whats the max speed you should use for drying the finish on a rod ? is a 20 rpm motor too fast ?

Not necessarily. The thinner the finish the higher the speed, but only to a point. Generally speaking, 18RPM is a good all-around drying speed that tends to work with nearly every well known wrap epoxy on the market. So you're right there on it.

................

thanks tom. good to know. i robbed the icemaker dispenser motor from our recently defunct refrigerator in hopes it would work. sounds like i have another 'project' in the works now….

Sam,
There is an easy solution for your question.

Use a DC gear motor with a speed of about 50 rpm along with a DC speed control and a DC power supply for a power source for your dryer.

This way, you have the best of both worlds, you have a faster motor for applying finish or doing special things, but you have a knob on a speed controller that you can dial down to the speed that you find optimum for the particular rod and finish that you are using.

I like to apply finish at speeds up to about 100 rpm, do the main finish application at about 30 rpm, then slow down to about 15 to 20 rpm for the initial drying and then after everything is perfect slow the rod further down to about 6-9 rpm.

The advant of inexpensive and small sized DC gear motors make this possible along with the advant of inexpensive speed controllers and power supplies.

Your choice.

If you have any questions on building such a project for your self, just drop me a line.

Take care

roger wilson Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Sam,
> There is an easy solution for your question.
>
> Use a DC gear motor with a speed of about 50 rpm
> along with a DC speed control and a DC power
> supply for a power source for your dryer.
>
> This way, you have the best of both worlds, you
> have a faster motor for applying finish or doing
> special things, but you have a knob on a speed
> controller that you can dial down to the speed
> that you find optimum for the particular rod and
> finish that you are using.
>
> I like to apply finish at speeds up to about 100
> rpm, do the main finish application at about 30
> rpm, then slow down to about 15 to 20 rpm for the
> initial drying and then after everything is
> perfect slow the rod further down to about 6-9
> rpm.
>
> The advant of inexpensive and small sized DC gear
> motors make this possible along with the advant of
> inexpensive speed controllers and power supplies.
>
>
> Your choice.
>
> If you have any questions on building such a
> project for your self, just drop me a line.
>
> Take care

I agree. Roger has given me great instruction on building motorized components. I get my motors and controllers from China at a good price. @#$%& or AlliExpress I think. I have built several with switches to change direction of rotation and controller to control speed. They really work great. I built one that I can change direction and speed and either run it from the controller only, or I can switch a foot switch in and control the speed with the foot controller. Only your imagination limits what you can do and most of the parts are really cheap if you shop goodwill or other thrif stors. I am building one now using an arduino and a motor controller to do it all under program control. Do I need computer program control, no, but its fun to do.

You can also use stepper motors and stepper motor controllers to do the same thing. The DC motor world is amazing and what you can do with them is truly amazing. Thanks to Roger for introducing me and showing me to think outside the box as it were.

John

roger, what torque rating do you recommend for the dc motors ? heck , i think i have everything laying around the shed that i could build a finishing setup with.( IBEW electrician for over 30 years with a hoarding issue . LOL ) using a dc motor never crossed my mind.