D.I.Y Electric hose reel conversion for less than £50

[Guest]

Woohoo! Took so long I was sure you weren't going to get them.

I've worked out all the details where and how I'm going to mount them (got bearings too!) and going to get it all set up tomorrow afternoon hopefully.

My sprocket from China arrived quickly so I’ve got all the parts, will fit tomorrow if I have time and it’s not raining 

 

[Skxawng]

Converted my hose reels and fitted into the van. Got some good ideas about a mechanism to wind the hose on evenly. Will take a picture when I'm finished.

I noticed while taking apart my reel, if anyone wants to fit bearings to their petal type hose reel it's actually pretty easy. The manifold / spindle is 27mm in diameter so a 60/28 bearing fits well. £3.50 on eBay. 

The bearing will fit inside the clamp assembly but the lip has to be chopped or ground off (see pics)

The spacer will need to be shortened also. It makes a big difference in how easy it is to pull out. Also there will be virtually no wear and tear.





I haven't actually done it with mine as I've mounted my bearings in a wooden frame. (See pic below)



Edit: Thought I'd just mention (brag really ? ) that the total cost for converting the two hosereels to wireless electric was under £40. That's for motors, chains, sprockets, bearings, wood, bolts, wireless transmitters and receiver.

I did get some pretty good deals though! 

 

[spruce]

Converted my hose reels and fitted into the van. Got some good ideas about a mechanism to wind the hose on evenly. Will take a picture when I'm finished.

I noticed while taking apart my reel, if anyone wants to fit bearings to their petal type hose reel it's actually pretty easy. The manifold / spindle is 27mm in diameter so a 60/28 bearing fits well. £3.50 on eBay. 

The bearing will fit inside the clamp assembly but the lip has to be chopped or ground off (see pics)

The spacer will need to be shortened also. It makes a big difference in how easy it is to pull out. Also there will be virtually no wear and tear.

View attachment 15762

View attachment 15763

I haven't actually done it with mine as I've mounted my bearings in a wooden frame. (See pic below)

View attachment 15764

Have you got an ebay link please. I can't find a 60/28 sealed bearing for £3.50. Thanks

 

[Skxawng]

Have you got an ebay link please. I can't find a 60/28 sealed bearing for £3.50. Thanks

Just looked at the ones I bought and they're sold out unfortunately.

The next cheapest UK based bearings are £4.38.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/60-28-2rs-28x52x12w-SEALED-HIGH-PERFORMANCE-CARTRIDGE-BEARING/370780696836?epid=1461432221&hash=item5654407104:g:xgQAAMXQS6pRvWaG

 

[Cleanteam South west]

Did mine today, will pop some pics on tomorrow 

 

[Skxawng]

Does anyone know how to remove the sprocket from the motor?

Been trying for the past hour.

The nut on top doesn't unscrew, it just turns around. Tried a 3 legged puller and couldn't get that to do it. Any ideas?

Thanks, Laurie

 

[Cleanteam South west]

looks like it should just unscrew, maybe try some heat 

 

[Skxawng]

Weird, it looks like a screw thread (left handed) but when I turn it it doesn't come off. The bolt is definitely staying still while the nut turns so can't figure it out!

Edit: strangely, I've tried the other motor and it came straight off. Definitely a screw thread. Oh well. The thread must have gone on the other. Maybe someone has tried turning it anticlockwise to remove it at some point.

 

[Cleanteam South west]

Heres my effort, it works like a dream. I have only done the bottom hose reel on my stacked hose reels, to see how it came out. But after doing it im getting the parts to do the top one.

 

[Guest]

Getting there, I have the old pure freedom reel so trying to figure out how I’m going to reassemble has been a headache. 

Didnt think I’d need the grinder!

 

[Cleanteam South west]

The same reel as mine, all i did was use spacers on the inside of the cog then drill through entire hose reel and put the bolts on the inside if that makes sense. oh and yes i used my dremal to cut down the red thing that holds the spindle in place.

 

[Guest]

The same reel as mine, all i did was use spacers on the inside of the cog then drill through entire hose reel and put the bolts on the inside if that makes sense. oh and yes i used my dremal to cut down the red thing that holds the spindle in place.

As you can see mine is the older version where the red bearing housing is welded on! 

Nightmare but done. 

Will fit motor, chain and push button tomorrow!

 

[Cleanteam South west]

yeah see what you mean, that would have been a pain mate.

 

[Guest]

Anyone have any success opening up the motor to disengage one way of its rotation to assist with an easy pull out? 

So the motor spins freely when the hose is being pulled out

 

[Skxawng]

Anyone have any success opening up the motor to disengage one way of its rotation to assist with an easy pull out? 

So the motor spins freely when the hose is being pulled out

I don't think that's possible.. correct me if I'm wrong someone, but I think the resistance is the permanent magnets acting on the coil and I don't think there's anything that can be done about it. You could use something like a one way sprocket from a bicycle in place of the large sprocket but the problem is that it would need to rotate freely to wind out in the same direction as the motor will pull it. In other words, the motor can only turn it in the same direction as it turns when unwinding. It would just spin around trying to wind it back in. I don't think there's a way around that without some complicated mechanism, or a solenoid to only engage the motor while switched on like a starter motor.

I don't think the resistance on the motor is high enough to be worth messing with though personally.

 

[Nudel]

Anyone have any success opening up the motor to disengage one way of its rotation to assist with an easy pull out? 

So the motor spins freely when the hose is being pulled out

No experience personally, but maybe you could fit a one way bearing?

 

[Guest]

No experience personally, but maybe you could fit a one way bearing?

A one way bearing sounds interesting

 

[Skxawng]

First attempt at a mechanism to wind on the hose evenly. Wired up with the relays on the wireless receiver so it comes on when one of the hose reels is wound in.

The problem is I've discovered, is that it needs to move left and right very slowly to wind on evenly and I can't get it to go slow enough without stopping and starting. I'm thinking of trying to gear it down with a sprocket and chain. 

But does anyone know if a stepper motor would work better? Or is there a simpler way of doing this?

 

[Nudel]

Nice solution @Skxawng, I really like the approach.

I have experience with stepper motors from 3D printers and you can have them go however slow you want. If you do 256 microstepping one full rotation of the shaft is over 50k steps. White smaller nema17 might work well, l think you'd be better off with a beefy nema23 for durability. You also need a dedicated stepper motor driver, which does complicate things a bit.

I don't know the torque you need for your contraption, but gearing might be needed for stepper motors also and the you could just as well gear down the DC motor you have already.

 

[Skxawng]

Nice solution @Skxawng, I really like the approach.

I have experience with stepper motors from 3D printers and you can have them go however slow you want. If you do 256 microstepping one full rotation of the shaft is over 50k steps. White smaller nema17 might work well, l think you'd be better off with a beefy nema23 for durability. You also need a dedicated stepper motor driver, which does complicate things a bit.

I don't know the torque you need for your contraption, but gearing might be needed for stepper motors also and the you could just as well gear down the DC motor you have already.

Thanks, I've had a look at the nema23 stepper motors on eBay and they are reasonably priced enough. I know next to nothing about how to use them though so I'll have to look into it.

It doesn't take much torque at all to move it but my standard motor has virtually 0 torque at the speeds I'm trying to get it to run at.

Thanks for the input!

 

[Guest]

I wonder what motors GrippaTank are using, there motors run at only 3-4 amps!!!