DIY "Stream" Style Pump

[niko5]

Also Iv got a drill gauge templet thing and according to it that titanium rod is 3/32. And I cant seem to find anyone who sales the rod in 3/32. I guess I could just buy another ground probe hehe

[ejmeier]

Originally posted by niko5
Also Iv got a drill gauge templet thing and according to it that titanium rod is 3/32. And I cant seem to find anyone who sales the rod in 3/32. I guess I could just buy another ground probe hehe

I just measured and found the same thing. I can't find any place that has them either. All I can find is type 303 stainless steel, which I don't really trust in SW.

Anyway, since one of my MJ1200 no longer works, I was just thinking of somehow doubling up the extra rod into one, that way I'd at least have one unit to test things out with.

[niko5]

go to Doc Fosters and Smith buy the ground probe they have there.. thats the one I used

[topjimmy]

Check out a local Bike shop for titanium Bike spokes. That is what I used for my DIY probe.

Later
JimC.

[niko5]

Well iv got my bell fitting.. Just wondering if i should cut thin slits in it or stick with the holes?... Whats everyone think?

[SaltwaterSensei]

if you can't find the titanium I guess you could use stainless steel and coat it with a thin layer of two part 5 minute epoxy. Its non toxic and water proof once its dried up.

[ejmeier]

That grounding probe over at drsfostersmith.com is mocking me. I have never seen such a long and skinny grounding probe before!

Nick - I'd go with slots just because they look more professional to me. Though I was thinking of doing horizontal slits on my next guard, it seems like it would give more open area down at the base where you need it most.

SaltwaterSensei - The only issue I have with the epoxy is that it may very well get rubbed off by the magnet. This is exactly what we are trying to avoid in the first place. I am also looking into a 316 stainless steel rod over at www.smallparts.com but I just don't want to use stainless steel at all if I don't have to.

[niko5]

Yes that is the longest ground probe iv ever seen hehe

Well No slits for me.. I cant figure out an easy way to make the slits without either cutting the fitting in the wrong place or loosing a finger err.. so back to holes.. I had to modify the fitting quiet a bit ill get some pictures up later when everything is dry.

I think I may like my first version better this one I cant use zip ties on becuae the fitting way overhands the maxi jet so it has some hotmelt to it.

[niko5]

Alright no go on the 1 3/4" larger prop. The maxi jet isent strong enough for it... it spins but when its completely submerged it stops... tried several times.

[ejmeier]

Okay, I think this is going to be my project for tomorrow.

I'm going to build a real nice one, I think it will turn out to be somewhat professional looking too. I've got some ideas on the guard fitting, and various other things, and hopefully if it all works out, I should have a nice DIY unit soon.

Now if I can only find that 3/32" rod....

Actually, does anyone know what titanium wire is like? There is 3/32" titanium wire, but I'm guessing that might be a little flimsy. I have no idea what it is like though - solid copper wire is pretty sturdy even though you can bend it to different shapes. The Ti wire might be worth looking into.

[niko5]

The Ti wire would probly be hard to get to go straight.

Try the bike shop and look for the Ti spoke because I think that's the size of them 3/32.

What's your idea on the slits for the guard if you don't mind sharing before you do it

[ejmeier]

Hey, it's supposed to be a SECRET.

Okay, honestly, I have a bunch of ideas that I wanted to incorporate into one V2.0 model, but I am hesitant to share them until I know they work.

Anyway, some of my *untested* ideas are:

Use a dremel/saw to cut off the very base of the original maxi-jet guard piece, just the part that clicks onto the bottom and holds it in place. Then make an adapter mount for this piece so it will fit into the bottom of the DIY 2" PVC base. This way you can easily attach and detach the guard, just like on a real maxi-jet.

As thunt originally suggested, make a stop just slightly above the propeller to knock it back into place and get it spinning the right way. I think the stop he was thinking of was mainly to smack the propeller on the side and change its spinning direction, not merely to have it move up and down until the magnet finally "learns" to spin the other direction. I was just going to use some epoxy putty for this as it will be easy to make it in the shape I want and easy to attach to the curved inside surface of the guard.

Lastly, use an ABS fitting with horizontal slits so it looks really cool. Maybe use some black eggcrate (which I can't get locally, so I'll just use white) on the very end of the output nozzle just to be safe. My Anthias FLOCKS to this thing if I ever turn it off. I would hate to see a fish get mulched by this thing in a power outage or during maintenance.

[niko5]

Cool cant wait to see that
I really wish I would have though about the sawing off the original cover and using that on the fitting that would work perfect I bet. maybe next time hehe if it works for you.

I think the eggcrate might mess up the flow you get out of it because it is a spinning flow and the eggcrate might mess that up.. but worth a shot and it would defiantly be safer.

That makes since about just stopping the prop rather than letting it slide out and back in hum... defiantly like to see if that works.

Well here is my V2.11 Not as clean looking as ied like though.
http://www.nicksreef.com/images/diy/...ll%20Guard.JPG
http://www.nicksreef.com/images/diy/...tom%20bell.JPG
http://www.nicksreef.com/images/diy/...ide%20bell.JPG

As you can see on the bottom of my fitting I cut a piece of acrylic to put in it to serve as a mount which is currently hot glued to the maxi jet but would have been a PERFECT base to mount the original piece that locks on the maxi jet.

[ejmeier]

Whoa! That thing is huge! What is that, like a 4" to 2" reducer?

