Blackfoot Tucker
Well-known member
On a fair number of posts across many threads I’ve pointed out something clever that The Gorilla, aka: Scott, has done. I try to make the point that HE is the brains and talent in our duo, and I mean that sincerely. What I’m about to illustrate has nothing to do with snowcats, but it shows how his practical and creative mind can work… when he’s not harassing me.
Mrs BFT and I have a second home in Southern Utah. It’s in the town of Hurricane, so named because of the strong winds that are somewhat frequent (locals pronounce it Hurri-cun). We have both a covered patio and a pergola, and both have a pair of ceiling fans. (Hurricane gets H O T in the summer, and air movement can lessen the misery of the heat. Ceiling fans typically have a mount that attaches to the ceiling, usually a bracket that retains a ball shaped device which is the top of the down rod. The fan motor and fan blades attach to the bottom of the down rod. When the wind blows, the fan motor and down rod can move as the ball at the top moves within the bracket. Well, if that motor and fan assembly move too much, the blades hit the ceiling, or in the case of the pergola, the rafters.
The first time this happened we (Scott) constructed a Gorilla-built mounting system that holds the motor and fan assembly rigidly in position. Gorilla-built typically means over built in terms of strength. There’s no bean counter mentality of “we can reduce the margin of strength and make it cheaper”. Well, once installed, the fan motors did not move. But of course a device is only as strong as the weakest link….
After a particularly hard blow the fan motors didn’t move, but the ring with arms the individual blades attach to did, and the arms were badly bent. While I could probably get new parts, that would seem pointless as the same thing would likely happen again.
A pic of one of the cattywompus ceiling fans.
We discussed options and Scott used his CAD system to replicate the design of the ring with arms. We sent that file to Streamworks, our water-jet vendor and had them cut new ones from much thicker steel. Unfortunately though, that’s only part of the process of making new ones, the easy part, in fact. Blades need pitch to move air, and these blades would be without any pitch, or flat; meaning they’d spin and not move air. So we had to bend each arm (there are eight of them on each fan) so the pitch was correct and equal across all eight. That’s not easy to do, and especially so when you’re working with 3/16” steel. We needed some type of jig to do the bending, and that’s where Scott’s ingenuity came through.
Here’s a pic of one of the original rings with arms. At this point it’s been mostly bent back into position. Note the wimpy ribs stamped in the arms... the bean counter’s way of adding rigidity.
Scott looked around the shop to find a remnant piece of steel for the base of the jig, and then some pieces of 1/2” square tubing to locate the new rings securely in the jig, and finally some pieces of 1” angle to keep the top part of the jig, what I’ll call the die, properly aligned during the pressing process - which then adds the right amount of pitch to the blade arms.
Here you can see the base, with a blade in position after bending is complete.
Here’s a pic showing the die at the top and the base below. There are pieces of 3/8” round rod welded to both the base and the die, and a piece of 3/8” plate welded to the channel. The channel provides rigidity for the die’s components that do the bending. The pieces of round rod are on opposite sides between the base and the die - so as the press applies pressure one part of an arm is being held up while the other is being pressed down. The center portion of the die ensures the center of the ring is flat when the press stops. Note the piece of round rod welded to the edge of the channel at the top right. There’s another at the bottom left, and these keep the die from moving side to side within the jig’s base.
Only two arms are pressed at a time, and there are eight arms, so it takes rotating the ring in the jig four times to bend all the blades. To ensure uniformity, each ring was cycled through the jig twice.
Here’s the whole setup in position in the press. The press itself was built by Scott's Dad, Jerry, and has two large hydraulic cylinders that were salvaged from garbage trucks. (Jerry was a character in his own right!)
Here are the completed rings with their arms bent.
I am routinely impressed with Scott’s skill set, and his ability to visualize something, and then create it. In the Project Dual thread I said “Never underestimate The Gorilla”, and this is a great example why.
Mrs BFT and I have a second home in Southern Utah. It’s in the town of Hurricane, so named because of the strong winds that are somewhat frequent (locals pronounce it Hurri-cun). We have both a covered patio and a pergola, and both have a pair of ceiling fans. (Hurricane gets H O T in the summer, and air movement can lessen the misery of the heat. Ceiling fans typically have a mount that attaches to the ceiling, usually a bracket that retains a ball shaped device which is the top of the down rod. The fan motor and fan blades attach to the bottom of the down rod. When the wind blows, the fan motor and down rod can move as the ball at the top moves within the bracket. Well, if that motor and fan assembly move too much, the blades hit the ceiling, or in the case of the pergola, the rafters.
The first time this happened we (Scott) constructed a Gorilla-built mounting system that holds the motor and fan assembly rigidly in position. Gorilla-built typically means over built in terms of strength. There’s no bean counter mentality of “we can reduce the margin of strength and make it cheaper”. Well, once installed, the fan motors did not move. But of course a device is only as strong as the weakest link….
After a particularly hard blow the fan motors didn’t move, but the ring with arms the individual blades attach to did, and the arms were badly bent. While I could probably get new parts, that would seem pointless as the same thing would likely happen again.
A pic of one of the cattywompus ceiling fans.
We discussed options and Scott used his CAD system to replicate the design of the ring with arms. We sent that file to Streamworks, our water-jet vendor and had them cut new ones from much thicker steel. Unfortunately though, that’s only part of the process of making new ones, the easy part, in fact. Blades need pitch to move air, and these blades would be without any pitch, or flat; meaning they’d spin and not move air. So we had to bend each arm (there are eight of them on each fan) so the pitch was correct and equal across all eight. That’s not easy to do, and especially so when you’re working with 3/16” steel. We needed some type of jig to do the bending, and that’s where Scott’s ingenuity came through.
Here’s a pic of one of the original rings with arms. At this point it’s been mostly bent back into position. Note the wimpy ribs stamped in the arms... the bean counter’s way of adding rigidity.
Scott looked around the shop to find a remnant piece of steel for the base of the jig, and then some pieces of 1/2” square tubing to locate the new rings securely in the jig, and finally some pieces of 1” angle to keep the top part of the jig, what I’ll call the die, properly aligned during the pressing process - which then adds the right amount of pitch to the blade arms.
Here you can see the base, with a blade in position after bending is complete.
Here’s a pic showing the die at the top and the base below. There are pieces of 3/8” round rod welded to both the base and the die, and a piece of 3/8” plate welded to the channel. The channel provides rigidity for the die’s components that do the bending. The pieces of round rod are on opposite sides between the base and the die - so as the press applies pressure one part of an arm is being held up while the other is being pressed down. The center portion of the die ensures the center of the ring is flat when the press stops. Note the piece of round rod welded to the edge of the channel at the top right. There’s another at the bottom left, and these keep the die from moving side to side within the jig’s base.
Only two arms are pressed at a time, and there are eight arms, so it takes rotating the ring in the jig four times to bend all the blades. To ensure uniformity, each ring was cycled through the jig twice.
Here’s the whole setup in position in the press. The press itself was built by Scott's Dad, Jerry, and has two large hydraulic cylinders that were salvaged from garbage trucks. (Jerry was a character in his own right!)
Here are the completed rings with their arms bent.
I am routinely impressed with Scott’s skill set, and his ability to visualize something, and then create it. In the Project Dual thread I said “Never underestimate The Gorilla”, and this is a great example why.
