When I first started these deer deterrent experiments I was using a roll of aluminum flashing material to fabricate the primary clanging station.

I'm ready to conclude after a year and a half of testing that it's too thin to stand up to repeated use day after day. I would guess you can only expect somewhere around 6 to 9 months of constant use with this thin gauge of metal.

That's why I've upgraded to the next size thicker, which can be seen in the left and right photos above. You still get the metallic sound, but now you can measure longevity in years instead of months.

I've been testing out a new motor in hopes of finding a better replacement for the rotisserie hack.

The shaft is much smaller, which has led to a lighter support arm design like the one shown above. It's been in service for a bit over a month now with no problems.

One of the things I like about this motor is the fact that it's a bit slower than its rotisserie cousin giving the deterrent a longer interval of silence. It requires one of those wall warts for power, which you don't need with the rotisserie version. I discovered that you can use a 9 volt wall wart to get an even slower rate that might prove to be more tolerable for those of you in suburban environments.

The last of these original support arms failed on me this week. We lost power and the thing reversed direction and got hung up and burned out. My latest conclusion is that this method of support attached to the shaft is not sustainable enough, and at best you can only expect a 5 to 6 month life span.

I've decided it was too heavy, which put too much pressure on the internal gears.

One lesson learned is to provide for a pivot point so the apparatus will give instead of being forced to the point of burning out. The other lesson is to make it much lighter.

A final note would be the need for the primary clanging station to be able to handle the deterrent in both directions. More on this in a future post.