Lets build a centrifuge! - Broken arm casting adventures.

Good Day to you All,

I think it's right about time I started filling the forums people rarely use.

Recently
my lab decided it was too much of a hassle to get their castings done
at a separate facility and being a nice guy that I am, I will be
building a broken arm casting centrifuge station for them.

Yeh...one of these suckers VVV


Those
of you who remember my "horsebow thumb ring" cast-along from long ago
on Bowyer's Den will surely recognize my rusty casting unit that I will
be cleaning and bringing back into service...starting with building a new base to replace that nasty 50gal drum.

So far these are the
materials for the base, with the base partially assembled. It's all just
duct work riveted together and bolted to a plywood disk to keep the
shape for when I will be filling the base with cement.





Hopefully my "wing-it" engineering method doesn't fail me.

Ivo

PS: That riveting gun thing is sick!!!



Any one think of using it for crossbow building?

Poured the concrete a few days back.



Everything is level and center



And there it is ready for anchor bolts (or what ever they are called)

Hey thanks for the tutorial Ivo. I really am looking forward to more of this.

Yeh...I'm kinda living at work, so that's pretty much all I can post right now.

I kinda rushed with cementing the anchor bolts forgetting all about the diameter of the centrifuge housing. Will measure it tonight and see.

If wrong, I'll have to get medieval on it's ass with hammer and stone chisel...considering it's fiberglass reinforced concrete...I might be in for a treat.

Ivo

Looking over the forum, I see so many great builds going on.....where am I? Damn it - stuck at work, that's where.

I haven't smelled the sweet dusty workshop of mine in a long time, and with the holidays that just passed even forgot I had a home for a while...Ok, done complaining.

Sitting at work does have some privileges - The casting machine is done...sort of.

I can cast with it, but there are issues that I'm still working out.

• One problem is the Plywood base I used. When I poured the concrete, I didn't realize that it would expand so much that the plywood would bulge out to such extent that it would literally make the casting machine rock like one of those rocking dolls.
  Had to tap in some plastic shims (used in leveling door frames) to get everything balanced.
  
• Second problem - The protective hood I bought for the centrifuge (despite the guy telling me that it fits my model) doesn't provide enough clearance for the unit.
  

...so the lid is going to be left off for now till I figure out a solid way to raise it at least an inch.

• Third problem - the stand is too light/has too small of a footprint to be absolutely stable. This one happened mainly because I chickened out in making it too heavy...after all I'm on the second floor and don't want to be making any elevator shafts.
  

Luckily my contractor friend stopped by and laughed at me a little - convinced me somewhat that the way it's standing (in the corner, between the bearing walls) I can make another one and put it on top of the one I built if I care.

*buck-buck* ...think I'll just weld up a box frame around it and throw a few sand bags in there, lol. (reason for a metal frame - it's got to be all non flammable or fire dep. inspector will rip me a new one)

Anyway,

This is basically where I'm at right now...it works well, just a bit wobbly is all - shaking enough to make the tongs fall off the corner, but "functional" in every other way. Enjoy the flick.


Ivo