pigeon magnet

[gunnerboi]

hi guys

 

im sorry if this has been covered before

 

im making a pigeon magnet at present ive made the base with a wiper motor and steel plate with leggs

 

im unsure of how and what materials to use for the actual arms of the magnet and how to attach birds to it

 

help would be mutch appreciated

[Llanshooter]

I used 6mm mild steel rods for the arms, from B&Q

 

Made an open U shape with some flat bar which attaches to the shaft of the motor. The flat bar has 2x 6mm holes drilled in. I bent the 6mm round bars to make a dog leg at one end. This was fed through the hole. I made a couple of small clamps from flat bar with holes drilled through and bolts secured with wing nuts to tighten it.

 

Had a mate weld the smaller arms at the top and soldered some crocodile clips on to hold the wings

 

Its a bit fiddly to assemble but seems to work OK.

 

I'm sure that the more technically gifted on here can provide a much neater solution though.

[Lord Geordie]

You can use fibre glass rods either.

[The Essex Hunter]

hi guys

 

im sorry if this has been covered before

 

im making a pigeon magnet at present ive made the base with a wiper motor and steel plate with leggs

 

im unsure of how and what materials to use for the actual arms of the magnet and how to attach birds to it

 

help would be mutch appreciated

http://s856.photobuc...xHunter/rotary/

That might help....I have the "how too" list so you can match the pictures to the ruler.

The parts that are needed are as follows.

Windscreen wiper motor and the bracket that it comes with from a car

1.4mts of 10mm diameter mild steel rod

1 piece of mild steel sheet 150x100x2mm

300mm length of 25mm diameter steel tube

100mm length of steel tube with an internal dia of 25.4mm

13mm socket (3/8) drive

150mm x 20 x 5 mm mild steel flat bar

80mm piece of mild steel box section approx internal size of 13/14/15 mm

180mm piece of mild steel round section or box section to fit in to above box section.

Two bonnet stays from scrap cars approx 1mtr in length with a diameter of

6/8mm.

Two pieces of 50x50x2/3mm weld mesh 300x150mm

Four crocodile clips and length of 1.5mm diameter steel wire

Fibre or nylon washers to reduce friction. (From plumbers merchant or bearing suppliers or make them from sheet material)

Two steel washers 25mm outside/diamanter and 10mm internal/diameter

 

 

Before you attempt to undertake the building of this rotary, make sure you work safely and use reverent safety equipment!

 

After you have located all the parts, strip the windscreen motor (picture1) and trim down original bracket (picture2/2a) so that the three ground spikes will clear the motor when welded to the bracket (spikes approx 300mm)

Shape the 150x100x2mm so it will fit (picture2) remember your bracket may be different to mine, depending what vehicle it is from! However, it should resemble something like (picture3).

Once you have a good fit you can mark out the locating holes and the centre hole from the back, then drill these out, filling out the centre hole will be safer as the dia is over 25mm! (picture3/4)

 

Tack weld the short piece of tube (picture 3/4/5) to the plate, making sure it is not protruding through and it is square and true, bolt the plate to the main bracket and to the motor and check that the spindle is in the centre of the tube, if so remove and fully weld, you may need to elongate your 3 fixing holes to help out with the centring of the spindle.

 

Depending on which direction you decide to run you rotary I would advice to weld the nut, which came off the spindle, to the spindle, this is properly the most critical part to the build, as you do not want to melt your motor, so take great care! The size of the nut will determine the size of socket, which in turn will drive the rotary, make sure that you check the socket does fit the nut! (Mine was a 13mm nut)

 

In (picture5/5a/6) you will see a notch filed out and a small pip welded and shaped to fit the slot this was done so the long piece of tube stays at the same height every time and also enables the weight of the rotary to run on a crude bearing and not put the weight on the motor as they are not designed to take thrust in that way.

 

As you will have seen on the parts list there are two different dia of tube required, the dimensions I have given are close to what are on my rotary and you can change to suit your own build, a close fit is recommended, not to tight or loose as it has to work in the field and I have made it so it will break into two half’s to fit in to a ruck sack.

 

The position of the pip on the long tube should be around 70/ 80mm this will allow the tube to fit over the spindle, but no so long as to foul on the motor housing which is tapered (picture5a/6) with that completed.

 

Take a length of the 10mm diameter rod approximately 320mm in length and file/grind one end to a square. To fit the square of your socket, if your make this a tight fit then you can drive the rod into the socket and roll the rod on a flat surface allowing you to check that the socket is running true prior to welding.

(A good tip is to clean off any chrome on the square end of the socket prior to welding)

 

This done you know have the drive rod, so assemble the base and the long tube using the slot and pip, slide the drive rod and socket down over the nut on the spindle, you will need 2 steel washers with some clearance on the 10mm rod. Then take the piece of 150x20x5mm and drill a 10mm hole in the centre of the bar (picture7/7a) then form the flat bar with an angle on both ends approx 10/15 deg (picture7/7a) if you make the bar into 3 sections of 50mm this will keep things even.

 

Cut one washer in half, place the second washer over the rod, and check that it is centred on the tube. Tack weld the washer and place the two half’s of the second washer on top of the first, then place the bar on top, tack in place check that it sits even then you can fully weld the washer and bar The reason for the split washer is so you will leave clearance to place a thrust washer to act as a bearing) Cut-off reaming execs rod. To fit you’re “bearing” snip the nylon washer on one side and it will slide over the rod.

 

Moving on to the arms, I used a piece of round bar and ground one end square to fit the box section about 45mm which I welded on to the angled flat bar see (picture7)

One piece of box section inside another will work fine but remember to weld a small pip to stop the box sliding through, a good size to use around 12/13/14mm.

 

My arms are made of square section steel what I had to hand, but using the bonnet stays from scrap cars is less expensive! In addition, in turn does not use up new steel! Around a meter in length for the arms is ok, I used a piece of lead with the same weight of a big pigeon and held the arm in a vice and gave it a good bounce to check it out!

 

The cradles are made out of 50x50 2/3mm weld mesh (picture 8) if you count the squares, this will give you the size, I formed the mesh so the birds body sits in the cradle and the sides are angled down a bit, it is not hard to re-bend the mesh to suit. The two centre spikes, which can be made from the off cuts when making the cradle, they need to be placed so; the middle of the breast can be pushed on to them.

The spike for the head is placed so it goes in to the throat, (bend the cradle and the placement of these will be obvious)

 

Making the wing clips is fairly simple, take a 200mm length of your 1.5mm wire fold in half put the folded end in the vice and twist the wire about its self not to tight. Take a crocodile clip and push the folded end through the hole in the clip and secure with the fixing screw and close the end of the clip over the wire.

Place a bird on the cradle and open a wing so it’s in that classic position, bend the wire in a J shape and allow your self enough material to secure around the cradle as to hold the wing at about ¾ of its length. (picture 8/9/10)

 

 

 

 

I mixed up some brown paint and then dabbed green paint here and there, once it had dried, I used a kitchen-cleaning pad to knock of the shine, a length of twin core flex with terminals to suit the motor and spade ends for the battery (I would solder the ends as well as crimping to be safe)

 

 

I hope you enjoy building the rotary as much as I did, there have been a couple of modifications it the time I have had it. In addition, a repair to the cradles as I run over them with my quad when they fell off on the trip back!

[Mike737]

Thanks T E H, I shall be aquiring parts this weekend, that looks really good!

 

Mike.