Tip for home made burnisher motors

[bikermutt07]

Well, I have found what may be the perfect home made burnisher motor.

I found a 3300 rpm water pump for a whirlpool tub (I work for a company that does demo on these all the time).

It's a 1/2" shaft 1 horsepower motor and it has three mounting feet on it.. Isn't that awesome?

I didn't pay much attention to the switch during the demo and threw away the air switch button and hose. That wasn't much of a hurdle though. 5 bucks at the hardware store on a toggle switch had me up and running in no time.

Now I just have to save up and get a pro edge burnisher to bolt on it and away we go.

Edited July 16, 2016 by bikermutt07

[torker32]

On 7/16/2016 at 0:07 PM, bikermutt07 said:

Well, I have found what may be the perfect home made burnisher motor.

I found a 3300 rpm water pump for a whirlpool tub (I work for a company that does demo on these all the time).

It's a 1/2" shaft 1 horsepower motor and it has three mounting feet on it.. Isn't that awesome?

I didn't pay much attention to the switch during the demo and threw away the air switch button and hose. That wasn't much of a hurdle though. 5 bucks at the hardware store on a toggle switch had me up and running in no time.

Now I just have to save up and get a pro edge burnisher to bolt on it and away we go.

Good find on the motor, I think the RPM is kinda high for what your intending to use it for. ( Mech. burnisher). The risk of over burnish ( Rough edge, burnt leather) is going to be a little tricky unless, The RPM should be between 1250-1500 according to the more experienced leatherman. Do you plan on running the motor at full tilt?

Possibly if you were to use a Pulse width Modulator with an infinite adjustment, This would allow you to use your motor without overheating the unit. The usage of a hardware store bought rheostat switch placed in line wont work for long. This only reduces wattage which the motor needs to run, it strains the coils.

$13.00 PWM switch off amazon would ensure your motor lasts for years. It wires in-line just like any other switch. Hope this helps some. 

 

[bikermutt07]

According to the posts I've been reading here, 3000 is about right.

I have been waiting on funds to purchase my burnisher.

Just ordered it a few days ago. I'll post some feed back after giving it a "whirl".

On another not I have acquired a second larger motor. But I haven't bothered checking the specs on it yet. It may become a sanding or buffing station.

[TinkerTailor]

It is not the rpm that matters, it is the relationship between the diameter of the circle and the speed. A larger diameter burnisher will travel a further distance per revolution, meaning it will have a higher surface speed at a given rpm. This means you have to turn a bigger one slower and a smaller one faster to get the same surface speed. There is no magic rpm, however there may be an optimum surface speed for a given burnisher material and a given piece of leather. From this, and the diameter of the burnisher, you can find the optimum rpm.

This is standard math for metal machinists, balancing material removal with surface finish and cutter life. They have big tables of the numbers in big books to reference. To my knowledge, no one has done detailed experiments on the optimum surface feet per minute for leather burnishing yet.

In other words, turn it up till it burns, and back it off a notch........

[Wedgetail]

I have a pro edge burnisher, they are great!

Just used a $30 bench mounted grinder, swapped the grinding wheel for a drill chuck with a matching thread diameter, and inserted the burnisher. After a few adjustments to get it spinning perfectly level, it is working perfectly!

As far as speed goes, yeah it's probably a little fast for my liking, and I can't change to other settings.... but I get around that with faster passes, and more of them. 

Also, what is too fast for one piece of leather is just about right for the next, even when cut from the same area of the same hide!

Just treat every piece as it comes. Start easy, and you won't damage it.

Good thinking on the motor though!

[bikermutt07]

I ordered the pro edge motor burnisher.

All I know for sure is my appendages will feel a lot better.

Hand burnishing is one of the things I like least in this hobby.

[OLDNSLOW]

They say that if there are no photos it never happened, must have poof er uh proof of the work for others to see.

just sayun

[TonyRV2]

13 hours ago, torker32 said:

Good find on the motor, I think the RPM is kinda high for what your intending to use it for. ( Mech. burnisher). The risk of over burnish ( Rough edge, burnt leather) is going to be a little tricky unless, The RPM should be between 1250-1500 according to the more experienced leatherman. Do you plan on running the motor at full tilt?

Possibly if you were to use a Pulse width Modulator with an infinite adjustment, This would allow you to use your motor without overheating the unit. The usage of a hardware store bought rheostat switch placed in line wont work for long. This only reduces wattage which the motor needs to run, it strains the coils.

$13.00 PWM switch off amazon would ensure your motor lasts for years. It wires in-line just like any other switch. Hope this helps some. 

 

Pulse width modulation only works with D.C. motors, so this is not going to be a solution.  To control the rpm of an A.C. motor the simplest means would be to use a 3 phase motor and a variable frequency drive (vfd).  That said, if I were setting up a single phase motor and wanted variable speed the simplest recourse would be to use a step pulley.  These are widely available for the 1/2" shaft that the op is working width.  A single pulley would even do the job if there is just the one rpm that you need to run at.  I'm not sure about this particular motor since no data was given on it, but its surely either 3600rpm or 1800 rpm right our of the gate.  Once thats known, a pair of pulleys can be chosen to get any rpm that you'd want.

[bikermutt07]

I'm gonna test it on scrap first. Then we'll see where to go from there.

I'm just tired of my shoulder, elbow, wrists, palms, and fingers wearing out for an, at best, mediocre finish.

If I can gain a better than mediocre finish with this rig I'll be overjoyed as a hobbyist.

Especially if it takes 2 minutes instead of 20.

Edited September 9, 2016 by bikermutt07

[cradom]

You can get a variable speed controller (AC or DC) fairly cheap. Pay attention to the amps.

http://www.harborfreight.com/router-speed-control-43060.html