DIY - oscillating pump

[FB]

I was looking at all the oscillating pumps on the market and they are pretty pricy.

I was thinking of a diy possibly using an oscillating fan motor.

You can get a small oscillating fan at LHS for $12.00

Take the fan apart and use the osciallting motor from the fan to attatch to a powerhead and turn the whole powerhead 90 degrees side to side.

The fans are very small so I would image the motors very small. It might look kind of supid.

So instead of attatching the power head to the tank using the suction cups. The P.H. could be suspended in the water using the hooks provided. As the fan motor turns, the hook turns, moving the PH side to side.

let me know what you think. The only problem would be water getting in contact with the fan motor as it would have to be suspended directly above the PH.

FB

 

[Anonymous]

A better option is to get a low voltage DC motor for this, instead of the AC fan motor.

However, there are various knockoff of the SeaSwirl, for example, the SeaSquirrel, IIRC. In my opinion, this kind of DIY should not be done due to the problem with the motor in contact with the water. You need a good housing for it to work well, and you will also need to work out the gasket and bearing for the rotating shaft.

 

[Manofathousandpolyps]

Someone did this and made a thread quite a long while back, 4 or 5 years maybe? From what I remember it worked very well.

 

[Anonymous]

There is a long thread on another site discussing a DIY oscillating mount for a powerhead. I think I'm going to give this one a shot.

Rotating Pump Mount

 

[Anonymous]

I don't know if a fan motor will work, I'm not entirely certain, but I think the spinning of the fan is what rotates the fan, and if you remove the fan (or blades) then there will be a less mass to spin and might make your fan mount spin like crazy.

PitPat: I saw some of that thread and it got me really interested it, although doesn't seem to much in the way of detail on that motor which is what kept me away from it... (that and I really don't need ANOTHER DIY project)

 

[Anonymous]

The first 6 pages of that thread are mostly "what motor are we supposed to use"... but it seems that people have had good luck with this one:

Cheap gear motor

The parts should total just around $30
I think I'll attempt this project after I try the stream mod on a few maxijets.

 

[Anonymous]

motor 1 RPM and 3 LBs of torque, cost him $5.00.

I think it's worth a try. Pretty cool.

 

[Anonymous]

How do those motors work? They go one way then stop and go back the other? Or do you need some sort of lever arm that will just mimic that even though the motor itself rotates in one direction.

 

[Anonymous]

The motor rotates in one direction and you need fabricate some kind of arm from the motor to the pvc pipe. Its a shame you can't link to pics on that site, but almost at the bottom of the 5th page of that thread someone posted a pic of the top his rotator housing. He fabricated a lot of his out of acrylic, other people just cut out styrene for the parts.

I think there is a lot of trial and error involved in getting the back-and-forth motion right.

 

[Anonymous]

I rotates, not spins, so it would have to go one way stop and go back the other.

 

[Anonymous]

Oh I see, it works similar to an old steam engines piston how it turns a wheel. Just have to fabricate in such a fashion that it doesn't go beyond the halfway point of the pipe... something that would require some fiddling.

 

[Anonymous]

Yep, it appears that way.

 

[Anonymous]

I stole this from page 8 of that thread, it was made by member hahnmeister on that site.

He used two arylic circles, by adjusting where the arm is mounted on the rotating circle he can adjust how wide it sweeps (his varies from 60 to 160 degrees)

 

[noone]

Prototype 1.0

Video in youtube ---> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5qPdiWim2I

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Prototype 2.0

- o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o -

Final Product

 

[Anonymous]

Nice curved arm to make the unit a lot more compact!

(thumps up)

 

[Christeon]

Looks good, You may want to try a stainless shoulder bolt on the pivot points for longevity.

 

[Anonymous]

Man, I want my Tunze 6200's on an oscillating bracket. That would be awesome!

Louey

 

[mr_X]

http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewItem. ... uct=MZ3117

 

[Anonymous]

The Zoo Med powerheads are pieces of crap.
Even if they weren't, they aren't at all comparable to a Tunze on a rotating mount. That Zoo Med is rated at 270 gph, whereas the 6200 is rated at over 5000 gph.

 

[mr_X]

just a thought. didn't know you needed so much horsepower