360* Rotating Back Blade Project

[GuglioLS]

Some of us are still waiting on the updated report Or do we have to wait for Rob to show up later this month to get the full blown tutorial?

Doh!!

I bet you thought I broke it and now it's a pile of scrap metal NOT!

Sorry for not updating this thread, been busy with my bull dozer, grapple making, road building, wood cutting, etc..... you know, the ususal excuses.

So anyway ZJ's reply 113 on page 12:.....

Next suspition: that shear pin on rotating axle seems the weakest point on your construction. Look at ratio between force on one end of blade and on shear pin.
Locking pin, used before your modification, was on significally bigger radius, maybe 8" towards 1" now, and was about 1"dia, and your shear pin is maybe 1/2"


ZJ was right, I sheared the shear pin under not to heavy of a load so That was that - I knew I had to fix it or it would not perform the tasks I intended.


I decided to make a major change in the way the gear box was coupled to the blade. I purchased a PTO slip clutch. I had to build up the outside thickness of steel at one end of the slip clutch about 1/2" so that I could bore the ID to 2" (it came with a 1-3/8" ID). Then I was able to slip it over the blade pivot shaft. I then installed a grade 8 bolt instead of a shear bolt.





Larry

 

[GuglioLS]

I then re-installed the gear box, the slip clutch just fits between the top of the blade boom & the bottom of the gear box. In the picture, the springs & bolts look very close. There is 1/4" of clearance between the the bolts and gear box, so it's OK.

I was able to try it out, under moderate pressure at the edge of the blade, the clutch slips so it is protecting the coupler, & gears in the gear box.

Now that I know for certain the slip clutch fits and protects the blade pivot shaft and gearbox. Next is to figure out a way to have a remote controlled locking pin installed where the OEM pin was....

So I fabricated a solenoid. -
For one end of the solenoid spool, I found a massive chunk of solid 4"x6"x36" nylon in salvage for 1$ a pound, it weighed 32 #'s
I sliced off a chunk to make some non ferrous (non magnetic) spool ends.





I made a stop for the radial arm saw so as to get four pieces exactly the same. I figured I better make the parts for 4 solenoids and maybe one would come out good?



Larry

 

[GuglioLS]

Here are the 4 slices of non conductive material for one end of the solenoid:

I drilled a hole in the center, then chucked them all into the lathe to make them round:

Larry

 

[GuglioLS]

This stuff is fun to machine it makes white "snow" all over the place. and the finish is as smooth as glass:



Larry

 

[GuglioLS]

OK, so now things are starting to take shape, they are nice and round now. Next was to turn the surface to make that part smooth & flat:

Then it was time to counter bore the center to receive the center part of the spool to wind the copper wire onto:

Larry

 

[GuglioLS]

Now you can see what I am trying to make. A spool to wind magnet wire onto. The center of the spool is 1" copper (non magnetic) the bottom of the spool is the nylon - (cheap & easy to machine) the top of the spool is a 1" ID x 2.5" OD steel washer.

The "C" frame (outside of the solenoid) is 2.5" ID x 1/4 wall steel pipe. In the picture below you can see the 3/4" steel hitch pin that is the Armature of the Solenoid.


Larry

 

[GuglioLS]

OK so now we have the basic parts to make a solenoid. A steel pin in the center of a non ferrous guide tube surrounded by a few thousand turns of enamel coated 16 gage copper magnet wire encased in a steel pipe:

There are about a thousand details I left out to protect my "secrets" . but mostly not to bore you any further.

Larry

 

[GuglioLS]

Here is one completed solenoid. It has a 2" stroke and about 100 lbs of pull. I made enough parts to make four, but I only need one assembled and working solenoid. So I have plenty of spare parts for future projects.


Here it is in action:


Larry

 

[GuglioLS]

This video will give you an idea of the tremendous magnetic pulling power at the tip of the hitch pin:


Somehow I have a bad feeling about all that strong magnetic force along the length of that hitch pin. I think it's going to "stick" to the steel on the sides of the holes that it's supposed to move in & out of.
I set the solenoid in place to test my bad feeling from above - guess what - I was right, It does NOT work . The magnetic force causes the pin to hold tight to the sides of the holes it goes through, so it does not pull the pin as expected. What a Waist of time all that was - Back to the drawing board. Next is to look at some 12 volt linear actuators to push / pull the locking pin. They use them linear actuators in monster garage, so that's got to work.




Larry

 

[GuglioLS]

The following idea (IMHO) is far superior to a solenoid and will "Index" into a pin hole as it rotates under the pin. It's a wedge operated by a Linear actuator that has 110 pounds of push / pull force. It should even be able to pull the pin with some pressure on it. I whipped this up in one hours VS a Month farting around making solenoids.
Here is the concept:

The beauty of this is, I do not have to modify the hitch pin. As it wears out / breaks - whatever. I can simply replace it with a new one with no modifications:


Larry