Hello All!
I thought I'd share my little weekend DIY meanderings with the forum. I have a number of automatic watches by now, and up till now I would put the watches in the pockets of my cargo style berms and walk around with them for the weekend to keep them moving.
I saw this idea for a DIY LP turntable watch winder and I was set to do this, however when I was out shopping for the parts I decided to step into one of those kit electronics shops.
They had a gearbox and crankshaft kit for not a lot of money (SGD$13.20) and I said ok I’ll try that for that money. I got myself a two way switch to get the motor to reverse, and I also bought a couple of CD containers for $2. Total spend was SGD$17 excluding scrap parts used later.
Here’s the kit and CD containers:
I’ll skip the building of the gearbox because it’s just easy and not particularly exciting. Anyone with some RC hobby background will know the gearboxes are not the most exciting thing.. it’s the firing up of the whole mechanism that gives us the kick. Hahaha. Here’s the gearbox assembled.
I glued the arms to the bases of the CD containers using 2-part epoxy. Skip this idea if you're trying the same thing. The glue isn’t strong enough. I ended up reworking the crank ends and I decided to drill the cases and bolt them on to the cranks instead.
Here it is after the rework:
Now we needed a base to lift this gearbox up so the CD containers can turn without hitting anything. I cut an old bed slat I had leftover and used “Maxbond” to glue the pieces into this configuration. It’s very much like LEGO except you have to hold it in place while the glue cures.
Remember to put this on a flat surface so the wood will sit flat as the glue cures.
I fashioned leftover electrical trunking to hold the reversing switch. I had an old phone DC adaptor lying around so that was what was going to power the winder. Stripped the wires and soldered them to the switch.
And that it! Screw the whole lot together and test the thing... It works. I got 18rpm so that’s 28 mins one way to get 500 turns and another 28 mins the other way (another 500 turns). Do I do a total of 500 turns or 500 turns each way? Because there are two containers, one watch can turn CW while the other effectively turns CCW. When I flip the switch the direction is reversed and well.. the same happens all over again. For timer I use my iphone and when it rings I walk over to the winder to switch it the other way or off.
All other parts I just had lying around. I didn’t want to spend on a used turntable just yet so I guess I’ll use this to see how long it lasts. I initially mounted two watches per CD container for a total of 4 watches. It works, but the droop was alarming with metal bracelet watches and I figured one watch per side would be better. I know it's very Ghetto. I'm expecting something to break sooner or later, but this will do for now. From the looks of it, the crank /crankshaft joint may need improvement.
I thought I'd share my little weekend DIY meanderings with the forum. I have a number of automatic watches by now, and up till now I would put the watches in the pockets of my cargo style berms and walk around with them for the weekend to keep them moving.
I saw this idea for a DIY LP turntable watch winder and I was set to do this, however when I was out shopping for the parts I decided to step into one of those kit electronics shops.
They had a gearbox and crankshaft kit for not a lot of money (SGD$13.20) and I said ok I’ll try that for that money. I got myself a two way switch to get the motor to reverse, and I also bought a couple of CD containers for $2. Total spend was SGD$17 excluding scrap parts used later.
Here’s the kit and CD containers:
I’ll skip the building of the gearbox because it’s just easy and not particularly exciting. Anyone with some RC hobby background will know the gearboxes are not the most exciting thing.. it’s the firing up of the whole mechanism that gives us the kick. Hahaha. Here’s the gearbox assembled.
I glued the arms to the bases of the CD containers using 2-part epoxy. Skip this idea if you're trying the same thing. The glue isn’t strong enough. I ended up reworking the crank ends and I decided to drill the cases and bolt them on to the cranks instead.
Here it is after the rework:
Now we needed a base to lift this gearbox up so the CD containers can turn without hitting anything. I cut an old bed slat I had leftover and used “Maxbond” to glue the pieces into this configuration. It’s very much like LEGO except you have to hold it in place while the glue cures.
Remember to put this on a flat surface so the wood will sit flat as the glue cures.
I fashioned leftover electrical trunking to hold the reversing switch. I had an old phone DC adaptor lying around so that was what was going to power the winder. Stripped the wires and soldered them to the switch.
And that it! Screw the whole lot together and test the thing... It works. I got 18rpm so that’s 28 mins one way to get 500 turns and another 28 mins the other way (another 500 turns). Do I do a total of 500 turns or 500 turns each way? Because there are two containers, one watch can turn CW while the other effectively turns CCW. When I flip the switch the direction is reversed and well.. the same happens all over again. For timer I use my iphone and when it rings I walk over to the winder to switch it the other way or off.
All other parts I just had lying around. I didn’t want to spend on a used turntable just yet so I guess I’ll use this to see how long it lasts. I initially mounted two watches per CD container for a total of 4 watches. It works, but the droop was alarming with metal bracelet watches and I figured one watch per side would be better. I know it's very Ghetto. I'm expecting something to break sooner or later, but this will do for now. From the looks of it, the crank /crankshaft joint may need improvement.
