Soil Sampler Details

By MikeJ

Here's some scaling work I did on the soil sampler tube.

The width of the door is known to be 3" wide.  Using that fact we can determine that the diameter of the soil sampler tube is 1.25".  I was surprised at that, I expected it to be 1" in diameter.

 (55 x 3") / 131 = 1.25"

Q: How many notches in the end of the drill tube?
A: Eight!

Note that the notches are not all the same.  Notch pairs (1,5) (2,6) (3,7) (4,8) are mirror images.  This indicates that the notches were probably cut using something like a hack saw with the pipe held perpendicular to the blade, cutting each pair at once.  The size of the notches varies from 5/8" to 7/8".  Pair (2,6) seem to have been cut with both sides on a slope while the other notches have a straight side and a sloped side.

Here's a shot of the soil sampler with the new mounting bracket design. This design will all allow adjustments (width, height & depth) so that the sampler will be easier to adapt to any tread section.

Here's an animated look at my current CNC notch pattern (alternates notch sizes).

Here's my animated soil sampler design

Sample of anodized finishes on aluminum parts:

Here's what a package of 100 gear motors looks like: