first TIG project(Honey extractor)

[apache708]

Ok since Broccoli posted some first TIG pics I decided to take some pictures of my honey extractor project. I'm not pleased with everything and know I could do a better job next time but it works so far. I meant to take pictures as I went along but never did. This is the first welding project I've done with my HTP invertig201.

[apache708]

more pics of project

[new_welder]

Looks good. How does it work?

304 stainless! That must have cost a few bucks.

[Clay Walters]

I wish I could do that!

Very nice,

Clay

[Broccoli1]

Looks good to me

[vicegrip]

if that's you're fist tig gig , then your just too picky

[apache708]

Basically its a simple centrifuge. You cut the tops off of the honey comb thats still on its frame and you place the frames into the "basket" radially kinda like spokes of a wheel. Then the whole cage assembly gets spun and the spinning pulls the honey out of the cells. Its definately been a learning experience. Its not finished yet(beginning to think nothing ever is), still need to figure out what kind of electric motor setup I'm going to use on it. As a temporary fix I will be using a 3/8" drill to spin it this weekend. Maybe I will take some pics while we are extracting, maybe even a small video clip. As far as the welding, I took a TIG class at the local tech school but basically just ran beads for 6 weeks. This helped out alot I'm sure but its still different than putting something together. Also in class we never did anything except mild steel and the extractor was all stainless. The stainless was another learning experience. This was my first project to actually put something together with TIG.

[repairman]

Great welds and good engineering, but if you want to eat the honey without chromium carbide, I recommend you mirror the interior.

[Thomas Harris]

Originally Posted by repairman

Great welds and good engineering, but if you want to eat the honey without chromium carbide, I recommend you mirror the interior.

He's just got to clean it a little more there when done. Weld sugar. Honey sugar. What's the dif? It's not pharmaceutical.

[BWS29128]

What did you use to bend the rings of your basket? I thought all your welds looked great.

[Pangea]

Back off of that peddle a little bit next time. Looks ok to me.

[apache708]

The ring are one of the things in this project That I wasn't pleased with. I first decided I would bend the rings myself and bought the cheap ring roller from Harbor freight. It has a capacity of 3/16"x1" in flat bar for mild steel. I am using 3/16"x1" flat in 304 stainless. Well I think this was a little much for the ring roller. The first one I tried I got a corkscrew affect from the roller and this was very difficult to straighten out by hand, actually I never got it straightened out to my satisfaction. I then decided to get someone to roll it for me. I looked up a fab place and called and said they had a roller that could do it. Well the roller that had was a big plate roll and was way over kill for what I wanted. Well I think they weren't prepared to do such a small job on the big plate roll and they didn't do the job as well as I wanted. Well at this point I kinda had to make things work, so I did. I had to have a couple more smaller rings made for the bottom and got a different place to do them and they did alot better job. So if I had to get more done I know where to take them to now. You live you learn I guess. I still want to clean the welds up and bought some pickling paste to do that but decided against using the pickling paste.(see post under welding processes called pickling stainless). Thinking about using this product instead. Anyone ever used something like this for cleaning welds on stainless?

[repairman]

Electropolishing, or succesive grit polishing. Electropolishing is a great way to clean an assembly that will have food contact, and its way easier, it takes about a day. Just send it out to a good person in your area for it. Or you can, Sand it to a uniform surface, then get some tripoli or rouge and a small nylon wheel and clean it up with that, and that should be good. Carbides foul the taste of wine, so they might foul the taste of honey.

[Sully2]

Originally Posted by apache708

.... Its not finished yet(beginning to think nothing ever is), still need to figure out what kind of electric motor setup I'm going to use on it. As a temporary fix I will be using a 3/8" drill to spin it this weekend. ....

Put a V belt pully on the vert shaft. Weld or bolt a mount on the crossbar that can support a 1/4 HP electric motor with a pully on it and SLOT the mounting holes so that "adjustment" on the V belt is possible.

Thats the way my dads extractor was powered. He and I kept honey bees back in the 60's...until he died in late 1969. He had a 4 frame extractor

[apache708]

This one will hold up to 15 medium size frames. I don't know much about motors here, still learning but I was hoping to use a variable motor. Alot of the capacitor start common motors are more or less fixed speed i understand. I might make an electronics project out of the motor and try to set up electronic motor control using pulse width modulation(PWM) using microcontrollers. Which might take me a while to learn to program microcontrollers.I think I may be using a brushless DC motor for that. But thats another project/upgrade.So the drill works good for the moment