Dimond ball cleaner RPM

SlateMan said:
I can see where someone could build the Diamond Ball polisher cheaper and if you like wood working and motors and stuff, it's probably a fun thing to do. But in the end, the most you will save is about $150-200 bucks (8 ball polisher). The time and effort involved will lose you money. Unless like I said, you like that type of stuff.
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I decided to build my own because I wanted a unit that looked like my Gold Crown I. I already had the wood lying around and will be in it for about $300 in parts and supplies. I estimate it will take around 15 hours to build and paint. It's a fun project and I enjoy working with my hands and having the satisfaction I built it myself. I did the cosmetic restoration of my Gold Crown I, restored the Gold Crown Cue Rack and built a custom "Gold Crown I" light. Now I will have a Gold Crown Ball Polisher to finish it off.

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rexus31 said:
I decided to build my own because I wanted a unit that looked like my Gold Crown I. I already had the wood lying around and will be in it for about $300 in parts and supplies. I estimate it will take around 15 hours to build and paint. It's a fun project and I enjoy working with my hands and having the satisfaction I built it myself. I did the cosmetic restoration of my Gold Crown I, restored the Gold Crown Cue Rack and built a custom "Gold Crown I" light. Now I will have a Gold Crown Ball Polisher to finish it off.

49725546583_68ae9b8a75_h.jpg
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Pictures speak a 1,000 words.
 
I saw a Bludworth ball cleaning machine a while ago. I think it was spun with direct drive off the motor instead of pulleys/belts. It did spin crazy fast and was real noisy but then it was an old and beat up machine. If someone could come up with a way to economically slow down the motor you'd have a simpler, safer, cheaper to build direct drive machine with a lot fewer parts than a Diamond machine. I'm no electronics whiz, but I think an AC motor phase shifter could do this but maybe/maybe not cheaply.
 
slach said:
I saw a Bludworth ball cleaning machine a while ago. I think it was spun with direct drive off the motor instead of pulleys/belts. It did spin crazy fast and was real noisy but then it was an old and beat up machine. If someone could come up with a way to economically slow down the motor you'd have a simpler, safer, cheaper to build direct drive machine with a lot fewer parts than a Diamond machine. I'm no electronics whiz, but I think an AC motor phase shifter could do this but maybe/maybe not cheaply.
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The Diamond is simple. Like stone-age simple. That's the beauty of it imo. Lots of things(cars for one) use belts/pulley's to get the job done.
 
slach said:
I saw a Bludworth ball cleaning machine a while ago. I think it was spun with direct drive off the motor instead of pulleys/belts. It did spin crazy fast and was real noisy but then it was an old and beat up machine. If someone could come up with a way to economically slow down the motor you'd have a simpler, safer, cheaper to build direct drive machine with a lot fewer parts than a Diamond machine. I'm no electronics whiz, but I think an AC motor phase shifter could do this but maybe/maybe not cheaply.
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If you want a direct drive motor turning at a slower rpm like 431 rpms, you can't use an AC motor because the slower speed will burn the motor up. You'd have to redesign the ball polisher to take and inverter to convert the 110v to DC volts, then use a DC motor. I've looked into that, way to much money!!!
 
garczar said:
The Diamond is simple. Like stone-age simple. That's the beauty of it imo. Lots of things(cars for one) use belts/pulley's to get the job done.
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The problem is simple don't come cheap, not if it's built to last forever, the 1/2" automotive fan belts will never wear out, neither will the motor, designed as a fan motor, for years of continuous duty usage.

But, simple isn't the same thing as cheap, and that seems to be what some people want, cheap! Only thing is, cheap comes at a price too, called sub-par performance and longevity!

As long as it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, who cares if it can fly like a duck!!!
 
slach said:
I saw a Bludworth ball cleaning machine a while ago. I think it was spun with direct drive off the motor instead of pulleys/belts. It did spin crazy fast and was real noisy but then it was an old and beat up machine. If someone could come up with a way to economically slow down the motor you'd have a simpler, safer, cheaper to build direct drive machine with a lot fewer parts than a Diamond machine. I'm no electronics whiz, but I think an AC motor phase shifter could do this but maybe/maybe not cheaply.
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I've personally seen plenty of sets of balls destroyed from using the Bludworth ball polisher, how many have you seen?
 
Blower motors are only designed to spin blowers. They rely on the blower's air flow to cool the motor. Fortunately, simple devices like ball polishers have very short duty cycles.

