DIY Honey extractor

[Drew GSiH]

Hi everyone, I am in the process of making a new 18 frame radial honey extractor. My abilities stop when it comes to electrics.
This is what I would like to do if anyone can help me with a setup that would be awesome.
I need a motor that can gradually spin, slow to start then speed up as the load starts to lighten. Max weight would be approx 50kg at the start and max rpm would be about 180 to 200 at the end.
it would be awesome if it could be programmed to work through say a 5 min cycle. alternatively a dial that I can adjust over the 5 mins would work to.
thanks heaps Drew

 

[alec_t]

Welcome to ETO!
I'd be looking for a brushed DC motor with suitable reduction gearing and a PWM speed controller. 12V or 24V motors with enough grunt should be readily obtainable and speed controllers-a-plenty are to be found in model shops or online retailers. Controllers with a PWM-derived control voltage input can be driven from MCUs such as the ubiquitous Arduino. The Arduino community is huge and could provide help with programming. Alternatively, controllers with a potentiometer to control speed are also common, if you're happy with setting speed manually.

 

[dr pepper]

On a budget you might be able to use a car wiper motor, they have a built in gearbox, in high speed they are about that kind of speed, you might not be able to put a 50kg drum direct on the motor but there ought to be enough grunt to rotate that weight via a belt or chain.
You can get Pwm controllers on ebay that would regulate its speed via a knob, connecting up is as simple as a battery/switch/bulb circuit.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

On a budget you might be able to use a car wiper motor, they have a built in gearbox, in high speed they are about that kind of speed, you might not be able to put a 50kg drum direct on the motor but there ought to be enough grunt to rotate that weight via a belt or chain.

You can easily run windscreen wiper motors off 24V, and they happily survive long term abuse of that kind. They were commonly used on smaller Robot Wars type robots, and for many other purposes. Obviously running at 24V makes it a lot faster, and a lot more powerful.

Rex Garrod, one of the early Robot Wars contestents (and the first to use a flipper) used to use them for all sorts of special effects for films etc. and claimed to never seen one fail.

 

[Drew GSiH]

Hi all thanks for the welcome and I will investigate the wiper motor.

 

[gophert]

I think our members are confused and have some assumption that you need to compress or squeeze the frames to extract the honey. A radial extractor simply allows space for 9 or 18 frames to be locked into a vertical axle in a something that looks like a garbage can. One long edge of each of the 19 rectangle honey frames attaches to the axle. A direct-drive motor or gear motor is attached to the drumhead to spin the axle.
He whole thing is generally well balanced and doesn't require much torque but controlling speed is important to account for unbalance a honey flies off the frame at slightly different times. As the bulk of the honey exits, speeds can be increased.

an accelerometer or other vibration detector should be used to control speed (along with a microcontroller).

 

[Pommie]

Where are you based?

Mike.

 

[shortbus=]

On a budget you might be able to use a car wiper motor, they have a built in gearbox, in high speed they are about that kind of speed,

They must use different motors for wiper where you live. The speed is ~60RPM on high and ~45RPM on low speed here in the States.

 

[shortbus=]

How to Build a Homemade Honey Extractor – Mother Earth News

You can make an inexpensive homemade honey extractor from simple materials available in your local hardware store. Originally published as "How to Build a Honey Extractor" May/June 1975 MOTHER EARTH NEWS.

www.motherearthnews.com

And here is a good link about the speed needed - https://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?313880-RPM-Requirements-for-a-Honey-Extractor

 

[dimtsam]

Hello everyone
I just found this post which I m interested too. I builted my motor controller for my honey extractor which I found here: https://create.arduino.cc/projecthu...niversal-ac-motor-speed-controller-a4ceaf?f=1.
It works just fine and I m very pleased. The next step I am looking for is to make this controller programmable, just like Drew GSiH mention at the start of the post. Although the controller works fine, I cant modificate the Arduino code so the motor run in program with variables be the RPM and time. Is anyone interested to have some look?
Thanks a lot

 

[gophert]

Is anyone interested to have some look?
Thanks a lot

Yes, I love honey.

 

[Pommie]

Can you explain a little more what you want it to do? I.E. start at 20rpm, increase over 1 minute to 60rpm etc.

Mike.

 

[dimtsam]

Exactly.may be a pause between.