My 7″ grinder, that I bought so long ago I can’t remember when, had the trigger switch fail on it yesterday. What I learned is, that the design of the trigger switch has changed, and no matter where I go on the internet, the switch I need no longer exists.
So now I have to buy a new *!#$%&@# grinder.
Not that anyone is probably over concerned what I need a grinder for, but I’m attempting to build a winch to haul my shell sacks off the bottom of the river, up into the boat. The design is based on the capstan I used many years ago as a deckhand on a towboat. I picked up a cheapie 3hp engine, bought a capstan drum off of EBay, and also got a shaft adapter made, to make a 5/8″ shaft on the engine accomodate a 1″ bore on the capstan drum.
I’ve already custom built the base, to bolt on to the front deck of my boat. The boom arm is almost done, I still have to mount a pulley I made from a hand truck wheel rim, to the outer end of the boom, and install the motor, with its new capstan drum, at the boom riser.
For anyone wondering, what the bejeezus is a capstan? A capstan is made with a cylindrical drum, tapered at both ends. This taper allows a rope to feed onto the capstan without fouling. With the drum powered by a motor, you wind a rope around the drum which will generate a pulling force. The relationship between the capstan and the rope is interesting. The more winds of rope you wrap around the drum, the harder it pulls, but how hard it pulls also relies on the person manning the capstan, you have to supply some pull yourself to make the rope cinch up on the capstan, for the rope to gain enough traction to pull.
In a sense it’s a clutched rope pulling device, that uses the pressure of the operator to act as the clutch. With some winds on the capstan, but no pull from the operator, the capstan will turn, but not effectively engage in its work. The number of winds around the capstan will dictate how hard it pulls, when the operator engages a pulling force on their end.
I still do not know if this will work. I will know when it’s time to test it, and prove, or disprove, the concept. I tried this once already, but I went with 12V DC instead of an IC engine. My first attempt to lift my weight belt harness of 45 lb went like this. The rope pulled tight, started to lift, and promptly blew an 80 amp fuse. Thus ending the experiment and demanding another attack angle.
I’m hard headed enough to make it work, one way or another.
Success is often measured in your failures. Which makes me a pretty successful guy 😉
P.S. I’m fairly sure the reason the fuse popped is, I did not have a strong enough electric motor. After researching electric motors, price/weight (last thing you want in a boat is dead weight,) I found that the IC engine weighs about the same as a powerful electric motor, and it actually costs less. So, here we go.
I’m bound to learn something else before this is done…
Evidence Based Reality 
I think this all went over my head. But if I learnt something, it is I know little about engines, boats and capstans
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The only reason I know anything about a capstan is from my time as a deckhand on a towboat. You learn a few things about ropes and capstans on the job.
The capstan on a towboat can have a drum over 2.5 feet high and big enough around I doubt you can hug it and touch your fingers. The only time we needed to use it was when we were “facing up” to a new tow. Laymans terms, a tow is a group of barges lashed together with wire rope, and “facing up” is situating, and attaching, the towboat to the new tow. As there are currents, wind, working against you, the guy operating the capstan pulls the towboat in, slow and easy, using a 2″ rope, up to the new tow. Once snugged up with the capstan, you then use “wires” (wire rope) to finish the job proper.
You going to have to study up to be my deckhand 😉
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Ooo, do I get extra points for knowing what a capstan is? (grin)
I share your irritation with the switch situation. Similar things have happened to me. I have a really nice automatic bread maker. Thing is amazing. Turns out a full size, standard shape loaf of bread in about 3 hours. Worked beautifully for about 3 years. Then the shafts going through the pan wore out so the mixing paddles won’t attach properly. The shafts are set in sealed bearings that are press-fitted into the bottom of the pan for a liquid proof seal and can’t really be replaced, so I need to replace the whole pan.
Only they don’t make it any more. The machine is now “obsolete”. There is a virtually identical model that works exactly the same, operates exactly the same, but pans are not interchangeable. So I have a $300 bread machine sitting in the closet because they obsoleted it and changed the size of the connectors on the new one by about 1/32 of an inch on the new one.
Sigh…
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100 extra points for Grouchy! (they’re free anyway, helll let’s make it 1000! lol)
Oddly enough my bread maker has given me fits the last few times I’ve used it. Loaves are coming out about half to two thirds normal size. Tried new flour/yeast, same damn issue. I fear the machine has failed in some way.
…but yeah, that grinder, I bought it at least 30 years ago. I’ve been through a couple sets of brushes, I’ve rewired the wires in the handle a couple of times (wire breaks at the cord input) I’ve managed to keep it going, but the ding dang switch is obsolete! I could hack it for an on/off switch, but a 7″ grinder can be a handful at speed, so how do you turn it off? I guess wear a helmet, thick leather gloves, and leather armor and hope for the best…?
Or:
I bought another grinder today. This one a 4.5″ incher with a side handle. 8 amps. This one is able to switch between grinder wheels and cut off wheels. An option I didn’t have before. I have an air powered cutoff wheel, but it doesn’t have the grunt for heavier stuff. I hope the 8 amp model has adequate power.
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Hi Shell Digger. Wow, thanks for the lesson in home mechanics, being a do it yourself person, and making due with what you have. My adoptive father made himself in to a large muscled bruiser being a dock hand as a teenager on the St Laurence river pulling the cargo ships up to the docks by hand. Even when in middle age he could still take two full sized chimney blocks on one arm and go up a ladder to install them. Quite frankly, I am glad mankind started to use their mental muscles more than their body muscles. I hope you get the rig working … but I wonder if the project is more fun for you than the end result? Best wishes. Hugs. Scottie
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Ha! Yes I’m a hopeless tinkerer. I’m busted!
But it does have a purpose. I need that thing to work. Pulling up 60-100 lb sacks from 20-50 feet ain’t as easy as it use to be. I can still do it, but shit! Why? If I can make the job easier?
Just because I “can” do something, is no reason to do so. My back teaches me that on a daily basis. I can work like that for maybe a day, then I’m down for three…
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