Gallery, Projects and General > The Design Shop
Electric or Petrol Locomotive
Bernd:
--- Quote from: NickG on May 13, 2009, 03:40:37 AM ---I was liking the idea of the worm and wheel but good point about coasting Bernd.
Another idea I had many years back (the electric loco was going to be my first ever project but I didn't have the skill to do it) was to use bevel gears from a hand drill which also enables mounting the motor longitudinally. That seemed to give about the right ratio, however, they don't appear to be that accurately made, a bit rough and ready. I guess that depends on the quality of the drill though? Any thoughts on this method?
Thanks,
Nick
--- End quote ---
Nick,
Not a bad idea. It's finding a set that can be cheaply had of good quality.
Here are a couple of US based companies that may help you with research on gearing.
http://www.pic-design.com/
https://sdp-si.com/eStore/default.asp
Perhaps a search for such equivelent companies in the UK might be a place to start. I'm sure Bogs might know of were to look.
Other places to look would be lawn care equipment and possibly farm machinery. Look at any machinery that would have gears in them that drive at right angles. It won't neccessarliy need to be a high ratio. That could be gotten by reducing the speed with gears on the motor before going to the final drive gears, the bevel gears.
Bernd
bogstandard:
An old metal drilling hand brace has the necessary gears, but the large one that you turn might be a bit large for the project. But you can get them with the large gear as small as about 65mm. Like the one in the picture. You can't give them away any more, so a car boot should turn one up for next to nothing.
HPC gears are who I always use for speciality bits.
http://www.hpcgears.com/
John
Darren:
Now that is interesting, and I've just thrown one out recently... :bang:
I'm thinking of a mod to the mill power supply to be able to keep the motor connected all the time?
NickG:
Well, I've got the motors from ebay, think they might just be small enough to work with the gears I bought at Harrogate! They seem pretty powerful too. If not I might have to go for the hand drill bevel gears route and mount logitudinally. The mount for the motors will be more complex though. If using gears the motors need to be axle hung to retain the right mesh when the wheels move up an down with the suspension.
I have also ordered a 30A PDM controller from ebay ... this is a gamble as it's from china. Might take a while for that to come. I figured it was probably going to cost me over £10 to make one so for another £18 it's probably worth just buying! Hopefully I won't get charged any import duty or tax or anything ... i know i didn't when I got my collets. Fingers crossed!
Just need to come up with a design for a frame now. I'm not sure whether to just try and wing this one or draw it up on the 3D CAD. I know which I should do, it'll just take more time but it's probably worth it!
Nick
NickG:
Well, a year and 4 months on and I think I'm going to make a start this project tonight. Really I should finish my 2 'Poppin' flame licker's off but I'm coming under some serious pressure from my now 4 1/2 year old son. I don't want him to lose interest so I want to make something he can play with, get rides on and learn to drive a loco!
I think I'll pretty much wing it if I can, otherwise I'll spend ages drawing it up and although it'd be better it'll just double the length of the project.
So it'll be some quick measurements tonight, decide what to do and get stuck in - it might not be pretty but hopefully I'll end up with something that can pull me and our 2 boys!
I'm not going to do a build log on this but will keep updated on progress under a new post in project logs.
Cheers,
Nick
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