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Modding Project: Cheapskate's BAD reservoir ideas --#1 done May 25--

Discussion in 'Modding' started by Cheapskate, 14 Jan 2008.

  1. Cheapskate

    Cheapskate Insane? or just stupid?

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    Like all modders, I have a thousand ideas, but no time to do them all. I'm not ready to start a new case, but this idea has been bugging me for a while. I want to make a TribalOVERKILL style reservoir, but freak it out a bit.
    [​IMG]
    -Thanks to GrendelPrime for the Link to a gear template posted here.
    The plan is to create a planetary gear that turns 3 spinning...things. That part is still up in the air. I may even add one to the center gear.
    [​IMG]
    -A rough render of what it should look like, (without the spinny bits.) The center shaft could be made shorter, and the render does not have the support plate for the gears.

    -Now here's the funny part... I'm going to try to fit this inide a 3" inner diameter tube!
    [​IMG]
    -I've had this badly beaten chunk of tube rolling around forever, and I finally have a use for it.
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    -For the drive shafts I have a big pile of roughly 1/8" stainless steel rods. I will need to find a few that aren't bent.
    [​IMG]
    -On a side note... anyone have any ideas what I could do with this aluminum pipe? The initial plan is to machine decorative rings into it and make it into a semi-passive cooling reservoir for Hypnotoad. (It looks like it's been used to club zombies, so cleanup/disguise ideas are welcome.)
     
    Last edited: 25 May 2008
  2. E.E.L. Ambiense

    E.E.L. Ambiense Acrylic Heretic

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    I can picture this happening, but I'd be worried that there isn't enough...'torque', I suppose....to get the gears to start spinning. I'd guess it'd require some decent flow rate to get them to start moving. Of course I could be raining on the parade too.

    The aluminum pipe....what's the inner-diameter on it? And what's the outer on the acrylic tube? I think rings would look great on it. Polish the hell out of them to clean them up, etc. Do you have any scrap metal laying around? You could create caps for the top and bottom "rings" so the res has somewhere to slot into. I'm just tossing ideas about. :)
     
  3. mvagusta

    mvagusta Did a skid that went for two weeks.

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    The 'fan' at the base is pretty big so there's a fair lever to have plenty of torque to spin the gears, but if objects/figurines/whatever are attached that have a high enough resistance when spun, then yeah, it might not spin.

    It seems tribal might have started a trend?
     
  4. Cheapskate

    Cheapskate Insane? or just stupid?

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    I wanted to do one that was just an *ssload of gears in a box, but that would take forever.

    @EEL - The drive gear is about the size of a penny and the paddle wheel attached to it is 3". That's lots of torque. My big issue will be filing out the tiny gears. The OD of the acrylic tube is 3 1/2"(1/4" walls.) The aluminum tube is 2 1/4" OD, 2" ID. I also have 6 feet of UV green 2"OD tubing that could fit inside with some sanding. It will be part of the end cap solution. Heating up some plastic and covering it sounds good.

    @mvagusta - Tribal and G69T.

    On the aluminum pipe res: I'm also thinking about soldering a coverplate to it like a machinegun heatsink. I don't have much sheet metal lying around, though...
     
  5. Cinnander

    Cinnander What's a Dremel?

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    Do you mean you want an idea for something that runs the length of those drive rods which spins?

    If so how about a kind of two-bladed Archimedes' screw affair which gives it the appearance of some kind of 3-screw supercharger? I'm thinking screws with very 'long' threads, i.e. over the entire length of the screw perhaps only one or two turns.
    Admittedly this might be a bit hard for the water pressure alone to turn! There again if the thread is long enough perhaps the water will help turn them a bit?

    Edit: this has probably been done before, I don't know.
     
    Last edited: 15 Jan 2008
  6. Cheapskate

    Cheapskate Insane? or just stupid?

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    I like that, but I would have to make 2 blades for each of the 3 because of the shafts. -or 4 blades would hold themselves to the shaft...

    EVERYTHING has been done before at this point.:D
     
  7. Cinnander

    Cinnander What's a Dremel?

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    Alternately gear up the revs from that impeller a few times and see if you can make a vortex :D OK now I might be in fantasy land, but that would be cool.
     
  8. Cheapskate

    Cheapskate Insane? or just stupid?

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    :hehe: -Toss a few hamsters in and watch 'em grind!
     
  9. E.E.L. Ambiense

    E.E.L. Ambiense Acrylic Heretic

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    ^HAHAHAHAH!
     
  10. Cinnander

    Cinnander What's a Dremel?