On a good note, I went out to in the garage with my maxi-jet shaft and tape measure in hand. Guess what I found all over the wheels of a bike? Tons of Maxi-Jet shafts!

I did some research, and found that bike spokes are basically 14 gauge rods. 14 gauge works out to about .08, while 3/32" is about .092, but that's close enough for me! Technically 3/32" is equivalent to a 13 gauge wire, though I've never heard of anything being 13 gauge. I'm definitely making a stop to the bike shop tomorrow, I am becoming more and more optimistic about this project.

[niko5]

Well awsome Ill have to pick up a spoke or 2 for further upgrades

Its only a 2" to 1 1/2" reducer hehe Its about the size of a real stream. If i dont notice any difference in flow (its still drying havent tested) them in gonna stick with my other slightly cleaner look

[niko5]

Well I was sittin here thinking about what you were saying about this thing being huge.. and I was thinking.. wait.. that plate I cut was 3 1/2" the fitting is a 3" to 1 1/2" recuder.. I picked it up out of the 2" to 1 1/2" box and it looked like the size I wanted I dident even think about looking at it closer thats home depot for you..

[niko5]

ejmeier,
I was messing around with the idea of using the trimer original maxi jet cover to hold the guard on. The only issue I see is the prop doesent fit through it so you would have to end up locking the prop and shaft all inside the guard.. Just a thought.

[ejmeier]

Originally posted by niko5
ejmeier,
I was messing around with the idea of using the trimer original maxi jet cover to hold the guard on. The only issue I see is the prop doesent fit through it so you would have to end up locking the prop and shaft all inside the guard.. Just a thought.

That's a bummer, but not a complete loss. I guess it would look better than the gobs of hot glue I was originally planning on covering the base of the MJ.

This way, the gobs of hot glue would be on the inside (out of sight) to attach the maxi-jet base to the guard. I guess its just a matter of where you want to pull the gobs of glue off.

Anyway, I won't comment on this any further until I've actually tried it....

[ejmeier]

Originally posted by ejmeier
Anyway, I won't comment on this any further until I've actually tried it....

Okay, so I lied.

How about this: do the maxi-jet base mount thing, but on the guard, have it be a cleanout adapter. You know, the ones with the ends threaded. Then buy a cleanout plug and drill a big hole in it (basically as big as the pipe itself) so all you are left with is the threads.

Then mount the acrylic cross brace thing and the whole shooting match onto this threaded piece. The piece then threads into the end of the output nozzle. Then you could just unscrew the end and remove the whole shaft and magnet from the front.

That's all for me tonight, I'm tired.

[niko5]

The end cap clean out may work out. Hope you get it done tommorow

[gwrulzmylife]

looks like that would work

[jdebuck]

I wonder if a welding shop may have 3/32 titanium rod?

[ejmeier]

Well an update to my project.

Things didn't quite go off the way I wanted, but where would be the fun if everything worked out perfectly?

I started by calling a few bike shops and finding that most if not all shops don't carry titanium bike spokes. They said they could order them for me, but it would be a full set, which would cost a lot of money.

I went to the hardware store and must've looked at practically everything that was metal, or was made of titanium. I came up empty. At one point I was even looking at 3/32" titanium drill bits, but they were the same length as the regular maxi-jet shaft. How ironic.

Also, I couldn't find the part that I specifcally wanted in ABS, though I got a backup part that is very similar and probably would've worked if I had used a 1 1/4" propeller. So I had to settle for white PVC.

I think this contraption will work, but it is still untested. I'll throw together a post in a few minutes detailing what I built.

[niko5]

Well there is always that ground probe at doc fosters there is enough rod on it to cut it in half and make 2 streams.. Or atleast at the length I did.

[ejmeier]

Okay, what I came up with (as explained in previous posts) is a modified maxi-jet that uses a fixed inner shaft to stabilize the outer moving shaft. I wanted to make something reliable but also accessible, so I tried to make it easy to take apart.

First, I used the old base of the maxi-jet, sawed off about 1/2" up from where it meets the base of the MJ.


Then I attached this to a 1 1/2" cleanout adapter. The outer dia. of the maxi-jet base, ironically, is *very* close to being 1 1/2", so I used a small length of 1 1/2" PVC as a bushing. I then hot glued it in place, sawed some slots at the base of the fitting, and I now had a removable guard piece that fits on the top of the MJ.

However, like niko5 mentioned, the propeller cannot fit through the small opening on the MJ base piece. What I did was drill out a 1 1/2" cap to use as another removable piece for the front of the unit. This would let me unscrew the front and take out the propeller and magnet, then I could detach the guard if needed. Here's a picture of the drilled out cap:


Once this was done, I just cut some eggcrate to fit in the threaded piece, borrowed the shaft "holder" cap piece from the original MJ, and glued it all into the front of the unit.

I also put a little piece of epoxy putty inside the wall of the guard piece. This is meant to stop the propeller from spinning the wrong way and popping out of place. If it starts up spinning incorrectly, its own back-current will push it up and out of the shaft. When this happens, in theory, the prop should hit the stop and reverse directions. Once it is then spinning the right way, the current it makes will instead push it down against the MJ body where it's supposed to be. Here's another pic:


Like I mentioned in the earlier post, I couldn't find a replacement shaft, so I borrowed one from my other MJ. I cut it fairly short, and used it in the base of the unit to stabilze the bottom of the magnet. The other shaft is on the front and stabilizes the propeller shaft and the top of the magnet.

Here's an exploded view of the whole thing:


And here's a pic of the finished, assembled unit: