Spinning frags. Yes it can be done!

[Jay Z]

First off. Huge shout out to @burnetb1 this would not have been possible with out his expert skills in part design and manufacturing.

This just randomly hit me while I was building my towers for my new 40 sps tanks. Figured we waste half our rock work because we can’t see the other side and depend on pumps for random flow which we struggle to equalize throughout the tank. This fit the bill to fix all those issue.

Burnetb1 and myself present to you the amazing all plastic (except 8 titanium ball bearings).........

Frag Go Round!

Actually it doesn't have a name.

Clamp was used because I didn't feel like finding screws for it tonight.

 

[Adamc13o3]

This is really cool! Not sure if it will work out but the concept is definitely original!

 

[Skynyrd Fish]

I want to see that fully gown in with sps.

 

[Jay Z]

This is really cool! Not sure if it will work out but the concept is definitely original!

Designed it with longevity in mind and ease of disassembly. Will allow the whole tower to be lifted out of the tank to service. Not sure how long that will take until things start wearing out.

I want to see that fully gown in with sps.

Me too. Unfortunately its going to be 4-6 weeks until I'm ready to start the tanks up. Now I do have some motivation to get a move on.

I really interested to see the effect of the centrifugal action and water movement.

Burnebt1 is working on a different stand alone version. This one was a larger version designed for my tanks. Towers are a little over 20lbs each, makes no noise, hard to stop by hand.

 

[nkyreef]

I really like the engineering behind this! I can hear O Christmas Tree playing in my head!

 

[mr9iron]

This is a genius idea. I’m interested in seeing how this works out in the long run.

 

[AiKkz]

Looks awesome!! great idea!

 

[jguerin88]

This is amazing

 

[Hitman]

Awesome idea!

 

[TheHarold]

Nice! Very similar concept to what I have been making and posting about for a few months- stepper motors with a belt to drive a platform for frags .

Or my standalone version that just went up. though no shaft on this one @Jay Z ! MAG DRIVEEEEE

 

[Jay Z]

And of course with this being r2r, when complete all info and 3D parts will be posted for everyone to use.

 

[ncfishguy]

I want one

 

[burnetb1]

I'm glad it working so well! I'm more than happy to help out the community. I feel like 3D printing and reefing go together very well.
I like @TheHarold's design a lot. I have a couple different concepts for the spinning frag rack. I was thinking of having a direct drive version using plastic drive shafts, but this tends make it taller and I would like to keep the base under the spinning rack as slim as possible. I dont know if 3D printer style timing belts will hold up in saltwater, and afraid that it would be bad for the reef anyway. Im thinking simple gears to transmit power from the motor over to the spinning rack. I can go two different ways and make it concealed or make the gears super oversize and give it a steampunk feel.
That mag drive one is of course awesome lol. Does it still work well when there is significant weight on the rack? It looks like it works awesome for frags but I feel it might struggle in @jayz's setup due to the pile 'o rocks.

 

[TheHarold]

I'm glad it working so well! I'm more than happy to help out the community. I feel like 3D printing and reefing go together very well.
I like @TheHarold's design a lot. I have a couple different concepts for the spinning frag rack. I was thinking of having a direct drive version using plastic drive shafts, but this tends make it taller and I would like to keep the base under the spinning rack as slim as possible. I dont know if 3D printer style timing belts will hold up in saltwater, and afraid that it would be bad for the reef anyway. Im thinking simple gears to transmit power from the motor over to the spinning rack. I can go two different ways and make it concealed or make the gears super oversize and give it a steampunk feel.
That mag drive one is of course awesome lol. Does it still work well when there is significant weight on the rack? It looks like it works awesome for frags but I feel it might struggle in @jayz's setup due to the pile 'o rocks.

It works with quite a bit of weight on the rack- I’ve tested it with 15 lbs. It has a very nice bearing designed for that sort of vertical loading. And I designed it in a way that more magnets can be attached, if additional power is required.

Both my smaller units and large one have the stepper motor current calibrated so that it skips if the unit is jammed, causing no damage at all.

I have two control designs; one simply using a potentiometer, and the other using the apex 0-10v output. The apex 0-10v output gets stepped down and fed to an arduino. it then gets converted to two ranges; 0-2.5v being the speed range in one direction, and 2.5-5v being the speed range in the other. This way I can wirelessly program both simple rotation OR oscillating patterns

I do have many of the small units going out for testing- Richard Ross is getting one at MACNA this weekend .

As soon as I get my custom PCBs in, you will see a LOT more about the smaller units. Righty now I am hand soldering, which is a huge pain. Drivers will also be nicer in the next round of units- silent TMC drivers instead of using generic A4988s. I chose to use an actual arduino because the USB port; easy for me to email people customized or upgraded programs

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

If all goes well, by the end of this year I have a custom tank I will be building, for my soft corals, Carnation Coral. And I to have a device that rotates totally different system to rotate and I will post when it's built. Nice job everyone. I did design a different one called Coral carousel, there's a thread on it here Reef2Reef. It turns using a motor from a domestic refrigerator ice maker

CORAL CAROUSEL first here REEF2REEF

Should I do a build on this Corals spinning

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Danduhman113]

Can't wait to see the finished product!