Best bet for a home brew ball polisher would be to keep an eye on the local classifed ads for a used treadmill. Variable speed, and tons of torque. I just did a quick check and just in my area there are several used treadmill options for <$50cdn. That's like $2.75usd...
 
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If someone was mechanically and electrically inclined, and wanted a take on making a more compact machine, it would be worth looking at brushless servo motors made for CNC machines. You can buy one now with a driver built in for $100, that can spin at any RPM from less than 1 RPM to 3000RPM all day long. I designed a turntable for my workplace that uses one of these servo motors to spin a 200 lbs human at 1RPM to be scanned. It does have a slight belt reduction, but it probably wasn't even needed. Those things are powerful and compact.
 
The_JV said:
Blower motors are only designed to spin blowers. They rely on the blower's air flow to cool the motor. Fortunately, simple devices like ball polishers have very short duty cycles.

Best bet for a home brew ball polisher would be to keep an eye on the local classifed ads for a used treadmill. Variable speed, and tons of torque. I just did a quick check and just in my area there are several used treadmill options for <$50cdn. That's like $2.75usd...
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Sorry, but the Dayton blower motor is fan cooled internally. When it's hooked to a squirrel cage fan, there's no blow back air from the encaged fan to the motor to cool it!!! Not to mention the fact that it has a 4 to 1 reduction in load capacity, giving the 1/3hp the torque of a 1 1/3hp blower motor.
 
The_JV said:
Blower motors are only designed to spin blowers. They rely on the blower's air flow to cool the motor. Fortunately, simple devices like ball polishers have very short duty cycles.

Best bet for a home brew ball polisher would be to keep an eye on the local classifed ads for a used treadmill. Variable speed, and tons of torque. I just did a quick check and just in my area there are several used treadmill options for <$50cdn. That's like $2.75usd...
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And exactly what kind of motors do treadmills use, AC or DC motors???
 
iusedtoberich said:
If someone was mechanically and electrically inclined, and wanted a take on making a more compact machine, it would be worth looking at brushless servo motors made for CNC machines. You can buy one now with a driver built in for $100, that can spin at any RPM from less than 1 RPM to 3000RPM all day long. I designed a turntable for my workplace that uses one of these servo motors to spin a 200 lbs human at 1RPM to be scanned. It does have a slight belt reduction, but it probably wasn't even needed. Those things are powerful and compact.
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And are DC motors, right???
 
The_JV said:
Blower motors are only designed to spin blowers. They rely on the blower's air flow to cool the motor. Fortunately, simple devices like ball polishers have very short duty cycles.

Best bet for a home brew ball polisher would be to keep an eye on the local classifed ads for a used treadmill. Variable speed, and tons of torque. I just did a quick check and just in my area there are several used treadmill options for <$50cdn. That's like $2.75usd...
Click to expand...
Hardest jobs are made easy by those that don't have to do them!!

Lead by example!
 
iusedtoberich said:
If someone was mechanically and electrically inclined, and wanted a take on making a more compact machine, it would be worth looking at brushless servo motors made for CNC machines. You can buy one now with a driver built in for $100, that can spin at any RPM from less than 1 RPM to 3000RPM all day long. I designed a turntable for my workplace that uses one of these servo motors to spin a 200 lbs human at 1RPM to be scanned. It does have a slight belt reduction, but it probably wasn't even needed. Those things are powerful and compact.
Click to expand...
Hardest jobs are made easy by those that don't have to do them!!

Lead by example
 
realkingcobra said:
And are DC motors, right???
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Some are DC and you need an AC to DC converter as part of the system. They are cheap enough though, $40 range would be good enough for this application. However, others are AC and run off line power. They are usually bigger and meant more for the spindle of the machine, rather than the axes of the machine.

I do think you can have a similar price and performance with "hobby grade CNC parts" used on a ball cleaning machine, compared to an AC induction motor. The only reason to go through that design trouble though, would be for a more compact size. It would probably also be more prone to failure, because there are many more electronic parts to the system.
 
northshoremb said:
Exactly. 50% savings is a lot and yes I make so many things cause I like the challenge, I like modifying to my needs and I like to show people what I made. I do that with so many things nd gives me accomplishment even if something comes out to the same price I would rather build it.

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I totally get it. I Epoxied the garage floor myself, just to see if I could and I built out the closets just to see if I could. For the closets, I just took a bunch of photos of closets while looking at houses. With enough caulk and paint, they eventually came out pretty good. Well, at least not bad for an accountant.

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