[Fireball Lures]

I'm now in the process of building my first prototype automated pnuematic pouring machine. I'll get you guys some pictures in the next couple of weeks and we will see how many baits this baby can produce an hour.


Nathan

[redg8r]

Sweet,

Nathan, I'm workin on something similar
Maybe we can compare ideas & see what we each turn out.

I'm sure your farther along than I & you will probably produce alot more quantity, but I'll share what Ive come up with so far:

I got ahold of a few used "HVLP" spray gun paint containers, there used in the auto industry to hold paint under the spray gun for painting cars. its almost exactly like a typical airbrush paint jar, where the gun siphons paint from the jar.

Well I'm gonna reverse it & use the carberator hole to attach an air line with 30psi. or less.....this should "push" the plastic up the siphon tube into the mold.

PRO's:
[1]The container is aluminum & all the fittings are all metal,
[2]The lid comes compression fitted & uses a teflon seal,
[3]Holds 4 cups of liquid,
[4]Travel in the tube is minimal to prevent cooling of plastic.

CON's
[1]Since it pushes plastic UP the tube, my molds need modified to have a valve to prevent runout, not really a problem though because I mainly use RTV & is flexible enough to mold a valve right in it.
[2]Not sure how I'm gonna heat it, I have some nichrome wire, but kinda ac/dc illeterate could always throw it on the hotplate i guess
[3] will still have to open it to stir & add plastic.
[4] All metal, so I cant see inside it

NOTE I havent attempted this yet, just started gathering materials, I'm sure I'll find many more flaws, but hey I love doin this kinda stuff.

Hell if it dont work, I can always throw a vacuum pump on it instead & use it to de-air my mold mixes

Great idea Nathan, this is, in essence, injection molding.
OhioMike send us a tutorial for his vacuum box, which is the same concept using a vacuum instead of positive pressure.

I think this topic is gonna get big, keep it coming Nate & thanks for sharing.

My Pic below:

[Fireball Lures]

Actually red we are going two different ways with this you are going with injecting and I'm going with pouring and a faster curing time. I'm using Pnuematics to actuate the pouring pots and the molds are on a turntable timed with the pnuematic actuators for each type of mold the turntable runs x so many degrees to the first mold stops then the actuating arm is energized allowing the plastic to pour into the mold for x seconds then de-energizes closing the pot and rotating the turntable another x degree's to the next mold. The molds after being filled are turned into a chamber that is going to chill the plastic in a hurry I'm either looking at c02 injection which should be really fast not sure if it's gonna hurt the aluminum or not and it's gonna be expensive. Or a refrigerated tunnel dropping it to say around 30-40 degrees shouldn't be too expensive since I am an HVAC techinician lol. What do you need help with on the heater wires? I work on food equipment for a living and I'm sure I can come up with something.

Nathan

[Glaucus]

Hey Red, this link might give you some more ideas
http://www.opalcamp.com/homemade_wax...by_alan_le.htm
I also saw this $35 wax pump
http://www.tsijeweltools.com/casting.../machines.html
It might work with plastic.???

[redg8r]

Oh, I see......Thats quite an undertaking, but given your background in HVAC, I dont doubt your ability to pull it off. I'm not much help for timing processes using air pressure, but a piece of plywood on a lazy susan bearing might be the ticket for rotating the molds out to cool. I dont know how you'd drive that using air though.

Watch for condensation buildup on the molds from rapid cooling, depending on where your pouring, it might not be a problem.

Pretty cool, keep us updated, if you can.

Originally Posted by Fireball Lures

What do you need help with on the heater wires?.

Well I have the nicrome wire & thought about adding a thermostat to heat the pot/can like a normal pouring pot, but not sure how to insulate it. I know theres ceramic, but I'm looking for something else "non-conductive" that can take 400 deg. heat to wrap the pot with before I wrap it with the nichrome wire. how bout Fiberglass matting like used to repair boats? has anyone opened thier pot to see whats used inside for insulation?

Originally Posted by Glaucus

Hey Red, this link might give you some more ideas
http://www.opalcamp.com/homemade_wax...by_alan_le.htm
I also saw this $35 wax pump
http://www.tsijeweltools.com/casting.../machines.html

Thanks Glaucus, I've seen that first link, Thats alot of solder on that contraption isnt it The other link has some great tools, I think I'll contact em to see what the max temp is. Thanks alot.

[Fireball Lures]

For insulation you can use fiberglass you would just want to wrap it with something else over top of it. Not sure if the boat stuff will work but the yellow stuff like on water heaters will work I'm sure. T-stats you can pick up anywhere i know a few distributors we get our parts from for ovens and stuff so let me know if you need to find a thermostat.

I'm going to use an electric motor to run the turntable Red but after thinking about it more I might go with a conveyor belt.


Nathan

[redg8r]

Thanks for the info.

I can help you with a motorized conveyor, lemme do some diggin through my favorites & I'll get ya some links

[Fireball Lures]

Thanks red I've been looking but they are really expensive, I need a dc powered belt cojnveyor might have to build one from scratch. I need the DC power to be able to regulate the speed of the conveyor to get the pouring right on the molds. Have you ever looked at the roboworm website? www.roboworm.com they have a picture of the machine they use under about us I believe go to the about us page and it's on a link there think it say innovation or something. It's basically a turntable you will see what I mean if you see the picture. Let me know what you find on the conveyors.

Nathan

[Fireball Lures]

I found some injecting machines at Zorn molds website and they also have an open pour design like I'm designing. You might want to look at the pictures on the site but none of them get really close to the machine which tells me that they can't be that complicated to build, cause they don't want us to see the machine too close.


Nathan

[Fireball Lures]

Well the more I look into it guys the way to go would be the injection machine cause it can do a whole lot more than just worms. With the right molds you can do just about any type of plastic fishing lure imaginable. Even crankbaits... What a man could do with a small size affordable injection machine is a dream come true. Any of you guys reading this have some knowledge on how these babies work reply or email me. I have some basic knowledge of how it works but I've never seen one in person so any help would be great and could speed this process up greatly.

Nathan