Errol
I've been involved with moving equipment with aerogo pads for quite a few
years in different plants. Most of my work is on tiled floors and these
things are great. However if the floor is not well glued you can pop a lot
of tiles loose. I actually observed a tile 8-10 feet away from the pad pop
up. I've also witnessed a whole concrete pad pop up. We parked a machine
over a hole drilled in the concrete and enough air got under the floor to
tilt up a 4x6' section and the dust storm horrendous till the air got shut
down. I've got other stories but believe me that these things can be
dangerous in the wrong hands.

Their basic construction is imagine a tire sidewall sliced off the tire and
affixed to a very stiff plate. Now the actual membrane is a bit more
flexible but similar in construction with the reinforced center
ring/opening. The air is fed into the center of the bladder. The bladder
starts off sealed to the floor and then lifts till an equilibrium is
reached. If you have a 24" pad you have roughly 450 square inches of area
for the air to work on so at 20 psi you have ~9000 lbs of lift. As the air
starts to leak from the center hole out the whole thing starts to become
frictionless against the floor. However if the floor is rough or cracked
then you get a massive air leak and the pad "blows out" . Sharp things on
the floor will cut or tear the bladder and your shot. The newer pads have a
scrim over the bottom that helps keep the bladder from rolling and blowing
out. They don't look to hard to make a crude set but if you do I would
suggest that you make a pressure regulator manifold to go along with them
because you need the control. If the system goes into oscillation then the
lift can start to doing some bouncing, just like a car with no shocks.
lg
no neat sig line
"Aaron" wrote in message
news:dAFne.796$R21.446@lakeread06...
Try http://www.aerogo.com/
This is not homebrew stuff, but it will give you an idea what you can do
with air pad movers.

"Errol Groff" wrote in message
...

On the Bridgeport list on Yahoo someone suggested using an air pad to
move machinery.

Does anyone know of a web site that might have some "how to" homebrew
informaiton about this sort of thing?

http://www.hovair.com/ This is the sort of thing I am talking about.

TIA

Errol Groff

Instructor, Machine Tool Department

H.H. Ellis Technical High School
643 Upper Maple Street
Danielson, CT 06239

New England Model Engineering Society
www.neme-s.org