WhiteRoom skis

Document your personal work here. Show photos, movies, and share your secrets.

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sammer
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Post by sammer »

Holy crap dude that is an old pc box
I think I had that box with my first P133
Wow 32megs of ram and 4gig hard drive.
It was a smokin' machine. dual boot dos 6.22 / win 95

nice recycling job :)

sam
You don't even have a legit signature, nothing to reveal who you are and what you do...

Best of luck to you. (uneva)
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vinman
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Post by vinman »

I used that box when I built a PC about 10 years ago. The nice thing was that it was easy to cut and since it was metal, the whole thing serves as a heat sink. I guess the solid state relays throw off some decent heat. I was able to use some existing holes in the inner case to mount my PIDs and switches. I also used some of the existing screws from the case and screw holes to mount my hardware.
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skidesmond
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Post by skidesmond »

After your electrician signs off on the controller can you post details on how you made it or are most of the details at Head Monkeys site? Looks impressive. My electrical knowledge amounts to changing light bulbs.
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vinman
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Post by vinman »

I'll certainly write up a more detailed explanation of the build once I know its functional.

I have to credit my father-in-law for coming up with the wiring diagram. He's one smart guy. He was a chemist for GE for 20 something years with several patents to his credit on stuff he developed for them.

But we did, for the most part dissect headmonkey's photos as well as a couple other web sources.

All in all it is fairly simple wiring, believe me I am no electrical genius either and electricity scares the crap out of me.
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vinman
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Post by vinman »

Brief testing tonight with a voltage and amp meter shows all of my connections are good. I had my electrical guy check my work tonight. We installed the 30A breaker and 30A 220 plug. After plugging in the controller we checked all of my terminal connections and switches and everything checks out fine. We were briefly confused by only 120V reading at the outlets in the control box until I remembered that there is only one hot being controlled by the relays and at that time there was nothing connected calling for the relays to be active and supply power to the other leg.

Once we plugged the TC in it began to read ambient temp. So it looks like everything works. Now I have to read the PID instructions and get them tuned correctly and I'll be ready for the blankets.
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vinman
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Post by vinman »

With a little deciphering of the PID manual I set up the initial parameters today. Both TC's read identical and seem to be accurate when reading ambient temps compared to my wall mounted thermometer. All in all this build seems to have come out very good. I'll post a more detailed build report in a few days.

More detail on my build for those that are interested, some is redundant from previous posts.

I did a ton of research but in the end we basically reverse engineered the controller head monkey built. If you haven’t looked at his build you should, it was very helpful for us. Exceptions to this are a twin PID set up, individual blanket switches and a different main power switch. The individual blanket switches will allow me to keep the PIDs on but switch the blankets off to monitor cool off after pressing/curing is completed.

After searching around the internet a bunch I found that light object had some of the best prices www.lightobject.com Auber Instruments also had some great info and prices. www.auberins.com I found the thermocouple plugs here as well as the thermocouples.

component list
  • 2 PID controllers
    2 25A Solid State relays with heat sinks
    2 each type K thermocouple, panel mount outlets and plugs
    2 Nema type 6 220V flanged outlets
    1 each 30A Nema type 6 plug and outlet, double pole 30A breaker
    2 30A terminal strips
    2 30A fuse holder blocks
    10 ft of black, red and green #10 wire
    2 ft blue, yellow #20 wire
    K type thermocouple wire at least 2 ft
    1 pkg each 30A and 15A fuses 250V, ceramic tube fast acting
    1 30A/250V Double pole single throw(DPST) main power switch
    2 15A/250V DPST toggle switches
    wire connectors, various
    #10 main power cord, 3 wire, stranded wire, flexible rubber casing
    enclosure (I used an old metal computer box.) I used some pieces of plexi glass I had lying around to close up the large opening in the computer case. This will prevent fingers and debris from getting inside.
    ground screw
    1 3/4 diameter cable clamp to secure the main power cord
    1pkg fine wire K thermocuples
I found most of the switches on Amazon or Home Depot, Lowes or a local electrical parts store. My main switch is a Leviton double pole 30A toggle switch. The individual blanket switches are 15A double pole single throw toggles.

The box mounted outlets are also Leviton 15A flanged NEMA type 6 outlets.

