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    Thread: Another DIY RDF project

    1. #21
      Riftlake is offline Senior Member
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      I needed a stainless hub to attach a shaft to the drum. After much searching I found this 12mm hub: https://www.robotshop.com/en/12mm-se...w-key-hub.html I mounted it with stainless screws adding a small disc for added strength that I cut with a hole saw.

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      I found a 316 stainless steel shaft on Ebay which I cut to length, and ground a keyway on the end for attachment to the hub. I couldn't find a shaft key in stainless so I made one grinding down a stainless bolt.

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      On the other end of the shaft which would have to attach to the motor, I found this 12mm spyder coupler that I ordered from McMaster-Carr https://www.mcmaster.com/#spider-couplings/=1dueq9l This time I decided to just grind a flat in the end of the shaft for the key.

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      Last edited by Riftlake; 09-01-2018 at 09:35 PM.

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    2. #22
      Riftlake is offline Senior Member
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      For a tank I'm using a 55 gal. blue barrel as I had planned, and I built a stand out of 3/4", 1/8" wall square tubing I had left over from previous projects.

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      The stand has a pump mount on the side for the 1/2 horse jet pump, and a motor mount for the drum motor. This filter will be gravity fed, but initially I plan to hook it to a row of IBC Aquaponics tanks for testing until I build my filter pit and hook it up to a pond.

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      To support the shaft I picked up this pillow block bearing: https://www.amazon.com/Pillow-Bearin...ng+UCF201+12mm The bearing has 2 set screws to hold the shaft in place so the drum can be adjusted to ride centered on the wheels. Also, with the brackets I attached it to the frame to square up and flatten the end of the drum.

      The bolts holding the pillow block bearing are sealed with PL roof & gutter sealant under the disc on the inside of the drum. I added a Spring-Loaded Rotary Shaft Seal: https://www.mcmaster.com/#=1ee311f which is kind of an experiment to see if it will work. It's actually not a pump seal, but an oil seal. I was worried after I bought it that the spring might rust through and wind up getting sucked into the pump impeller, so I turned it around with the spring on the outside. It's not much water pressure, so we will see...... The seal is for a 12mm shaft and the O.D. is 25mm. I didn't have a 25mm drill bit so I took an old 1" spade bit and filed off each outer edge, and drilled test holes in scrap until I had a real nice fit to make a mount for the seal.

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    3. #23
      Riftlake is offline Senior Member
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      I couldn't find wheels I liked so I had 4 Delrin wheels made 3/4" wide and 1-5/8" diameter. I made mounting brackets from a piece of stainless angle, and bolted them through the tank and the frame. The bolts have a short section of smooth shank above the threads so I decided to try to seal the penetrations with rubber o-rings on the bolts.

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      Just to the right of the wheels on the above photo you can see a 3/4" wide strip of material I cut from another barrel to attach the bulkhead dividing the dirty side from the clean side. The strip is double thickness making it about 3/8" thick. It is sealed with PL sealant and attached with stainless 1/2" screws.

      I cut up another barrel for material for these strips and other parts I'll need later.

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      It's easy to flatten out the material and use a straight edge and a Skilsaw to cut strips. The 3 sticks I put in the base of the barrel to hold it round in an attempt to get an accurate measurement of the inside diameter.....

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      Next I needed to build a bulkhead for the tank divider. I didn't have a piece of pvc large enough so I glued 2 pieces together. After cutting the disc outside edge, and inside diameters, I decided I wanted it thicker than one layer so I used scrap to make an octagonal layer for each side and attached them to the disc. Then I cut the bulkhead inner circle and sanded smooth. The inner diameter is about 3/16" larger than the inner diameter of the drum outer disc.

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      Trial fit:

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      The drum spins smoothly on the wheels. Next I'm going to attach the bulkhead, add the seal, and build the drain tray.

    4. #24
      BWG is offline Senior Member
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      Wow!

    5. #25
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      I have never seen someone flatten out PVC pipe like that. Great job so far.

    6. #26
      Riftlake is offline Senior Member
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      Thanks. I've never seen or heard of it either, but I knew you could heat and soften pvc to bend it, so I thought it was worth a try. It worked way better and easier than I expected. I wish I had a way to heat a longer piece than what I can fit in my bbq. I have about 12' of that 12" pipe left, and am already thinking of another use for it. I may figure out a way to heat it using a steel barrel I have.

    7. #27
      Riftlake is offline Senior Member
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      Project is moving slow. but I've made a little progress. Originally, I had thought of using a used front loading washer seal for a drum seal. After looking at it and trying to figure out how to make it work, I came up with an idea. I found if I trimmed the outer edge off of the seal it would stretch over the end of the 12" pvc pipe I had left. I used the pipe, some clamps, a strip of plastic for a straight edge, and a razor knife to cut the seal.

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      After carefully cutting a short section of 12" pipe to 2", taking care to get the ends flat, I fitted it into the bulkhead I had made. It just took a little sanding to get a tight fit, and I plan to glue it in when I'm satisfied it's going to work out.

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      The rubber seal fits tight on the bulkhead pipe.

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      The plan is for the outer edge of the rubber seal to be sandwiched between the end of the pipe and the outer ring on the drum for a friction seal. I found that the rubber seal inner diameter was about 5/16" smaller than the inside of the drum. I decided to make a new outer drum ring with a smaller I.D. so the whole seal would ride against it. I was glad I had decided to use SS screws to attach the outer rings to the drum, so it was easy to replace. Unfortunately, I had to go through the whole process of cutting up more 12" pipe, and heating & flattening it, because I had used up all the material I had flattened out previously. I sanded the outer surface of the ring smooth progressively down to 1000 grit sand paper to make as little friction as possible against the seal.

