Pool Room Addition

D

DeeDeeCues

Well-known member
It's a side table...
Compass2.jpg


It's a ball polisher!

Compass 3.jpg


Needs a bit of final finish on the top of the skirt.

It is an Arduino-controlled programmable unit, 1-8 balls at a time.
 
Cuebuddy said:
Your talent is undeniable. Plenty of ballast for shake free service.
Nice work.
Click to expand...

Thank-you, sir. I meant to mention in the original post that the woodwork was my bro's doing--he had the top made, but never finished the original project, I made the polisher mechanism and he suggested using that as a lid and wanted to do the rest of the base, also. I think he was bored and looking for a project.

I spent the time learning how to program an Arduino.

Being that I used a stepper motor and direct drive, it is very quiet and balanced.
 
DeeDeeCues said:
Thank-you, sir. I meant to mention in the original post that the woodwork was my bro's doing--he had the top made, but never finished the original project, I made the polisher mechanism and he suggested using that as a lid and wanted to do the rest of the base, also. I think he was bored and looking for a project.

I spent the time learning how to program an Arduino.

Being that I used a stepper motor and direct drive, it is very quiet and balanced.
Click to expand...
Very nice. Some kind of taperlock bushing in the middle I think. Does that mean the center "spider" spins to drive the balls rather than the platen..? Guessing that plays a roll in the balance of the machine as a floating "spider" requires multiple balls to remain centered.
 
The_JV said:
Very nice. Some kind of taperlock bushing in the middle I think. Does that mean the center "spider" spins to drive the balls rather than the platen..? Guessing that plays a roll in the balance of the machine as a floating "spider" requires multiple balls to remain centered.
Click to expand...

Yes, the spider spins.

The spider is coupled to the shaft via split collar. The shaft runs through three bearings above the motor mount. The motor is coupled to the shaft with a flexible coupling. When doing an odd number of balls, it is not balanced, but the motor sees none of the eccentric forces and the machine is rigid enough otherwise that it isn't a problem if the balls are distributed. If I were to attempt to clean three balls in neighboring slots, the machine would not be happy.

The Arduino is set to accelerate the balls to full speed in eight seconds. End-of-cycle uses the same acceleration (deceleration) time.

My consideration when I decided to go this route is that I play 9-ball almost exclusively and have three cueballs--I clean the balls in two shifts, eight then four.

Since I made the mechanism easily removable from the table, I will likely iterate the project. Honestly, the mechanism is simple and stupid, but works better than I expected.
 
DeeDeeCues said:
Since I made the mechanism easily removable from the table, I will likely iterate the project. Honestly, the mechanism is simple and stupid, but works better than I expected.
Click to expand...
Yep, the most difficult thing about building this style of cleaner is the repelling the urge to make it complicated.
 
That's gorgeous. As a wood butcher I must enquiry the wood species. Wink. A total win with looks and function. How long and how much. Just kidding. 😉
 
gregcantrall said:
That's gorgeous. As a wood butcher I must enquiry the wood species. Wink. A total win with looks and function. How long and how much. Just kidding. 😉
Click to expand...

The woods are walnut, cherry, and hickory.

The top took a while, but the rest of it went pretty quickly, maybe two weeks from start to finish, fifteen working hours.
 
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