Pucks don't advance completely

[Cantle Räucherei]

Hi all

Just throwing out a quick query after doing a bunch of reading of posts.  When I used the DBS for the first go, the only issue I seemed to have is that the advance of the pucks seems to be about a 1/4 inch short.

The result is the puck doesn't make it quite all the way on to the burner, and more importantly doesn't push the used puck of the burner far enough to make it drop.  The result is that it burns for 20 min longer than it should, and does burn completely up.

I am going to call Bradley CS for their info, but I would appreciate any feedback/helpful hints anyone may have on the issue.

Thanks

[beefmann]

this issue may be a variances in the pucks you  have , as they may  have been very  dry and  shrunk that 1/4 of an  inch,, if the  pucks absorb some moisture they expand a little ,  this may be the  issue from the time of manufacturing to the time you  have  received your  pucks... 

[Cantle Räucherei]

Hey Beefmann

Thanks for the reply.  Definitely a possibility.  So that begs the question...  what is the correct diameter for the 'perfect' puck?  Thanks again for the reply!

[beefmann]

i believe it should be about 2 3/8 outside to  outside and  straight across  for best results. just measured a few here ranged from 2 3/16 to 2 7/16 .. mine are kept in the garage unless there are being  used,, as you  can  see they  do vary  in size for me as well

[renoman]

"and more importantly doesn't push the used puck off the burner far enough to make it drop."

If this is the case your pucks have to be SERIOUSLY undersized

[tskeeter]

"and more importantly doesn't push the used puck off the burner far enough to make it drop."

If this is the case your pucks have to be SERIOUSLY undersized

Wonder if this could be related to what I've got going on with the SG that I got a replacement for.  As I've fiddled with the SG, I observed that the cycling of the shuttle didn't cover the full range of operation.  The shuttle will retract about half of the distance that the shuttle on the new SG covers.  That means that with the old SG, sometimes a puck will drop and sometimes a puck will not drop.  Don't know yet what is causing this, but Cantle might want to look at how the shuttle is cycling to see if the shuttle starts with the shuttle completely blocking where the puck magazine tube sits, then has the shuttle retracting so that the shuttle isn't blocking any of the puck feed area, then has the shuttle returning to push the puck forward and fully block the puck feed area again.

I don't know yet why the shuttle on my old SG isn't cycling completely.  I suspect a couple of possibilities.  The microswitch is too close to the shuttle linkage.  This might make the shuttle stop, and then reverse when the linkage binds against the microswitch.  The fix to this appears to be to adjust the position of the drive motor slightly.  The other possibility that I've though of is that the shuttle linkage is catching on some of the wiring in the SG and then reversing before it can complete the full cycle.  I'm leaning toward this possibility in that it seems to be more likely to cause the intermittent puck feed problems that I've been having with the old SG.

Other choices would be problems with the microswitch or the drive motor.  Since both have been replaced with new parts and the problem continues, it seems unlikely that either one of them is the issue.

[Cantle Räucherei]

My pucks all measured out at 2 1/4" pretty much bang on.  I just fired up the machine cold to take a couple of pictures of the pucks moving thru the system.  But of course, it functioned perfectly - cold.  I will run it again on the weekend and see how it behaves when it is hot.

Thanks everyone