.  As the frame keeled over to one side, the hose that coupled the motor to the weight shaft was twisted and sheared off.

Torn hose
Torn hose - despite being fiber and wire reinforced, it still gave way. In retrospect, this wasn't a bad thing - easier to replace the hose than the motor, after all.

At this point, spending the money for a proper industrial unit is looking more and more attractive.

2 thoughts on “Well, That Didn’t Take Long.”

    1. I’m not beaten, just… winded. I ordered a length of the beefiest spring stock McMaster-Carr carries and will redo the lower base as well as the ‘legs’. My plan is to use at least 6 springs so that if one does break again, the whole assembly won’t collapse. As well, I think I’ll move the motor out from underneath and run a belt/pulley system to lower the whole machine by at least a foot.

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