Power Requirements

Only a full-scale trial will help you out here, but never say “I have NO idea!”, because you have TWO trains of ideas:-

(1) If you have a collection of electrical motors, salvaged from personal fans to vacuum cleaners, then try using your most powerful motor (measured in amps, which is “energy per unit time). If that motor is too powerful, try a weaker motor.

(2) Think of a plough-horse or a shire-horse; one of those monsters with hairy feet. Taller than you. Imagine having a horse on a treadmill turning your bicycle wheel powered sieve (vibrating or rotary). WAY too much power, right? (Forget about feeding and stabling the beast; this is a theoretical example.) (although I would love to have the manure to compost!)

One horsepower is 550 ft-lbs/second; a plough horse can lift a 550 pound weight through one foot in one second.

You do NOT have 550 pounds of soil in your sieve!

So one-horsepower is more power than you can use. A one-quarter horsepower electric motor will probably do you.

Note that gearing (wheels or pulleys) can convert the power output by a motor to a power that you can use.

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Saturday, January 27, 2024

This video details a 1/6 HPO electrical motor as a power source.

There is a 2:5 ratio followed by a 2:36 ratio, so a total reduction of 2:180 or 1:90. The YouTuber claims this is enough torque to remain spinning under load.