After having the BE for a couple of years now, it's had its issues as have many others... but was still viable
and trustworthy; until lately. The linear gear that turns the drum is no longer retracting at all when a cleaning
cycle happens. Consequently it will cycle about 4 times and reach it's travel limit and stick on.
Imo the container, drum, spray bar, etc., are all very well built, so all those will be kept in tact. But I want to
change out the linear gear and piston design for a chain and sprocket motor driven one. I know many of
the very talented people who have made DIY RDF designs have opted to go to a direct drive approach after trying
the chain and sprocket, but the thought of somehow cutting the stainless steel container in order to make a direct
connection with the shaft and drum, seems overwhelming. So I'm going to go this route and if it's an epic failure,
you all will be here to witness it.
Also breaking with the norm, I want to run it strictly on a timer. No water level monitoring devices. I think if I'm
able to get this to work it might make it seem less daunting to others to modify their non-working BE's. I might
be missing something in trying this but just watching mine cycle for the last couple years, I can normally almost
set my watch by when it cycles. Very predictable. And if I could make a similar interval of an "on and off" cycle,
I think I could eliminate the whole water sensing device. I might be able to be swayed to the dark side though.
So, first thing I needed to do was convert it from feeding off the house water supply to a pressure pump that
pulls water from the clean side of the RDF:
Here's what the existing sprocket looks like exposed with out the linear gear and piston covering it:
I'd like to reuse it with the new design but not a big deal if it's got to go. I haven't counted the teeth
or measured the pitch, but just showing it fwiw.
That's enough for now. I'd like to hear any thoughts about other options. I admit that I may not use them and
continue down the path I have envisioned, so don't be upset if I don't follow instructions! I've never been very
good at them anyway.
I wish I was smart enough to do a thread in the DIY forum where I just show what I did... but I know I'm not.
But hopefully we'll make this a community project and at the end we can give other BE owners an option to modify
theirs in case they need to.
Thanks for following along,