With the basic barrel done, I used it manually a couple of times to plate some parts "batches". What a pain in the rear that was! Standing there for 30-40 minutes while slowly turning the barrel by hand was NOT at all practical. Worse even than having to wire up all the parts individually! Some kind of motor was clearly necessary.
I though long and hard about it, trying to figure out how to jury rig some kind of motor/gear system to run it, but kept coming up short. It needed to be:
- slow (I figured about 3-6 RPM)
- hi-torque (to crank over what turns out to be a substantial load)
- 100% duty-cycle (had to run continuously for 40+ minutes at a time. You'd be surprised how many small DC motors are NOT rated 100% duty cycle!)
Then one day I had to move the barbeque grill around on the patio, and it smacked me upside the head: a rotisserie motor! It had all the required features!
Found this el-cheapo, no-name, made in china unit on ebay, for $15 shipped. It's the typical "sell it to the dumb yankees" low quality export. Noisy as hell, but it does work, and even if it doesn't last long, it has proved the concept.
