Operating Rotary Dumper
This page is an updated version of my old rotary dumper page. I used a Walthers rotary dumper kit and made it go. Now it is mounted in a section of my layout but still needs lots of details, handrails, air cleaners, operator's office, conveyors, positioner, etc. My cars are equipped with rotary couplers I made from KD#5s. First a before photo:
Next some photos of it in operation.
BN 9526 and company ease up to the dumper to begin unloading.
The clamps are lowered and the car is ready to be dumped.
The first car is spotted and the dump cycle is started.
The car should be empty now!
A close up from the old page showing the rotary coupler on the left coupled to a Walthers dummy coupler on the right.
The car is back upright, the clamps are raised and the train will pull forward to spot the next car.
Starting at the Atlas Snap Relay in the upper left and moving clockwise, the parts that make it go. In the far upper left is an on/off switch for the whole thing. The red box is an old toy train transformer. Then the bottom of the dumper pit with the grate the coal falls through. An old VCR motor is mounted on the side of that to turn the barrel of the dumper. In the lower left is a Hankscraft motor from a discarded Burger King display, geared down even farther with gears from an EKG readout machine. As it turns, it raises and lowers the clamp actuators, the two long horizontal pieces mounted on the right side of the layout.
Another photo showing the underside. The clamp actuators and Hankscraft motor mount are 1/4" Plexiglas scraps from the garbage at work. The white Evergreen square tube keeps the .028" brass wires that raise the clamps vertical as the arms move in an arc. I used old Walthers wheelsets in 3/32" holes for pivots.
A single push button starts the sequence by tripping the relay. The clamps lower until they press a SPDT switch (from an old car stereo) which stops the clamp motor and starts the dumper motor. The barrel of the dumper rotates until it hits a momentary switch actuating the relay and changing the direction of the dumper barrel. At the end of its rotation, it presses another SPDT switch stopping the barrel and starting the clamp motor which raises the clamps until it opens its limit switch and stops. One cycle takes about 33 seconds.
Here is a wiring diagram. I think it should work although looking at the photos I didn't wire mine exactly like this. That is the trouble with not writing it all out right when you do it.
Tell me what you think at nahshon@hotmail.com
8/06/05
02/22/06
06/01/06