Peristaltic pumps

Hey guys,
I'm not going to use it no I have two 809 march pumps instead, I would like to but finding a cheap geared and variable speed motor to suit is very hard, maybe in the future. The tube is silicon 1/2" id.. Not the best Norprene apparently is softer and has a better memory.
Without doing any calcs with a variable speed drill attatched it really pumps hard but i dont think the tube would last long at anything over 100rpm..

jcdillin: They are .bmp's of the cad files ill see if i can find the originals and ill send them to you.

Cheers

Nice work! Looks solid as a rock. I can't wait to see flow rates and RPM info. If your motor proves to be up to it, you have now got to modify the design to have a tube each side of the rotor so you can have sparge liquor and mash tun drain flow rates synchronized exactly! The pump can also sit above all the keggles and suck the fluids up and out, rather than through the side. Positioning the pump above the fluids will be safer if the tube fails!!!

I am making my rotor today, but cannot compete with you CNC guys! I've only got a vice and a bunch of files (the ones with teeth) I'm going with 3, 45 mm dia skateboard wheels, set on a 130 mm radius. With 1/2" tube we are then talking a wall radius of 160 mm, or just over 1 ft dia. This means my pump will need to rotate at a lower RPM to get the same flow rate.

Someone needs to find out if an auto windshield wiper motor will run one of these pumps, because if it will, then cheap pumps are now within the grasp of the masses, as long as they have a bit of mechanical savvy.

Jonathon,

If you are not going to use your pump, would you please get hold of a second hand windshield wiper motor and see if it will work, as these motors are plentiful and cheap, but are rated for 24/7 operation. If it works, then set it pumping in and out of a bucket, and see how long before the tube fails, or the motor burns out. I reckon it will last much longer than we think....Or you could send it over here to me, and I will test it out!

The manufacturer of my 1/2" silicone tube states it is fine for peristaltic pump work.

silverbrewer said:

Jonathon,

If you are not going to use your pump, would you please get hold of a second hand windshield wiper motor and see if it will work, as these motors are plentiful and cheap, but are rated for 24/7 operation. If it works, then set it pumping in and out of a bucket, and see how long before the tube fails, or the motor burns out. I reckon it will last much longer than we think....Or you could send it over here to me, and I will test it out!

The manufacturer of my 1/2" silicone tube states it is fine for peristaltic pump work.

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There is no way you could drive mine with a standard windshield motor, I was surprised at the amount of torque it needed. I might try and rig up a torque wrench to it. I might have had my crush a bit tight, ill do some more playing around when i find some time!!

I have just finished the rotor of my homemade peristaltic pump. The three wheels are on a 5" radius and there are two oilite bearings in the centre similar to the ones fitted to a monster mill. More later when I have made the wall that the tube gets squeezed against

I have just tested this pump and at 150 RPM get a flow rate of 4 USGPM or 15.5 litres. The pump cost virtually nothing to make and I will now set it up and do some endurance testing to fully check it's abilities! Assuming all goes well, I will be making variations on this pump with smaller tubes and also twin tubes to cover all my pumping requirements, especially the metered delivery of sparge liquor and wort removal during sparging

I am well chuffed with these results and in reality will be driving the pump from my Boxford lathe, as the spindle can be arranged to be in just the right place and the drive is infinitely variable around the speeds I will require.

If there is interest I will post pictures of the pump "exploded" but it is merely MDF sheets cut to shape and doweled together with 12 mm dia silver steel dowels so the centres are accurately maintained, with a rotating "spider" with 3 skateboard wheels

Very promising silverbrewer, what size tubing did you run the test with?

I might consider building one of these, but I don't have a Boxford lathe. Matter of fact, I don't have any lathe at all. What does a cheap lathe go for these days?

Old quality American built or cheap like made in Taiwan?

I just saw a 9" South Bend at an estate sale 3 months ago with taper attachment plus 3 and 4 jaw with face plate go for $1,500. It had over 500 pounds of extra tooling and parts, a fully loaded 1955 lathe and well worth it. I already have a 12" x 36" bed Atlas with back gear plus all chucks fully loaded without taper attachment, I can live without it.
Non of this inported China stuff like vices with crap castings that break in half. Look around lathes come up, shipping is a big cost if out of your area.

South bend lathes are very similar to Boxford's, but hey! you don't need a lathe to drive these pumps, just a decent sized motor that is geared down to something like 150 RPM, then fit it with a speed control to get it slower so you have a speed for every occasion.

I think that if the pumps are made a bit smaller so the max flow rate is not so high then with a bit of luck we may be able to run them with auto windshield wiper motors, especially truck ones if they are larger as well as being 24 volts.

I have re started this thread in the DIY section, and if anyone knows how to combine this with the DIY one then could they please do that as DIY is a better placement.

A lathe with a face plate or the 4 jaw chuck to machine out the odd shaped pump body not drive it was my intent. You must be an attorney with twisting wording around. I can't believe some of these replies at times, sorry not picking on you just had to answer back. I would use a 90 VDC motor with a speed control, a Von Weise Gear Company I had in mind for motors. I have a 1/30 HP motor that runs off 120 VAC with speed controler to the 90 VDC motor. The parallel drive gearbox output on the 5/16" shaft is controlled from 18 to 114 rpm's. I can not stop it without trying to damage it with a 10" Cresent wrench on the output shaft.
A made in Missouri company. This motor is slated for the HLT stir propeller and another for the pump when I build one later.

I am now at the stage where I have 3pumps to the Mk3 design which can be seen here. It flows about 10 litres per minute. All discussion on this has now moved to the thread home made perishable pumps

silverbrewer said:

Gasoline engine........ err no! But feel free to send me over a nice V8 of some description I will stick it in my Miata....I'm not an expert on big engines, but I think an LS1 is about what I will be wanting..

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Why not use one of those Triumph V-8s? I think they came in the Stag model. That way if you get lost your friends can find you by following the coolant and oil drops.

I have been toying around with the idea of a Peristaltic pump and was wondering if oxygen exposure would be a concern when transferring from fermentor to keg. Thanks!