Soccer ball shooter

[Mocha]

Sorry if this isn’t in the correct area
First I’d like to say I am not handy and Thanks to anyone that has ideas to help.
If you imagine a football thrower or baseball thrower machine that’s roughly the same thing I’d like.

I am trying to build a soccer ball shooter for some kids. Brand name shooters run $3-$10k

I have bought two of the motors shown that I have attached. They come with controllers.

I want The wheels to attach directly to the motor and that is where my problem lies. The shaft of the motor seems short for the wheels (12in) to fit.

Do I need some type of extension?
I was thinking of putting hubs on it. Is that enough extra room?
Or get the wheels and hubs together?
* I have also attached what brand name shooter looks like.

Thanks

 

[mckutzy]

If you have the clearance to mount it.. use a shaft coupler to join the hub shaft.
If You can find the right bolt pattern hub plate.. you could make all this using off the shelf stuff for not that much... To save space, Id use a chained driven wheel....

Is this going to be a 12VDC or a regular 110VAC???

 

[itsid]

chances are the motors will suffer quite dramatically from bearing the drive wheels.

The motor shaft is quite small and a soccer ball being wedged into two friction wheels can apply a dramatic amount of force on the motor shafts.

So you it's far more reliable to just mount the wheels on seperate well dimensioned axles (with two bearings each at least)
and then drive the axle with a spocket.. if you want a 1:1 ratio you might try that of course (albeit I think you need a bit of reduction to accelerate the ball quickly enough)

'sid

 

[Tpdingo]

chances are the motors will suffer quite dramatically from bearing the drive wheels.

The motor shaft is quite small and a soccer ball being wedged into two friction wheels can apply a dramatic amount of force on the motor shafts.

So you it's far more reliable to just mount the wheels on seperate well dimensioned axles (with two bearings each at least)
and then drive the axle with a spocket.. if you want a 1:1 ratio you might try that of course (albeit I think you need a bit of reduction to accelerate the ball quickly enough)

'sid

I think 1:1 would be fine as long as you had two big *** flywheels connected. There is going to need to be an external shaft for some insane bearings so may as well add it. Then there will be enough momentum to fling the ball. If there was 20lbs spinning on either side, there is no way a soccerball is stopping those wheels now

For building this, you could reasonably use most off the shelf go kart parts up to the wheels themselves...It would cut down on the amount of "oh will this work or not?" guessing if parts will be compatible or not.

 

[Mocha]

Thanks for the ideas.

Just a follow up. I will be using batteries because we don’t always have access to power at some fields. I have one battery 56v now just to test the motors and will get another once things look like they’re going to work.

I know the football and baseball throwers have the wheels mounted on the shaft somehow without chains. The football can throw up to 70mph. (The people that have the football thrower won’t let me take the wheels off to look. Lol)

Also I’d like the “unit head” to be able to move. ( I’ll link another type that shows it better.

The wheels are 12” with 4” width.

As for off the shelf products that’s the plan but feel free to offer ideas what those things are. I won’t be offended I promise. LOL

I’m thinking a hub would work with wheels that have the same boot pattern.

I have people who will design the unit and weld it for me. I’m just working on the motor/wheel section.

Thanks Again and hope to hear more ideas

 

[Tpdingo]

I think your best bet is to put two go kart tires ~18" each in that configuration. Then you can run pillow blocks and 1" axles through some large square stock steel in a reinforced shape(ie some kinda rectangle so the axle has two points of contact. Weld motor mounts to the frame and put a sprocket and chain of your desired ratio. The tires/wheel combos should be heavy enough already. Then you can just mount the motor combo thing on some movable truck thing.

Yeah I know this goes against your whole no chain idea but those motors were really designed with a chain in mind.

 

[Mocha]

Again thanks for all the suggestions so far and keep them coming.

Obviously the sprocket comes off on my motors. But are you saying that the motor(shaft) wouldn’t be able to handle the torque or pressure with the wheels directly attached(without a chain)?

I’m just wondering what the difference is from what I have to what the name brand motors would be? Since the professional models have wheels that mount directly on the motor.

There was a man on YouTube who built a lower end model with just generic used dc motors and added wheel barrow tires directly on. Realizing that it didn’t shoot as quickly or the frame didn’t articulate, it seemed okay.

( Sorry if I sound difficult, it is not my intention. I just like learning from asking questions)

---------- Post added at 02:02 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:58 PM ----------

I should add that another reason I don’t want chains,besides safety, is that I would need both motors having separate chains. The wheels have to go at different speeds to curve the ball, so it can’t be just one chain.

---------- Post added at 02:03 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:02 PM ----------

And there is no gokart shop in my city that I can find or I would try there for advice as well

 

[Shep1970]

I “think” your looking for something like this: not sure of your motor shaft size though, probably 8mm D shaft though. But not sure.
https://www.superdroidrobots.com/sh...aft-set-pair-8mm-bore-10-inch-pneumatic/1131/

Or something similiar,

Shep

 

[mckutzy]

Whers abouts are you located??? ..

 

[jmaack]

I'd look in to some of the trailer tires such as at walmart or tractor supply. then go from there. Then machine shop to adapt to motors. what is shaft size of motor?

Those throwers dont need alot of squeeze force and shouldn't experience much with both the wheels and ball compressing some.

I think you need larger wheels and tires for a larger flywheel effect. smaller tires as you probably nnow are not going to have alot of momentum for a decent distance/speed exiting

 

[Mocha]

Thanks for the suggestions. Keep them coming.

*** so all the brand name shooters don’t have a chain. Does that mean that maybe their motors have a bigger shaft? Maybe I should get a motor with a bigger shaft? If Anyone has ideas about a electric motor with 3500+rpm with a bigger shaft, please let me know.

I was looking at go kart tires about 12” slicks. Any bigger than that and it starts to become a little cumbersome when transporting.

So Ive been in touch with someone who runs a go kart association. Although there are no go kart shops in my city. He’s willing to give me some suggestions. But keep suggestions coming.

A little more information. I believe the motor shaft is 5/8 or an inch

For the user who put the shaft extender, that was my idea as well.
I did a crude drawing.
There was also a YouTuber who made a pretty low end shooter from some motor and I’ll try and show some of his photos.

Thanks again everyone and look forward to hearing more.!

I am located in edmonton Alberta Canada. Please don’t selll my information. Lol