I have been working on this project for over a year now. I got the idea in 1972 when a friend asked me to help him convert his model 11 to 4 beams. I responded, "Why stop there? Let's make them oscillate!" We never got our hands on spare 174 parts so we settled with a jerry-rigged 4 beam conversion. And it's been bugging me ever since.
I am now (finally) in my new garage and am in the process of displaying my collection, which has been in my farm shop the last 3 years. So I decided to see if I could create the one-off "SUPER TWIN BEACON RAY". It's best to start with pics, so here's a video of the prototype in action:
It WORKS! Please know that no 174 parts were modified, damaged or destroyed in the making of this beacon. In fact, the bar was a dumpster find by my younger brother years ago--looked like the port beacon got whacked off and the former owner couldn't effect a repair.
I used a 176 and 174 bulb holder, tapped the bottom of the shaft to use a 1/4" bolt for the syncro gears and another 1/4" bolt to hold the oscillator gear. Move the motor 90 degrees and, et viola! Clear tubing made excellent spacers.
After testing the reassembled bar,
disappointment set in...the chain has too much slack to make the slave oscillate the proper 95 degrees.
But I have no doubt that it will work! I have a possible work-around using an aluminum u-channel and attaching soldered strait chain sections at each end to function as gears, thus no slack. Now if the motor has enough juice and I can get my wife's tile our from under my bench....
I am now (finally) in my new garage and am in the process of displaying my collection, which has been in my farm shop the last 3 years. So I decided to see if I could create the one-off "SUPER TWIN BEACON RAY". It's best to start with pics, so here's a video of the prototype in action:
It WORKS! Please know that no 174 parts were modified, damaged or destroyed in the making of this beacon. In fact, the bar was a dumpster find by my younger brother years ago--looked like the port beacon got whacked off and the former owner couldn't effect a repair.
I used a 176 and 174 bulb holder, tapped the bottom of the shaft to use a 1/4" bolt for the syncro gears and another 1/4" bolt to hold the oscillator gear. Move the motor 90 degrees and, et viola! Clear tubing made excellent spacers.
After testing the reassembled bar,
disappointment set in...the chain has too much slack to make the slave oscillate the proper 95 degrees.
But I have no doubt that it will work! I have a possible work-around using an aluminum u-channel and attaching soldered strait chain sections at each end to function as gears, thus no slack. Now if the motor has enough juice and I can get my wife's tile our from under my bench....