Metalworking (rec.crafts.metalworking) Discuss various aspects of working with metal, such as machining, welding, metal joining, screwing, casting, hardening/tempering, blacksmithing/forging, spinning and hammer work, sheet metal work.

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Errol Groff
 
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Default Air Pads


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
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woodworker88
 
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The only thing I know about this technique is that it is used by fire
services and rescue personel to rescue people from building collapses,
etc. Does your school have an auto shop? At our high school we moved
our 2400 pound bridgeport clone from the shipping crate outside to an
indoor shop using 5 2 1/2 ton rolling hydraulic shop jacks borrowed
from the autoshop next door. These are the kind of jacks used by
mechanics to lift up cars without the big floor lift, and have steel
rollers to allow them to move loads as well as lift. We simply slid
the jacks under the pallet the machine sat on, jacked it up, removed
the remnants of the pallet, and then muscled the machine into the room,
pushing and repositioning the jacks to move around obstacles. Thus the
need for 5 jacks. You need one for each corner and one to shift the
weight onto in order to reposition the jacks. Hope this is useful.
Let me know if you have any other questions.
Eagle Strike Robotics Team, Los Altos High School

  #3   Report Post  
 
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Out where I used to work, they use air pallets to move things, heavy
things. One of the possible problems is having a smooth level floor.
At work they spent a fair bit to get a level floor. Nothing like
having 60 tons wanting to go to the low spot. The other thing that I
never have understood is they use fairly high pressure air which ends
up being not very high pressure under the pallet. I think the reason
is so the hoses are not any bigger than they are. If I were designing
the system, I would look at using a ring compressor mounted on the
pallet.

Dan

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Gunner
 
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On Thu, 02 Jun 2005 00:28:03 GMT, Errol Groff
wrote:


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



Rough and ready pads are simply made by drilling one or more holes in
a 1/4" or thicker steel plate that is plumbed with air lines to the
hole(s), then slid under the machine. Air is applied to the airlines
and the plate slides on a very thing cushion of air.
Just remember..inertia and kinetic energy still remain.

Once you get it moving...its going to be hard to stop unless you move
slow.

Gunner

"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire.
Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us)
off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give
them self determination under "play nice" rules.

Think of it as having your older brother knock the **** out of you
for torturing the cat." Gunner
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Richard Ferguson
 
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We used to use that technology at the factory to move machinery.
Looking at the specs, they use a lot of air. The smallest unit requires
12 SCFM per pad, so a system of four pads, typical for moving a machine,
would use around 50 SCFM. A homebuilt unit might leak more and need more
air, so you might need a large compressor.

Richard


Errol Groff wrote:
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



  #6   Report Post  
Anthony
 
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Errol Groff wrote in
:


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.


Errol,
Do not know of any website off-hand, but we use these almost daily at
work to move machinery. (Yes, we move equipment that often.....*sigh*)
You need a fairly smooth, level floor. Use aluminum flashing taped down
over expansion joints in the floors. These use the same principle as a
hovercraft. Each pad is independetly adjustable for height/flotation
with the regulators on the control unit.
We routinely move 7000kg (15,000lb+) machines with only 3 people, its
that easy to move around once it's floating.
I would most definately suggest purchasing the equipment to do this, it
is specially designed. Home brew may be very, very unsafe. Hate to see a
home brew bladder blow out on a corner while you are floating a machine.
Probably get someone really hurt.

--
Anthony

You can't 'idiot proof' anything....every time you try, they just make
better idiots.

Remove sp to reply via email

http://www.machines-cnc.net:81/
  #7   Report Post  
B.B.
 
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In article ,
Errol Groff wrote:

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.


Nope, but you could try a cheapish experiment. Piece of plywood, (or
two) route a bunch of grooves across the bottom, drill a hole where
convenient, lacquer the **** out of it, and apply air.
If it doesn't work, add some legs and call it a table.

--
B.B. --I am not a goat! thegoat4 at airmail dot net
http://web2.airmail.net/thegoat4/
  #8   Report Post  
Roger & Lorraine Martin
 
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Default


"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


Do a web lookup on Hovercraft - plenty of advice on design,
construction, skirt material and weight to air volume/pressure.

Years ago in the UK Pickfords Heavy Haulage had the brilliant
idea to use a hover skirt on its heavy low loader. Well it was
brilliant until the first sewer manhole cover and a lot or irate
locals sitting on their high pressure toilets. The most expensive
single use hover skirt ever made.


  #9   Report Post  
Karl Townsend
 
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Years ago in the UK Pickfords Heavy Haulage had the brilliant
idea to use a hover skirt on its heavy low loader. Well it was
brilliant until the first sewer manhole cover and a lot or irate
locals sitting on their high pressure toilets. The most expensive
single use hover skirt ever made.


LOL, now that's funny.

Karl


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Aaron
 
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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





  #11   Report Post  
Tom Miller
 
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Rough and ready pads are simply made by drilling one or more holes in
a 1/4" or thicker steel plate that is plumbed with air lines to the
hole(s), then slid under the machine. Air is applied to the airlines
and the plate slides on a very thing cushion of air.
Just remember..inertia and kinetic energy still remain.

Once you get it moving...its going to be hard to stop unless you move
slow.

Gunner


Yes, It works, but rough and ready is a pretty good description. I had to
move a liquid CO2 storage tank in the brewery in Fiji years ago. We made up
some pads out of mild steel plate and welded a 1/4" rod around the outside
of them to form a plenum chamber. They were about 2 feet in diameter. We put
3/4 air lines on each one of them ( we used 4 plates) we jacked up the tank
and slid them under the base. The concrete floor was a bit rough but level.
It made a hell of a noise (used the most of the output from the plant air
compressor to supply it) but it allowed us to push it by hand the 10 feet
that we had to move it.

Tom


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larry g
 
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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





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