is there such a thing as an hour meter?

[mark kosse]

I'd be curious to know how much time some of my tools get used. Even at school where I teach woodshop, I'dbe curious to know.

I had someone tell me I was wrong for "oiling a braring on a older drill press with sealed bearings. This is my home drill press and I'd bet I don't get 1 hr total time per year on it and I have a farm and woodshop. If I installed new sealed pearing they'd be shot before I got 15 hrs on them. I'dkinda like to know. Thanks

[johnny means]

Higher end machines actually are sold with hour meters.

[Neil Brooks]

Of course.

Fairly common.

My first thought was Grainger.

Sure enough....

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/hour-meters/counters-and-hour-meters/electrical/ecatalog/N-cr3?op=search

[Bruce Page]

Check the Grainger or McMaster-Carr websites. Hour meters are common on industrial machinery.

[Perry Holbrook]

If your machines are 110v, you can wire a cheap electric clock to the on/off switch. The clock advances whenever the machine is turned on.

Perry

[mark kosse]

Sorry, I sould have said a CHEAP hour meter. I knew they were available, but the info isn't worth that much to me. I figured in this age where about any electronic device is available someone would be making one for general use.

Perry, That never crossed my mind. An extention cord with a cloch wired through the nuetral side would work just fine. Now/ if I can find a non batteried powered mechanical clock....

Sorry for any spelling errors, I'm not wearing glasses tonight.

[Neil Brooks]

If your machines are 110v, you can wire a cheap electric clock to the on/off switch. The clock advances whenever the machine is turned on.

Perry

:confused:

Won't that "flip over" at either 12 (far more common) or 24 hours, though?

If the goal is a routine service at, say, 100hr intervals, then ... it would need to have a calendar attached, too, no ??

Perhaps I'm missing something.

Historically, I often do :)

Mark: there's bound to be online listings for salvage yards for agricultural equipment, aircraft, RV's, generators, etc., etc., etc.

Or eBay...

LOTS of equipment IS serviced based on hourly intervals.

No glasses, huh? :D

[Leo Graywacz]

Sorry, I sould have said a CHEAP hour meter. I knew they were available, but the info isn't worth that much to me. I figured in this age where about any electronic device is available someone would be making one for general use.

Perry, That never crossed my mind. An extention cord with a cloch wired through the nuetral side would work just fine. Now/ if I can find a non batteried powered mechanical clock....

Sorry for any spelling errors, I'm not wearing glasses tonight.

$30 is expensive? What did you expect to pay?

[Mitchell Andrus]

:confused:

Won't that "flip over" at either 12 (far more common) or 24 hours, though?

If the goal is a routine service at, say, 100hr intervals, then ... it would need to have a calendar attached, too, no ??

Perhaps I'm missing something.

Historically, I often do :)

Mark: there's bound to be online listings for salvage yards for agricultural equipment, aircraft, RV's, generators, etc., etc., etc.

Or eBay...

LOTS of equipment IS serviced based on hourly intervals.

No glasses, huh? :D





.....What?
.

[Neil Brooks]

The OP forgot his glasses. That's the reason behind the enormous text.

As to the rest of the post .....

Wiring a clock, inline, would only work if you were trying to measure intervals shorter than or equal to 12 or 24 hours, no?

Clocks work on either a 12 or 24 hour basis, don't they?

If you want to -- say -- lubricate the gear on your table saw, after 50 hours of operation, then ... how will your bedside clock -- that you've wired to log hours, on your table saw -- tell you when 50hrs is up?

It doesn't HAVE facility for counting beyond 12 or 24 hours, does it?

Lastly, if yours was a re-post of mine ... to be humorous, then:

a) Ignore all the above, and

b) :D

[Jim O'Dell]

If you have an A/C to DC converter, you can get 12 volt hour meters for 25.00 plus shipping. :rolleyes: :D:D Jim.

[Dennis McGarry]

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/items/2REU4?Pid=search

That one is only 17.93, thats pretty cheap..

[Van Huskey]

I do see his price issue, if the idea is more novelty than necessity (say in the case of bearing maintenance on a 1/4 million dollar machine) it does seem in todays "electronic" world that there might be something that fit the bill in the $2-5 dollar range. You can buy junky kids toys at the "dollar store" that have more computing power than Apollo 13 but the key for the hour meter is where is the market for the millions of units required for the low price considering the major consumers are not going to question $30 when protecting an expensive machine and an employee might be fired if they toasted a huge commercial machine because they decided to rely on a $2 piece of Chinese microjunk, I mean chip, to determine service intervals. All that said I bet you one could find something that would work deep in the bowels of the many electronic surplus websites but most of the are notoriously hard to search.

[Rick Lizek]

You want cheap just look at your watch and record the info on a clipboard hanging on the machine.

There is no point in oiling sealed bearings. Doesn't hurt but doesn't help although I've had some bearings get stiff on a sliding table table panel saw and soaking them overnight made them last a few more years.

[Myk Rian]

:confused:

Won't that "flip over" at either 12

say what???

[Robert Reece]

You can get a 110 power monitor called "kill a watt" (ha, ha). Search for it on amazon.

My local library actually has them for lending out. So you might be able to monitor some of your 110 stuff for a week and extrapolate from there.

[Jerome Hanby]

If your machines are 110v, you can wire a cheap electric clock to the on/off switch. The clock advances whenever the machine is turned on.

Perry

That's a great idea as long as you don't need to track more than 12 hours. Long as it's single phase, a transformer and a cheap clock isn't too expensive for 240V stuff...

Wonder if any of those cheap electromechanical clocks have a calendar with month and day...