the dreaded fake dragonfly...

[Kyl]

Hi everybody.

Iv recently been given 2 fake dragonfly machines as they are "crap" (could of told him that before he even thought about it).. just wondering how easy it would be to rip the motors out of them and stick some maxon motors in... would probz make some nice backup machines.

has anybody ever even tried it?? lol

[Sage Oz]

Lots of people have. They have the same length and diameter, the Maxons or Faulbaurers, Canons, all much better motors and will have more power and or speed, longevity and smooth consistency.

[Kyl]

cheers muchly, looks like a day of figuring out how the hell they have managed to put these together lol :)

[Bishopbyname]

I actually did this on friday. I had a Faulhaber motor hanging about that's the same diameter as the chinese one that's in these machines. It was much shorter but that wasn't a problem because of the grub screws that hold the motor in place. I just soldered the wires from the old motor on to the Faulhaber and hey presto. It actually runs on slightly higher volts now, and won't start til 8v and was actually no smoother but it was noticeably faster which is obviously down to the rpm difference in the motors. I used it for a geisha yesterday and it worked a treat! Shading was awesome and packing was effortless.

Obviously this depends on the motor you choose to use.

The hard part when coming up with a successful rotary machine is getting the geometry right and calculating the size of all the individual working parts. All these elements are done for you in the chinese copy machines. The downfall of these machines is usually the cheap bad quality motors (having said that i have a Stealth copy that's been running beautifully for the last 2 years and is probably the best colour packer i've EVER used. - it cost me £15). Rotary machines are different beasts to coil machines, to reduce the weight most rotary machines are made out of aluminium and plastics. Which are much cheaper than brass or copper that coil machines are made out of. The average parts cost for a rotary machine (not including the motor) are very low. The costly element to a production rotary is the CNC process and the time and money spent in R&D. These are negated when the chinese copy the machines, because some other poor builder has done all the hard work. They are great for experimenting with and learning how these machines work without being tempted to take your £450 Dragonfly apart!

Please don't mistake this for me saying "buy a chinese machine and put a good motor in instead of getting the original from the builder". I'm simply saying they're great to have a tinker with and now and then you'll get a good machine out of your efforts.

Keep supporting the industry but keep an open mind too.

[skinmech]

I believe there are now 6 different copies of the D/Fly kicking about, and 4 different motors have been used...The first batch had uprated motors, so when people tried them, they were every bit as powerful as the real Deal....So word spread, and as soon as the next batch came out, thats when they started fitting the less powerful motors, so they could maximise profits...These things were going for £120/180Bucks at the start, now you can get them for £25/45 Bucks, but they ain't worth it...P

PS..You can disassemble them in 2 secs....I have included a detailed guide...http://www.lightmandalas.co.uk/stained-glass-mosaic-blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/hammer-4-glassmosaic.jpg

[adamfromessex]

lol at the link

[Kyl]

lol at the link too :)

i know what u mean bishopbyname, i wouldnt go and buy them myself but they have been given to me... so 4rt sod it worth a bash, even if i do wreck them experimenting... i can strip coils down in my sleep but never really taken a rotary apart so if anything they a nice learning experiance... and if it works iv got a nice back up peice incase sh!t happens :) lol

[fkirons]

lol at the link too :)

i know what u mean bishopbyname, i wouldnt go and buy them myself but they have been given to me... so 4rt sod it worth a bash, even if i do wreck them experimenting... i can strip coils down in my sleep but never really taken a rotary apart so if anything they a nice learning experiance... and if it works iv got a nice back up peice incase sh!t happens :) lol

Here is where those machines you should be stored 10067

[Sage Oz]

Just because they exist doesn't mean they have to be used.