Hello, drmayf here. I am an old geezer who has recently decided to take up radio astronomy. So I am converting a 7 foot sat tv dish to have an equatorial mount so I can stay locked onto objects for longer receiving periods instead of drift scanning. That means that the primary right ascension axis, the one that points to the north star, has to turn at a rate equal to the earths spin rate, but in opposite direction, to maintain object lock on. the spin rate is really slow, lol. But, a worm drive supplemented with some extra rearing can do the trick. I had wanted to hob a 360 tooth worm wheel using my old 1948 worn out lathe to do this. Sadly, neither it nor I am up to the tasks of making that wheel. There are many You Tube videos showing how to do this using a blank wheel and a tap as the hob and lathe or milling machine to do the cutting. It looks dirt simple but there are dimensions that I know nothing about which are thread pitch circle and worm wheel diametrical pitch etc. Most likely what I just said was gibberish, lol. The size I want is the worm wheel to have 360 teeth and the worm will have 16 threads per inch. A further reduction of 4:1 via spur gears will reduce that to the correct anti spin rate if the initial drive is running at 1 rpm, like a clock motor. I had previously tried to figure out the worm wheel diameter but turned out what i figured was simple the pitch diameter of the wheel. That was 7.1619 inches diameter. I think it needs to be a smidge larger in diameter though and how much I do not know. So, my question to the membership is , "Is there any out there who might like to attempt to make this worm wheel for me using metal I provide or pay for?" So I would entertain offers to make this wheel for me with me paying for time and materials as required. Brass or steel would be good, but aluminum would also be ok I think. I am gong to seek ET phoning home, lol.
for those who have interest in just seeing how this is done, then google diy worm wheel using the image filter. and go to youtube and search for the same. Pretty slick.
drmayf at mayfco dot com
for those who have interest in just seeing how this is done, then google diy worm wheel using the image filter. and go to youtube and search for the same. Pretty slick.
drmayf at mayfco dot com