My diy ghetto Sea Sweeps..

[radobahn]

I've had some interest via PM.. so here's a few pics for anyone else wondering about the parts I used. I tried to keep it very simple and this was my first attempt at this. I've seen what some of you are capable of and know many of you could do better, so if anyone decides to make one please share how it goes. I might just borrow some of your ideas and upgrade mine

Smoothed out the inside of a 1/2" coupler..

Glue that coupler inside the project box, and after it dried I used a dremel to poke thru and smooth the edges

Screw on a slip to thread fitting on the 1/2" PVC nipple

Sand down and smooth the raised lettering on the ends and then see how it all fits. If it spins freely then add your motor, linkage, and make a mount for your powerhead..

I had some leftover nylon rods, nuts, and washers from a Marco rocks order. This is what holds the acrylic mount to the pipe..

Hope this helps.. I know some of you will be making your own soon and I'm looking forward to seeing them :thumbsup:

 

[jonnyu]

Thank you very much for the pics. That's some great help. I'm going to start building mine soon.

 

[TimmyD16]

There are plenty of low RPM DC motors online to choose from, any particular reason you went with the disco ball ones? other than maybe you had them around...?

 

[radobahn]

There are plenty of low RPM DC motors online to choose from, any particular reason you went with the disco ball ones? other than maybe you had them around...?

I honestly wasn't sure what I was going to use.
All I knew was that it had to be a certain size, low rpm, wanted a vertical shaft so I wouldn't have to add gears/pinions or build a gearbox, and preferably something that was plug-n-play.
There were a few out there that would have worked great, but most were also 'just a motor' which meant I'd have to build some sort of frame and add wiring.

So after looking for awhile they just seemed like the easiest (for me) to work with at the time. I'm pretty sure someone will find a motor that'll have me scratching my head asking myself "why didn't I think of that?"

 

[Steveb]

How did you go about attaching the motor to the shaft that rotates the power head?

 

[radobahn]

How did you go about attaching the motor to the shaft that rotates the power head?

-1/4" thick acrylic or plexiglass from Lowes
-Ball linkage used on RC planes/heli's
-Carbon fiber rod

The top of the shaft/PVC was trimmed so that the acrylic arm is countersunk, locked in, and sits flush.. Loctite Gel superglue holds them together.
Then another small piece of acrylic was cut/drilled to fit the motor shaft.

Linkage balls were screwed into the end of each acrylic arm, and then the carbon fiber rod was measured and cut to connect the arms. Superglue was also used to attach the linkage ends to the carbon rod

If you want to use the same parts you could probably swing by your local hobby shop and find them.
Look for something similar to this.. http://www.heliproz.com/HN7121-700-Newly-Rotor-Head-Linkage-Assembly/productinfo/HN7121/

Hope this helps..

 

[PokyReef]

This is sweet!!