Andrew,
Just a couple of comments.
Don't do it.
Don't do it.
Don't d0 it.
The reason for my suggestion is that over all of the preceding years, I have built nearly a dozen jiggers for ice fishing and have used them all extensively, in all sorts of weather and for many differences in time of use
Some jigged a small amount. Some jigged a large amount. Some jigged a varying amount. Some jigged for a while, stopped and then restarted at varying intervals.
Since we can use two rods in our area, I would always have one rod with a jig and minnow. The jigger would also have a similar jig and minnow on the end of the line.
Final score.
The rod that was sitting still, or was being held stationary - number of fish out of the hole 323.
The rod that was jigged by one of the many variable jiggers that I used was 0.
One would think that a fish would just run into the jig and minnow on the end of the jigging stick by accident = but no, it never happened.
So, I found a few different fishermen who wanted to try a jigging unit for a rod, and I gave every one of them away.
It wasn't the case that the jiggers did not work the rod. They all worked the rod, some the same, and some quite differently. But the result was the same - no fish caught on a rod that was being held by a jigging machine.
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However, there was one design that I thought showed some slight sign of promise. This was where the amount of lift drop was changed as a function of the rotation of the motor.
In this case, I used a 12 volt gear motor.;
To the end of the 12 volt motor, I attached a board that with the center of the board on the drill shaft, the board would rotate smoothly and constantly.
Then, in various locations on the board, I installed screws that would be long enough to drill all of the way through the wood disk, and still have a couple of inches of screw rising above the plywood disk.
Then, attached to a rod holding piece of pvc, I attached a lifting arm that would have one end of the lifting arm contact the differently spaced screws as the motor rotated. Since the screws were located at different locations on the board, the lifting arm to the rod holder would lift the rod and the jig different amounts as the motor rotated the plywood disks.
When, I compared the jig lift fall - as seen on my depth finder, the picture displayed on the depth finder was pretty similar to the same jig displayed on the jig and was hand held.
But, the one big difference that I never checked out would be to use a delay timer on the motor itself.
By this I mean that when the timer was off, the disk rotating motor would be off, and the jig would remain stationary Then, when the timer expired, the lifting motor would start cycling, until the timer begin its timing cycle one more time.
This then, would more closely match my standard lift drop, lift drop, lift drop ---- freeze --- lift drop lift drop.
It seemed that the bulk of my time that it was during the freeze sequence on the jig with the jig not moving either up or down when the fish took the bait.
Be safe. If you come up with a good machine and test it and find that it works I would appreciate the overall design and jig sequence that you find works out best for you.
Take care
p.s.
Here is the patent for a jigging machine.
[
patents.google.com]
YOu can study the drawings and build what you wish. You will never have a patent infringement suit filed against you if you build a machine for your use only and do not replicate it and sell it to someone. For your use only - no suit filed against you.
Here is a "sullivan jig down" auto jigging machines:
[
sullivantipdown.com]
Here is a link to the product: [
sullivantipdown.com]
