Seems to be fixed, I can see there's a video there now and not just the grey "unavailable" background. I'll give it a watch when I get home from work. Jeff
Great tour.. I'll give ya 50bucks if ya mail it to me! That thing would work good I bet for making sprues. Just got to sort out the dies. Is there any kind of threaded doo hingey on the outlet spout?
If I had the say on this one. I would send it to you today but it was something that I bought when I bought out the wife’s estate and she has memories of her parents making cracklins with it as a child so I would not dare. On the output tube. There is no thread but rather a quick lock type fitting where the tube has a flange with 2 opposing flats for a ½ twist lock. What is the volume of wax that would be acceptable? Will the wax be pre heated to adjust viscosity? If so and you go with this size press. It would be an interesting project to make a cylinder with some electric strip heaters placed in a jacket of heavy material such as lead to give thermal mas along with a temperature controller. This would allow a more precise piston cylinder fit and easy adaption for dies. I have a lot of the parts laying around and the machines to do the work. With some improvising we might get something going. Right off the top of my head I know I have a slug of extruded round stock aluminum 6 or 7 inches in diameter that would make a nice piston, an old co2 fire extinguisher that might work for a cylinder. Although I think the end result might only be around 1 gallon. Enough lead to fill in the space between the press and quite a few strip heaters to choose from. Being I have the press and they are a standard size. It will give me something to fit the parts to. “Plug and play.” Let me know what you think Jason. I work cheep as in free just help out and see where it goes. I will donate the materials I have on hand along with the labor against any future help I might need if I go in the lost wax direction. Right now it is undecided but lost wax and lost PLA with a 3D printer will most likely come in at some point down the line. Joe
How exactly do you power these things? I see tons for sale on ebay that just say something like 300w, 240v. Do they run on a power supply? Do you just hook up 240v line to them? How do you regulate the temperature?
They are just a resistive element, any dimmer or speed controller that can handle the load will allow you to control temp manually. (Or wack the rated voltage on it and let it sing! Beware some elements over-run if they are designed to be immersed or otherwise cooled by a liquid flow)
I was going to hook mine straight up to 110volts. I'd get half the wattage and figured that would be enough heat. it just needs to be warm, not hot
Another cheap trick is to chuck a suitably rated diode in-line, half the power again (half wave rectifier)
Jason If you run it on ½ the voltage you will only get 1/4 the wattage. The wattage is voltage times amperage. The amperage is determined by voltage divided by resistance. If any one is interested and can use strip heaters. I have several industrial type, new old stock. All 220 volt. Some flat around 1.25 wide and around .4 inch thick, starting around 12 inches long to around 24 inches. Some round, possibly .35 inch by around 16 inches. I think they are all in the 1000 to 1500 watt range at 220v, so around 250W to around 375W at 110V I have had them for to many years from my days of industrial scrapping. I would be happy to send anyone a couple for the price of post. In most cases. I usually just have you donate the post to a good charity unless I am particularly broke or I have request for a lot of items and the postage adds up quickly. If interested I will dig them out and post some pictures. Joe
Yeah joe.. I usually go the other way uphill, double the voltages, half the amps. Your right it's quarter the amps when going downhill. (ohms law)
Here's the cylinder Zapins is getting He wants a 2" pipe thread on this end. Cut off the end to fit it in my lathe Sawed off the ear then turned it flush Then drilled it and bored it to 2.02" and stepped it to 2.38" to fit a 2" pipe for welding. Weld a threaded stub in then weld the end back on the cylinder and ship to Zapins.
I'm beyond thrilled! I can't wait to get it and start testing it out! Thank you! I'll see about ordering some watlow bands or maybe strip heaters as well to line the cylinder with.
Progress on the cylinder has crept. Got the 2" nipple welded in And the cap reinstalled on the cylinder. Skip welded first Then welded out Now it needs paint. What color, Zapins?