DIY Downrigger

[Quicky]

There is not much information on the web about people making their own downrigger. Mostly people discourage it saying that they dont work like store-bought one. While a tried and true downrigger is guaranteed to work better than a home-made jobber, I decided to take up the challenge anyway. Mostly because I dont want to drop ~ $300 on a new electric one. So here are the materials I used.

Electric window motor from a junked car (free)
5.5" by 9" 6061 aluminum plate, .25" thick (free)
2-1" shaft collars ($2.40)
a 4-bolt flange bearing with 5/8 bore ($10)
8" sheave with 5/8 bore ($15)
DPDT toggle switch ($5 from RadioShack)
#25 pitch A and B hub chain sprockets ($12)
#25 pitch chain from amazon.com ($11 for 10')
1" OD 6061 aluminum tube 5" long (free)
1.125" OD 304 stainless tube 4" long (free)
3" by 3" by .25" 304 stainless plate (free)
1" 304 stainless tube, .065 wall thickness and 36" length ($10)
3" cable sheave with a hub bearing (free from local A&P mechanic ( its a used aircraft cable pulley))
various stainless nuts and bolts and washers ($10)

Total for me $75.4

Here is the process;

In the aluminum plate drill holes to mount the flange bearing on one corner of the plate. Then drill holes to line up the window motor across the plate with the gear on the window motor in-line with the bore of the bearing. Use a step drill to drill out the hub of the A type sprocket to 5/8". This will be the "driven" sprocket and gets sandwiched between the 8" sheave hub and the hub of the bearing. Washers are used to locate the driven sprocket to the correct height of the drive sprocket.

This is the hard part if you don't have access to a lathe, but just asking someone at a community college machine and welding shop might surprise you on the type of tools you might use. If a student is willing to make a few bucks he might be able to do the work at a pretty good rate. Bore the hub of the "B" type sprocket to just fit over the drive gear on the window motor. Drill and tap set screws to mesh in the low part of the gear. I used three set screws spaced at 120 degrees.

Remove enough material (.005")l out of the 1" shaft collars so the 1"x 36" stainless tubing will easily slide through. The shaft collars will mount on the aluminum plate so that the boom will extend out. Its pretty self-explanatory if you see some pictures. The hardest part for me was figuring out how to drive the sheave but chain drive seems to be the easiest.

Im still working on it and need the 316 stainless cable and cannonball.

Here are a few pics so far. I will let everyone know how she works. It has been fun to build and even if it doesn't work that well then it was a lesson learned and that is priceless!

[Boatloadakids]

Not being as mechanically inclined as you are I'll cough up the $300. By the time you factor in your time on your project you will probably be close to the $300 mark anyway. However, it is hard to put a price on the pleasure of having made something yourself. I admire your ability and wish you the best. Hope your rigger works well for you.
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[brookie]

I think Kokane has a couple of downrigger releases for sale on here $10 to help complete the project.
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[Quicky]

Its true that if you put a dollar figure per hour spent on the project then just buying a new one would be easier. You're right though about the pleasure in designing and building stuff. Hopefully I can get the bugs worked out so that next time someone wants an electric downrigger for cheap they can look up my directions and build one for< $80 and not more than 3 hours spent!!
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[UTExplorer]

Great ingenuity! I would be proud to say I built that. I can't wait to see the finished product.
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[Quicky]

Oh, I made a bunch of changes today... I machined my own spoosl for the cable and made gimbal mounts and receivers to mount it on the boat. I will post the pics as soon as i put it back together and when I finish the honey-do's.
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[Quicky]

Here are some of the pics I promised. There is a new cable pulley and I built another downrigger for about $15 extra. Not bad, 2 for under $100. The Cannonball weights are just a couple of pieces of 5" drop stainless from flange holes. Just gotta get another clip release and some cable now.
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[Quicky]

Here is a video of my home made downrigger working with a new spool instead of the belt sheave.
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[bbpeterpan]

hello Quicky,
I made some research on google to find diy downrigger and fortunately I find your, I like it, it is stiff, simple and easy to build. I saw some images of your downrigger but I cant open the video due to the format. I am interest in the method you connect the motor to the shaft, I have yet a window motor but one with a worm screw, I find another downrigger on google maybe you just saw it : [url "http://www.sydneyangler.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=1818"]http://www.sydneyangler.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=1818[/url] good simple construction too, with a brake but no electric motor. bbpeterpan
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[Quicky]

Hi, I am glad you liked it. The window motor has a gear on it so I used a #25 chain sprocket with a B style hub on it. I then bored the hub to fit over the gear teeth. The set screws then jam in between the teeth of the gear. On the worm gear you may have to do the same. See the pics attached.
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[wiperhunter2]

From the looks of that second pic, you had some problems, how did that break happen?
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[Quicky]

The way the motor mounts to the flat plate is not very good. I should have used spacers under the plastic ears but that would have required a longer bolt on the spool side. The next iteration I am going to use window wiper motors instead of window motors. The regular window motors have about 6 ft-lb of torque whereas the wiper motors have up to 30 ft-lb. I can only lift 6 pounds of weight with the current setup. Also wiper motors have better shafts to mount the chain sprocket. Used wiper motors are about $25 from a junkyard.
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[bbpeterpan]

hi Quicky

thank you for the explanation and the 2 pictures, very clear.

bbpeterpan
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