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    lol, you 3vil B'stard
     
  11. Javerh

    Javerh Topiary Golem

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    The flow torque is easily enough if you can get those gears machined well. Are you going to dremel them?
     
  12. Cheapskate

    Cheapskate Insane? or just stupid?

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    I'm stuck with hand filing them. I might be able to dremel out the rough cut.
     
  13. Cheapskate

    Cheapskate Insane? or just stupid?

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    Plans have changed. My Christmas cash was spent on a scroll saw.
    [​IMG]
    -My first cut with it didn't go so well. I found out that the material I had planned to use was extruded plexi, not cast. The cut melted back together as soon as I cut it. I had to finish the cut to get the blade free.:(
    [​IMG]
    -Plan B. I have a bit of 1/8" UV yellow/green sheet. Here I have glued the templates on. The pasta roller has never been used for pasta, only wallpaper.
    [​IMG]
    -The center gear. Getting this thing glued to the shaft is going to be a...well, I can't say that word here.
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    -I was a bit off on the size. This is a quarter.
    [​IMG]
    -All the gears cut and laid out for a test fit. I have some problems at this point. the gears bind occasionally, I'm not sure if it's a badly cut tooth or just the fact that they flop around while turning.
     
  14. perkins teh modder

    perkins teh modder What's a Dremel?

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    that looks great, the gears give it an industrial look:D:D
     
  15. Javerh

    Javerh Topiary Golem

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    You could try forcing them to spin for a time with a drill. If you're lucky the binding part will wear out. If you're not lucky a gear tooth will crack off.
     
  16. Cheapskate

    Cheapskate Insane? or just stupid?

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    I'm not a lucky person, so the gear would fly off and stab me in the eye if I tried that.
    I changed the drive gear design so it will not require being glued to the shaft. I'm also adding washers to keep the gears from tilting.
     
  17. Cheapskate

    Cheapskate Insane? or just stupid?

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    What's a sucka' gotta do to get this moved to the project logs?
    [​IMG]
    -I'm resorting to other colors of plexi thanks to the big clear sheet I had being the wrong stuff. Here I'm sanding the sides of the paddlewheel drive down with a sanding block ~very carefully.~:eyebrow:
    [​IMG]
    -Milling out the teeth here. I was using the bottom of the vise for quick placement. About 3 cuts in I realized I was going to have problems with that when the cut areas were on the bottom. I lined up the rest by eye using the mark on the vise and the center hole.
    [​IMG]
    -Not perfect, The teeth need braces. I also made some spacers for the gears. I can use these to glue the drive gear directly to the paddle.
    [​IMG]
    -I cut some parts out with the tile saw and noticed a problem. My old saw is sagging even worse than before. It can't cut a straight line at all. The res tube has a major tilt in it now. The green tube is for the aluminum res.
    [​IMG]
    -Playing more dangerous games with the drill. Here I'm filing down the bracket that fits inside the tube. I was using a different bit of tube to gauge the fit, and had to file it down more to get into the real tube. This may be a problem because the gears were designed to fit inside the bigger bit of tube.:eeek:
    [​IMG]
    -I milled down the face of the inlet block because of the tile saw slant.
    [​IMG]
    -I knew this wouldn't work, but tried it anyway.:duh: I need to cut a lot of material off to get this block to wrap around the tube. I thought I would try the scrollsaw for funsies. Almost as soon as I started the cut. The motor started jumping around in the mounts and the saw sounded like it was in pain. The plexi was too thick and was melting.:D Now I need to come up with a rotating jig for the drill press to cut out this area.
    [​IMG]
    -I cut out an area for coolant to pass through on the gear plate.
    [​IMG]
    I had the heat gun out for BlooBalls so I used it to make some curlie fries. I didn't take pics of the process because it was a real fight just to get the plexi to behave. I used a length of PVC pipe with a spiral marked out on it for a bending jig. I'm thinking of sculpting these with the dremel a bit. It will hide the saw wounds and dings from heat forming.:p
     
  18. 500mph

    500mph The Right man in the Wrong place

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    now i want some fries.

    anyways, that blue gear looks great, i cant wait to see this finished!
     
  19. brinkz0r

    brinkz0r Minimodder

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    Ah you are actually making that paddlewheel :hehe: Good luck on this one, it looks hard to fabricate ;)
     
  20. widmod

    widmod Minimodder

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    another crazy project log :jawdrop:
    I will following this too
    will you use the res in a case our sell it?
    pm a moderator to get it into project logs
     

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