Crane progress

Some progress recently.

I built and mounted the winch part of the crane.
Mounted all of that to the back board.
Mounted the mash stirring motor.
Mounted the heatsink on the SSR and moved it all to the other end

I took no pics along the way so I decided to just make a video of the current state of things.

The steel cable is rated to a over 50 kgs so it should be good for lifting a mash.

I gave the winch a test on the bench and it was easily able to lift a 10kg weight. This is probably more than it needs to lift for a 8-10 litre batch.

I plan to reinforce the backboard at some point too.

I have some 316 stainless steel stock and wire mesh to make up a bag to clip under the lid and a stirrer to connect to the motor.

The idea being that the bag and stirrer easily unclip for removal and cleaning.

I also have a solenoid and some stainless steel to form into level probes. This should allow automated filling of the pot with water.

Crane X axis movement

Over Christmas a second hand ebay wiper motor arrived so I put it to work driving the crane movement.

I tried to make up a threaded coupling, but couldn't manage to get it straight enough with the rudimentary tools I have here. It turns out the threaded rod I have isn't that straight anyway.

So KISS, and a simple spider drive on the lead-screw.

I brazed a bolt onto a 3/8" nut which attaches to the crane back.

Seems to work.

Only the wiper motor isn't that great. It goes quite slowly and draws a fair bit of power even though it is lightly loaded: 5A at 12V. 

The wiper motor is off a Jeep. The Japanese ones I have for the stirrer and winch seem to be much more efficient.

Luckily I only expect to run one wiper motor at a time and my 12V supply for the project is rated to 6A.

I think I'll keep my eye out for another cheep motor just in case.