Progress on the truck rack, motorized fold-over antenna mount
I have been really busy with the rack for my truck. The past 2-3 weeks I have been working on the mechanism that moves the antenna. Before that I was working on cutting the rack pieces out. The tubing is galvanized so all the points that were to be welded needed to be cleaned down to the bare metal. It has been a real challenge - and very time consuming.
Here is a picture I took about a month ago of some parts I was working on:
I don't have any pictures of the tubing in the cutting process, but here is one of all the tubes and parts laid out to give you an idea of what the rack will look like:
One of the big problems I have been constantly running in to is equipment and tool related. Either we don't have the right tool or machine, or something breaks and I am delayed trying to fix something. For example - I have broken two 8-32 taps while working on my parts. That really is a pain in the butt because the tap has to be extracted somehow from the part. The first one my instructor got out and the second one is, well.. still in the part. If I can't get it out Monday then it is time to make a new part - thats another day down the tube.
Aside from the problems, I finally got the assembly to do something when I run the motor. I was hard at work Thursday and Friday making the lever arms and machining the parts that attach them. My goal was to get the lever arms attached and moving when the motor ran before I left from school Friday - and I did!
Here is what the motor mechanism looks like right now:
This sequence shows how the lever arms and the screw/nut move together:
There is a monthly gathering at Universal Radio for a QRP club here in Ohio on the first Saturday of the month (today). Lots of people from the 146.760 repeater around central Ohio gather there, so it is a great place to get together with people I talk to all the time. I wanted to have my lever arms moving for the get-together this morning so I could demonstrate its function. Lots of people were impressed with the mechanism. I have been saying that if I hang my truck from it I could spin the truck around HI. The assembly is mostly 1/4" steel and has a 1"x8 pitch lead screw rotating at 88rpm from a 12v gear motor. I had people press down on the lever arms real hard and turned the motor on to demonstrate its power. It slows down with a lot of pressure, but you sure can't stop it! (and that is with a non-greased lead screw) I think it has enough power to lift my dual band antenna - a Diamond SG-7900A. Heck, I could probably put my full-size screwdriver antenna on it and lift that one just as well.
Here is a picture I took about a month ago of some parts I was working on:
I don't have any pictures of the tubing in the cutting process, but here is one of all the tubes and parts laid out to give you an idea of what the rack will look like:
One of the big problems I have been constantly running in to is equipment and tool related. Either we don't have the right tool or machine, or something breaks and I am delayed trying to fix something. For example - I have broken two 8-32 taps while working on my parts. That really is a pain in the butt because the tap has to be extracted somehow from the part. The first one my instructor got out and the second one is, well.. still in the part. If I can't get it out Monday then it is time to make a new part - thats another day down the tube.
Aside from the problems, I finally got the assembly to do something when I run the motor. I was hard at work Thursday and Friday making the lever arms and machining the parts that attach them. My goal was to get the lever arms attached and moving when the motor ran before I left from school Friday - and I did!
Here is what the motor mechanism looks like right now:
This sequence shows how the lever arms and the screw/nut move together:
There is a monthly gathering at Universal Radio for a QRP club here in Ohio on the first Saturday of the month (today). Lots of people from the 146.760 repeater around central Ohio gather there, so it is a great place to get together with people I talk to all the time. I wanted to have my lever arms moving for the get-together this morning so I could demonstrate its function. Lots of people were impressed with the mechanism. I have been saying that if I hang my truck from it I could spin the truck around HI. The assembly is mostly 1/4" steel and has a 1"x8 pitch lead screw rotating at 88rpm from a 12v gear motor. I had people press down on the lever arms real hard and turned the motor on to demonstrate its power. It slows down with a lot of pressure, but you sure can't stop it! (and that is with a non-greased lead screw) I think it has enough power to lift my dual band antenna - a Diamond SG-7900A. Heck, I could probably put my full-size screwdriver antenna on it and lift that one just as well.
posted by Steve at
5:59 PM
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