Homemade clutch for honey extractor

[Bee Draggle]

I have a 9 frame radial extractor from Brushy Mtn… the hand crack model. This year I decided to motorize it. Using a 1735 rpm AC motor, I put a 1.75” diameter pulley on the motor and replaced the hand crank on the extractor with an 8” pulley. This setup slowed down the rpm of the extractor considerably but it was still too fast. After looking at an old Maxant extractor and clutch, I came up with a homemade clutch that seems to work well so far. This clutch can be built for less than $40 with most of the parts coming from ACE Hardware, Lowes, BearingsDirect.com and Acehardwareoutlet.com It’s a simple, slipping, friction clutch whereby the two pulleys rub against each other with a heavy leather washer sandwiched in between them and thus the power is transferred from the motor pulley to the extractor pulley. As you hand tighten or loosen the compression spring on the clutch using the wing nut, the extractor spins faster or slower. (the set screws on the pulleys are not tightened so the pulleys spin freely on the ½” bolt shaft) I"ve posted a link to a few pictures of the clutch.

Parts:

Hex bolt 8” x ½”
½ “ ID Pillow blocks - 2 ea
½” IDThrust bearings – 2 ea
2” OD Pulley – 2 ea
¾” long Compression spring
½” ID Wing nut – 1 ea
½” ID Steel or brass washers – 5 ea
½” ID Heavy duty leather washer (homemade)

ID = Inside diameter OD = Outside diameter

Here is a link to some pictures and a rough schematic of the clutch. (not to scale).

http://s342.photobucket.com/albums/o407/jrmars/Extractor%20Clutch/

[Alex Cantacuzene]

Hi Beedraggle, your clutch set-up looks great. Very neat. A small suggestion is to make sure that the surface of the large bolt/pulley shaft has a smooth surface and that there is a possibility for lubricating the pulleys as they rotate on that shaft. Good luck and let us know how it wil work with the extractor. Take care and have fun.

[magnet-man]

It is a lot like the clutch on the industrial sewing machine motors. Looking at the your design you could easily hook a lever to control the amount of pressure pressing the against the pulleys. That way you can start with a slow speed and speed up. This is how the speed on an industrial sewing machine is controlled.

So how much brain time did this project take?

[Bee Draggle]

Well I got a jump start by looking at the design of the old Maxant clutch which helped a lot. Then it took about two weeks to round up all the parts as few things had to be ordered and shipped. Once I had all the parts, assembly went fairly quick. I was lucky to have an old AC motor laying around that I didn’t have to buy. I like your lever idea as I’ll probably get tired of bending over to tighten and loosen the wing nut when extracting. I’ll also take Alex’s suggestion and keep an oil can close by to lubricate the bolt shaft while the clutch it’s in operation. I got into this project because I didn’t want to spend $430 bucks for a DC motor and controller from Brushy Mtn.

[HAB]

The motor and variable speed clutch off an old exercise tread mill found at a yard sale will work well to accomplish the same thing for $20.00.:lookout:

[magnet-man]

It has been a long time since I saw a working treadmill for $20 at a yard sale or on Craigslist.

[HAB]

It has been a long time since I saw a working treadmill for $20 at a yard sale or on Craigslist.

Around here you would be hard pressed to give one away!:lookout:
Everyone is working so hard to make ends meet a treadmill is what their life feels like.

[berkshire bee]

I posted last fall with pictures about using a treadmill motor on my maxant. The bonus is you just turn the dial to change the speed. Got the treadmill free

[HAB]

I posted last fall with pictures about using a treadmill motor on my maxant. The bonus is you just turn the dial to change the speed. Got the treadmill free

Wow! We must think alike. A twenty saved is a twenty earned.:) I will have to go back and read your post.:)