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      On the above photos you can also see that I added a narrow strip to the inside of each of the flat drum ribs. Except for two of the ribs, that is. On two I added strips as wide as the ribs themselves. These strips are to add thickness for screws that I plan to use for the screen attachment.

      For a waste drain I used a section of 4" conduit I had laying around. The O.D. is the same as 4" Sch. 40 PVC. I capped the end with a scrap of PVC I cut and glued on the end.

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      I made a support for the drain and added it to the bulkhead. The drain slides in loosely so I can slide it out when I need to remove it.

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      Since I didn't have a 4-1/2" hole saw, and also needing a couple of other large size hole saws I didn't have, I decided to try this adjustable hole saw from Harbor Freight. It only costed about 8 or 9 bucks, and you get what you pay for. The first time I tried to adjust it for width the bolts stripped before it would tighten down enough to hold the cutters secure. I bought longer bolts, and added nuts, which solved the problem. The crossbar has markings in mm & cm on each side, but they are worthless because the bar is not centered. If you remove the drill bit there is a set screw up in the hole the bit goes in, and by loosening it, you could slide the crossbar to center it, thereby centering the markings, but as soon as you tighten the setscrew it slides to one side because they drilled a hole off center in the bar for the set screw to fit into. It's a hassle to get the width adjusted, but it cut through the plastic barrel ok, and considering one 4-1/2" hole saw costs about 30 bucks, I would buy it again since I can adjust it.


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    8. #28
      nil13 is offline Senior Member
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      We called those adjustable hole saws "widowmakers" in the cabinet shop. I recommend spraypainting the ends of the cross bars neon orange or something so you can see it better. They are also a lot easier to use on a drill press.

    9. #29
      kimini is offline Senior Member
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      Yeah they're effing dangerous if you don't have both the drill and the work held rigid. If I zoom in on that pic above, it does look like it got away from you once.

    10. #30
      coolwon is offline Senior Member
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      You could set it up in a floor standing pedestal drill which would make it more manageable and safer.

      Garfield
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    11. #31
      BWG is offline Senior Member
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      I have used the Harbor Freight cutters for several years on plastic. They work great and can be adjusted for precise hole sizes not found in standard cutters. They are more dangerous to use than convential hole saws so be careful.

      Here are a few tips on use and setup. Using the smooth center point in a tight pre-drilled pilot hole gives better results. Measure on card board and set cutters. I ignore the distance settings on the beam.
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    12. #32
      Riftlake is offline Senior Member
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      Yes, I was going to mention better be careful using this cutter. It didn't get away from me drilling with it, most of the scratch marks I made with a razor knife scraping the burrs off. Good idea using the smooth point, the bit wants to grab and drag it quick into the plastic. One other thing, let it come to a stop after drilling through before withdrawing it. It did scrape the edge as I withdrew it, but it was almost stopped, so it didn't hurt anything. Many times with hole saws I'll run in reverse to start a cut and the teeth don't tend to grab and tear that way. In plastic I like to drill a pilot hole first because it's hard to see the center and it helps make a cleaner start.

    13. #33
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    14. #34
      catfish whiskers's Avatar
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      Those hole cutters are dangerous , but some tips to make them safer and get more accurate results.
      Make a wood guide block with a center pilot hole , with the block diam. smaller than the desired hole, and screw it to the barrel , insuring that the screws won’t interfere with the cutting bits. Run the drill motor in reverse , it won’t grab as easily, but will still cut the plastic easily. This helps a lot ,especially when using one of these cutters on the side of a barrel , where the radius high spot of the barrel gets cut first . The thickness of the pilot block will give extra support and help keep the cutter straight , up until the point that the plastic is cut all the way through. This same technique can be used with hole saws or these cutters , when redrilling to make a hole larger .Name:  9FD4319E-6EAE-42BA-A4D6-B3AA97FE89D6.jpg
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    15. #35
      Riftlake is offline Senior Member
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      Haven't had much time to work on the filter, but have made a little progress and need to get some photos. I have a question about the jet pump feeding the jets. Since the pump is set below the jet nozzles it seems like I would need a back flow valve to keep the water in the line from bleeding back to the water level in the filter between cleaning cycles. Has anyone found that to be an issue? The pump is low enough I don't think it would lose prime, but it could get some air in it if it bled back down from the nozzles. Seems like it would only take a couple of seconds for the jets to work when a cycle is triggered as short a pipe run as I will have, but I would like to know before I pipe it, if it's going to be an issue.

    16. #36
      coolwon is offline Senior Member
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      Quote Originally Posted by Riftlake View Post
      Haven't had much time to work on the filter, but have made a little progress and need to get some photos. I have a question about the jet pump feeding the jets. Since the pump is set below the jet nozzles it seems like I would need a back flow valve to keep the water in the line from bleeding back to the water level in the filter between cleaning cycles. Has anyone found that to be an issue? The pump is low enough I don't think it would lose prime, but it could get some air in it if it bled back down from the nozzles. Seems like it would only take a couple of seconds for the jets to work when a cycle is triggered as short a pipe run as I will have, but I would like to know before I pipe it, if it's going to be an issue.
      Are the pumps not self priming?

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    17. #37
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    18. #38
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      Losing prime is not my concern, just air in the line between the pump and the jets.

    19. #39
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      I don't see why it would be a problem. All that going to happen is a short burst of air each time when the pump starts.

    20. #40
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      That water will shoot out of the nozzles before you can blink. I don't see it as a problem either.

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