Feeder — Feeder channels

Feeder channels (C2 and C3)

How-to guide

The two metering stages between the bulk channel and classification, with a faceted rotor and an output guide each.

Author barthel

Contributors Spencer, BrickCycleAlice, Danny, ReveryX and Daddy-O's Bricks - Bill

Parts needed

Printed parts

1×
The feeder channels' rotor.
1×
1×

Bearings

Screws

6× 12mm

Tools needed

Hex key, 2 mm

Build a channel core before you start. This page turns one core into C2 or C3. It does not build the core.

A finished channel core from directly above: the stator ring open at one side, the three-armed NEMA bracket fastened across it with the raised hub at its centre, the gear train at the ring's edge and the stepper motor standing outside the wall with its lead, and no rotor in the hub — A channel core, no rotor in it yet. Photo: BrickCycleAlice.

C2 and C3 are the two metering stages. Each takes a part from the channel above, spaces it out further by rotation, and pushes it off its exit to the next channel down.

The parts list above is one channel's worth. Build two, one for C2 and one for C3. They are the same build. Only the height differs, and that is set on arranging C-channels.

The faceted rotor, the same one C1 takes. It takes no Rotor cap.
One output guide each, two in the machine. The guide belongs to the channel it is mounted on, not to the gap between two.
A camera lamp hangs over each of these two. It goes on at arranging C-channels, with the channel standing.

Fastener icons match the parts list: the silhouette is the head shape, the colour is the thread size. M3 M4 M5 M6

Step 1 Preparation

Output gear (130T): press the 6806-2RS bearing into it. No screw, no glue, no heat.

The 130-tooth output gear lying flat with a black-sealed 6806 bearing pressed into its six-spoke hub — The output gear with its bearing pressed home. Photo: BrickCycleAlice.

Step 2 Bolt the output gear to the rotor

The Output gear (130T) bolts to the open side of the Rotor (faceted).

Turn the rotor so its open side faces up.
Put the gear on it and line up the six holes. If it does not sit flat, turn it over.
Drive one M3 × 12 mm countersunk screw at the outer end of each of the gear's six spokes, until the head is flush in the countersink.

It does not matter which way round you turn the gear. The six holes are the same all the way round.

The grey 130-tooth output gear with a black-sealed 6806 bearing pressed into its centre, bolted onto a white rotor behind it, with a countersunk screw at the outer end of each of the six spokes — Output gear bolted to a rotor. Six screws, one per spoke. Photo: BrickCycleAlice.

Step 3 Drop the rotor into the core

Lower the rotor onto the raised hub in the middle of the NEMA bracket. The output gear meshes with the idler as it goes down.

Turn the rotor by hand. It should go all the way round without a tight spot.

A C-channel from above on a plain surface: the faceted rotor sitting down in the stator ring, with the stepper motor and its lead standing off one side — The rotor down in the core. Photo: BrickCycleAlice.

Step 4 Fit the output guide

The guide is a wall at the channel's exit. Without it, a part that does not drop off rides round the rotor again.

Push the guide onto the dovetail on the stator wall beside the NEMA bracket, so it stands in over the rotor just before the exit opening. It is held by the fit alone: no screws, nothing to tighten.

Photo of a feeder channel from above with its output guide fitted: the dovetail it clips to beside the NEMA bracket, and how far it reaches in over the rotor.

The finished result

A channel core with the faceted rotor in it and an output guide beside the NEMA bracket. Build two. The camera lamp goes on later, at arranging C-channels.

Photo of a finished feeder channel: the faceted rotor down in the core and the output guide on, with the stepper on the outside.

Back to C-channels.