Quote:
Originally Posted by Ben Piecuch
Rich, I find it quite difficult to believe that you were stalling the big CIM in a ball-pickup mode. Were you driving your impeller straight off the output shaft (ie. no gear reduction?) Also, what diameter was your impeller roller?
For general information, we have used the kit gearbox with 2 small CIM's in the past. We did not use the big CIM at all last year.
BEN
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Correct Ben, almost. No we didn't run it directly off of the shaft, but as a rookie we used the nine tooth sprockets and little bit of chain we had available and when we got three balls in the correct configuration - either on the way in or out, we'd bog down significantly or occasionally stall. We realized with better gearing, we'd have gotten more out of the motor.
Our rollers were fabricated from PVC pinned through aluminum shaft and all three were driven by one large CIM motor. The two rollers that took the load were 1.25' and 1.5" diameter respectively. The third roller was larger (don't remember the size offhand maybe 3"?), but was above the intake area and only was there to keep the "popcorn popping" and prevent lodged balls elsewhere in the hopper.