The RetroSteeper by magonegro

Last crawled date: 3 years ago

Introducing the RetroSteeper, a steeper for liquids and many other things. I wanted a oldie industrial sturdy design to make it appear like a cool retro machine (hence the name). You just need some M3/M8 bolts & nuts, a ~150RPM 5v/12v DC geared motor, 8x608ZZ typical skate bearings and a switch for the power supply. Feel free to implement your own electronics/enhancements. You can also take this as a start point for something else. You may think I'm crazy (and you're probably right).
Ok. You need more, see some videos here:https://youtu.be/-lrWlsq42Vohttps://youtu.be/U7L3mhPjIZk
I started this design as an e-liquid steeper/mixer cause I am bored of steeping it manually, but it has served me well for several things, between them a mini ball tumbler for printed parts, a sauce mixer at kitchen, and even a enterprise logo oscillator jaw dropping my customers, cool!! I love it. One of the pics show a beer on top of the machine, I wasn't steeping it heheh, it shows there just for reference (sorry, I didn't had coke at hand, but same standard size.
As the motor I used draws 150mA/5v (0.75W) I use it sometimes to discharge PROTECTED batteries to take advantage of the remaining charge without wasting it, a single LiIhium ion 3000mah 18650 batt may last many hours. I am now in the process of converting it to solar energy, this way it could even work as very efective scarecrow ;-) As DC motors, its spinning speed depends on voltage, so you can change the steeping speed easily. You can even power it from USB if you choose a 5v capable geared DC motor.
The tray is modular with some holes to keep up to you how to attach things. You should attach things with an elastic chord, if you don't have one, you can print the included spiral 1m chord with ninjaflex and you are done. Machine is also modular and you can install on the upper part any other mechanism of your invention to make interesting things, or simply a cool 'RetroMachine'. As I don't know what kind of switch you will use I included plain model where you have to drill 'the old way' holes for whatever else machinery you want to attach to the main design, hence the simple cubic box design. Remember also to add some weight to the innards of the box to make it stable if you are going to put on it weighted objects. Tray holes are for metric M6 bolts, you can use them to bind together your own designs for bottles, tumblers, logos, etc. I have attached amazing things to it, trust me.
Included are reference pictures for suitable motors. It has almost no electronics, just the motor, a switch and some wires, and of course a power supply than may be even batteries or a solar cell. These motors need very little current to work. Belts are printed with ninjaflex o filaflex, don't use semiflex elastomers as these are somewhat rigid for this purpose. Easy project and awesome results, just a bunch of nuts/bolts, washers, some common bearings and a cheap motor, BOM is under $20, and even FreeCAD sources included for your convenience. Come on, build one, you won't regret !!
Pics show mine steeping one of my favourite e-liquids for vaping.
Enjoy.
TODO: Awaiting for some arduino nano's, display, RTC clock and encoder control to incorporate to the party. Maybe even some led strip, we'll see... As the base machine and gears may serve for diferent purposes without modifications (by design), I am now working on multiple top mechanisms like rotating tumblers, shake machines, mini press, plastiline extruder, a pencil sharpener, a magnet ilussion, or ball circuit with liftener...