Design of Solar Powered Bench Grinder

All bench grinders are solar-powered. All the energy ever used on this globe comes from the sun and other stellar objects in the galaxy.

So for this forum to help, it is going to need a lot more detail than that obtainable from a thinly-veiled suggestions-based approach.

Hi PWSlack, thanks for the argument. Here in Papua New Guinea most bench grinders are electrically powered hence i lack the advantage to know more solar powered ones. But i will redefine this subject and address again

"conceptual designs, factprs to consider, material selections, etc..."

Those are probably the things your project supervisor wants you to do!

foolish project to begin with, its basically a DC grinder hooked to an unknown size array

They are trying to teach you to size a solar panel to be able to power a defined load.

Put that grey stuff to work!!!!

Solar panel/s

battery/s

charge controller

inverter

grinder

..'capacity' of each will determine weather or not it can operate for 1 second or longer.

A solar powered bench grinder would require thousands of dollars worth of materials to operate for any useful period of time.

It would not make sense as a stand alone device, but that doesn't mean it's not feasible. Good luck

can you incorporate a storage device(battery)?

Tell your project supervisor this is a trick project and demand that he give you an easier task.

Remind him that a solar powered grinder will not work at night.

Start here:

Basic Tutorials: System Overview for Solar Energy Systems

Then learn how to search the internet for more references that you can use.

What will you learn if we do the work for you?

Bruce, I must thank you for the frank realistic opinion on this matter.

i take your points all very helpful.

First you have to decide how much wattage your bench grinder is going to be (average 600 watts), then how much backup power you will require(how much battery storage) then the average amount of solar energy available for geographic region you are in, then the amount of solar panels needed to keep your batteries charged....come back with your figures and we will tweak the design.....

So if you have an average of 6.5 hrs of sunlight daily and you run the grinder for (?) hrs a day, that would be (?) kwh per day....I would use a DC motor 12v for simplicity....maybe 1200 watts of panels....and a half dozen batteries, charge controller....you can always add on capacity....

Here's a nice motor and variable speed control for instance....

http://www.omega.com/pptst/OMPM-DC.html

http://www.ipsnews.net/2012/04/solar-panels-reflect-bright-future-for-rural-papua-new-guinea/

My Grampa had one of this...... as a 7 year old, When Grandma wasn't looking, I just loved getting that thing spinning........ of course I was only big enough to stand on one side.

But from the other posts,........ if you want to get technical,........ making it steam powered is technically a solar powered derivative. But I'm sure that's not what the OP is looking for.

Hello, it just so happens that I, in my ignorance, decided I wanted to start a tool sharpening business. I wanted to make it mobile and so started to look into how to power it. In my case, I knew which machines I wanted, found out how much power they consume and went backwards or I think it's also called reverse engineering. Since you are online, you have all the access to info you need. I'm no engineer, nor do I understand electrical stuff either, but everything is online.

This project did not cost thousands of dollars. I will share with you the major expenses, aside from the machines.

250 watt solar panel.......$375.00 (Home Depot)

charge controller............$100.00 (Home Depot)

2 deep cycle marine batteries....$70.00 each (Sears)

DC to AC inverter...................$100.00 (Harbor Freight)

there were other expenses, but they were minor.

I run my business from the back of my truck, mounted the solar panel on my shell, and I'm good to go; works great, although had I had more money I would have gotten a better charge controller and inverter.

I know that, and you know that, but he should still have to figure out a thing or two for himself.

I have a similar setup to yours that I've been running for more than decade.

He will need a wallet inverter either way.

..I'm waiting for someone to write his paper too.. cheers

So why did you spend $475 on a solar panel and charge controller opposed to just charging the two extra batteries off of the truck alternator when it was running?

Thanks for being honest about this being a homework project. It kept you from getting bounced off the forum. Good luck on your project. And no, you will have to figure it all out for yourself....no good will come of getting advise from anybody else but yourself. You are an engineer...build it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJGpbvvJA2I