Three types of conveyor ends have been used successfully:
- Motor end in ¾” MDF
- Pulley end in ¾ MDF
- Pulley end in ¼ MDF
These conveyors built from ¾” frames have turned out way better than I thought they would. I first used 1mm thick belting at 100RPM and this was a bit under-powered. All the power is used to move the thicker belt under tension. It would move a full gallon of milk(3+ kilos) with no issues.
With the 0.15mm thick belting that is currently be used the motors can be smaller, especially if you put in ball bearings.
Motor end in ¾” MDF Parts:
- 25MM Gear motor, 4mm shaft 100-1000RPM
- 2 motor mount screws: M3-0.5 6 mm screws
- 3D printed gearbox bracket
- 3D printed D-coupling to take motor 4mm ID “D” to ¼” OD
- Coupling: Polyurethane Tubing, ½” OD, ¼” ID.
- Coupling: Zip/cable Ties: 4”
- 75mm long ¼” steel shaft
- 35 mm long 3D printed pulley. 22mm diameter.
- Drilled with “D”0.246” drill to press fit on ¼” shaft
- 2 3D printed Pulley Holders.
- 2 Bushings: stock nylon shoulder spacers ½” Long, ¼” ID, 5/16” ID, ½” ID Flange
- 3 8” zip/cable ties hold on the gearbox bracket & pulley holders
Pulley end in ¾ MDF
- Same as motor side, except 60mm long shaft.
Pulley end in ¼” MDF:
- Pulley end ¼” is 60mm wide
- 1/8” steel shaft, 60mm long
- 4 ¼” diameter nylon spacers, 1/8” hole, ½” long, Center spacer has tape to make it crown.
- Wood is cutout for the pulleys
- Remaining wood is drilled 1/8”
- It’s pretty crude and fragile, but once it starts working I have yet to see fail.
- It’s easy to drill so the shaft is not straight. Then the belt walks to one side.
- In the pictures below the belt walked to one side anyway. It just did not matter.
Conveyor Belt:
- 30mm wide, 0.15mm thick Polyurethane
- Normally used for sealing fabric together, under garment strapping, etc.
- Sold as “TPU Tape” on Aliexpress.com
- Length wise sized 5% under
- Bonded together with a standard impulse heat sealer used for sealing poly plastic bags.
Speed Controllers:
- The first proof of concept had 24V power stepped down to 5 to 18 volts for the 12V motors with DC-DC LM2596 modules. This are really common, $1-2 on eBay, Amazon, etc. The system moving coins with motors running at 5-7 volts is surprisingly quiet with the coin hopper turned off.
