Hey guys/gals,
I had a difficult time finding anything about this so I’m posting it here in the hopes that someone here can help me. I’ve been working on a DIY power rod wrapper using an old sewing machine motor and miscellaneous parts I have lying around the shop. I know I need to slow the motor down using pulleys and a reduction ratio but I’ve had a @#$%& of a time finding suitable pulleys online. From what I’ve gathered I need a 3 inch diameter pulley with a quarter inch bore. Everything that I’ve been able to find has been industrial grade or much more expensive than what I’d expect. Does anyone here know of a supplier of delrin or plastic pulleys that fit this application? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Dean,
First of all, congratulations on building your own power wrapper. Just as with the gratification of fishing a rod you personally built, the same applies making tools and fixtures to fabricate any number of things, rods included. At the risk of sounding boastful, I thoroughly enjoy using the power wrapper/ lathe I built because it is built to my specs and better than anything else available.
As for locating a pulley (and anything else remotely related to hardware for that matter) = McMaster Carr!!! I found a 3in dia. X .25in bore X .375 round belt (O-ring) pulley, part # 6284K63 for $13.12. It is made of UHMW, not Acetal (AKA Delrin) but will certainly work for your application.
Good luck and keep us (me at least) posted how it turns out. Photos would be great.

Mark Talmo
FISHING IS NOT AN ESCAPE FROM LIFE BUT RATHER A DEEPER IMMERSION INTO IT!!! BUILDING YOUR OWN SIMPLY ENHANCES THE EXPERIENCE.

Dean,
Where are you located?

One thing that you can do is to go to salvation army, surplus store, pawn shop or good will to find some of these things.
When i first did what you are doing, I found a few old, old, old sewing machines and raided them for parts.

This is a wrapper power unit that I made many many years ago:

[www.rodbuilding.org]

The parts for this unit mainly came from surplus stores.

This actually worked all right by using the double jack shaft reduction. This allowed me to get down to a reasonably low rpm for power wrapping.

This was one of my first units that I built over the years. Since then I have built many more variations of power wrapper motor and head units.

These days, I prefer to use DC gear motors to take care of the speed reduction. I just recently built a new unit, using a 24 volt Pittman gear motor, power supply and pedal. IN this case, I found the motor at a surplus shop.

I have some surplus parts that I no longer need and you may have them for the cost of shipping.

Drop me an e-mail if you have any interest in the gift.

Take care

Rodger, you often mention a "surplus shop", exactly what type of store is this? Here in Northern California, I'm not aware of Surplus stores for mechanical and or electrical parts.

Phil,
Ax Man is the local Surplus store here in Minneapolis. They have 3 stores in the Metro area.
If you can imagine it, the item may very well be in the store. They pick up industrial surplus when a company has had an overrun of some item or items. Often companies will bundle all of their stock together that they need to move for what ever reason and companies will bid on the items. Often, these items are sold by the pound.

[www.ax-man.com]

In past years, there have been other similar stores in the area, but none of them are in business any more.

The interesting about a store like this is that the bulk of the items are very high quality industry standard items. Yes, obsolete for the company in question, but the items may be perfect for some other unique use.

There also on- line Surplus stores that - also provide new and used old stock at heavily discounted prices.

For example:

[www.google.com]


It is rather like fishing. The fun is in the hunt for that big one.
The same thing with surplus stores, the fun is in the hunt to get that perfect item to satisfy the particular need for what one is searching.

Take care

Dean

I really think you should consider keeping that motor assembly a direct drive motor. You can put a dimmer switch from the hardware store that will slow it down and add a foot pedal. Using your hand as start and stop break will work great. The direct drive lets you hand wrap when convenient and lets you back up on a dime. No belts to maintain, replace or hassle with when backing up.

Flex Coat Company
Professional Rod Building Supplies
www.flexcoat.com

Dean,
Are you still with us? What did you decide to do?

Mark Talmo
FISHING IS NOT AN ESCAPE FROM LIFE BUT RATHER A DEEPER IMMERSION INTO IT!!! BUILDING YOUR OWN SIMPLY ENHANCES THE EXPERIENCE.

Most libraries now have 3D printers and even classes on using them. A pulley would be easy to design and print.

Hey guys,
Wow the amount of suggestions and advice offered up on this is incredible, it makes me proud to be a part of such a supportive community. Thanks a ton for chipping in. I ended up ordering the exact pulley that Mark described (btw thanks for introducing me to McMaster, will definitely be using that resource in the future!), and will attempt the speed reduction to see how it turns out. And thanks John for mentioning the variable speed controller, I had planned on utilizing both a pulley system as well as a variable knob, so that I can switch from foot pedal control to hand control, and adjust the speed by turning the knob. I’m thinking that if I run into troubles with the pulley I can rely solely on the hand controls but will update as I get it set up. I have honestly enjoyed building my own custom tools for rod building as much as I have making the rods themselves, and this is definitely not my first random project that I’ve taken on just to save a few bucks with this hobby. I’ve built my own handwrapper, spine finder, cork cutting lathe and jigs and am starting to feel like I’ve spent more time with these things than I have working on rods haha. Here’s a couple pics of my latest creations, your certainly right Mark I do have pride in doing things my own way, even if the original ideas came from established companies. Any more advice as I start building this wrapper is more than welcome, I’ll be sure to post pics as soon as I have something worthy of being photographed :)
Thanks again to all of you????????
[imgur.com]

Hey guys, thought Id come back on here just to show you all how it turned out. I got some good advice here, and ended up fabricating most of the parts including a new larger pulley (made out of a cutting board on my metal lathe). I was planning on making everything out of plexiglass, but after building two roller stands I’d had enough and finished it out with wood. I wired in a dimmer (vari-speed 1amp from amizon) to adjust the speed limit by hand, and plan on adding another pulley to reduce the speed even more (a 5” pulley was not quite large enough to reduce the motor speed to my liking). The base is just a Fast-track board from Home Depot, the kind made for hanging tools on the wall), so I’ll also eventually add another one or two to make it long enough for a whole rod. If anyone has questions about doing this build I’d be happy to give some input now that I’ve been through it. Thanks to everyone here who offered advice when I needed it????????.
[imgur.com]