I bought the wiring and connectors at my local auto parts store. This build requires 10 gauge wires the switches and SSRs. I used 20g wires to connect the PIDs to the SSRs. The terminal strips and the fuse holders are all rated for 30A.

The fuses are a ceramic tube fast acting mini fuse. 30A on the main switch and 15A and the individual blankets.

K thermocouple wire is needed to connect the TC jacks tot he PID, I found this on ebay.

my wiring diagram can be seen here https://acrobat.com/#d=jtbNT7WSuQjCAqZ1DZaoqw

A very simplistic explanation of my build up.

Cut holes for PIDs, switches, outlets, TC jacks, and main power cord
Mount power cord with cable clamp, heat sinks with thermal grease and SSRs, terminal strips, fuse blocks, switches, PIDs, TC jacks and outlets.
Wire 30A plug and connect to main power cord.
Install grounding post in case
install fuses
follow wiring diagram from link
be sure to check for the proper terminal connections on PIDs and SSRs
test all connections with voltage meter
test switches in open and closed positions with Ohm meter
plug in TCs into jacks and toggle main power
Read PID manual and try to understand the parameters
set initial parameters for PIDs
verify PID read ambient temps equally.

After I have my blankets I'll run the auto tune function

refer to pics on page 2 of this thread for views of the box and wiring.


Disclaimer: Should you decide to create a controller based upon this post and it burns down your house, causes a death, or any form of harm it is solely your responsibility. This article is for my personnal interest only. It is not meant to be used for commercial purposes; nor is this article a guide for building a PID controller for your application. It is a step by step of how I built my unit. Again this article is only for my personnal interest. Electricity is nothing to lightly mess with. I did a ton of research and had a lot of help from a Ph. D scientist, an electrician and a couple folks from here. If you are unsure about doing something like this then either don't do it or get some serious help from some seriously smart people. An even with that please be sure to double check all of your connections and your breakers.
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vinman
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Post by vinman »

The heat is on!! Well sort of. I got my MEI blankets today. After I finish grounding the press and ALU skins I'll test the blankets and controller, probably this weekend.

I pressure tested the press today at 40psi with no measurable deflection in the center. the only noises came from the wooden cat track. I did find a slight leak in my bladder with this test, so I pulled that end apart. It appeared that the silicone did not bond well the first time. It looked like I had forgotten to abrade the hose on that end. So abraded the inside of the bladder and re-applied RTV silicone.

Compression in the tip and tail molds was good at 40 psi.

The last of my materials should be here tomorrow. So I'll hopefully be bending edges, attaching sidewalls and profiling the cores this weekend. If things go as planned I'll have a pair in the press next weekend.

WOOT W00T!!
Last edited by vinman on Thu Mar 03, 2011 4:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Richuk
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Post by Richuk »

dafont.com :D
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vinman
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Post by vinman »

lots of progress today. sidewalls attached to both cores, cores cleaned up and ready to go in the profiler, and edges bent. I also cleaned up my template in prep to cut bases for a lay up next weekend I hope.


For the sidewalls I used gorilla glue after abrading and flame treating, then clamped with moderate pressure using some MDF strips to spread the pressure out to prevent inadvertent magnetraction.

I found bending edges by hand to be tough on the hands but ok as long as I got the annealing right. I had to re-heat a couple spots.

I still have to finish grounding the press and skins as well as test my blankets and controller. I still hoping to get to this today. Back to work.



I tested my blankets and controller and everything looks good. I also finished grounding the press and skins as well. I might need to adjust the mold a bit to allow for easier loading. But I'm on track for pressing next weekend.
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vinman
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Post by vinman »

Progress is coming faster now. I profiled my cores today. The planer crib worked great.

Image

I did end up .2mm to thin in the waist but spot on in the tip and tail.
Image

Image

I did forget to shoulder the sidewall for the edges though. Doh!!!
To fix this I'm going to use some wood glue to bond some veneer scrap to the bottom of the core within the the outline/footprint of the edge teeth. So instead of routing the cores I'll just build up the center a bit. This will also help me offset the waist being a bit too thin.

I also found a couple small dry spots/voids from my sidewall bonding with PU glue probably due to my poor bandsaw technique. One sidewall near the tip had also started to come undone, probably from not enough glue. So I re-wet, glued and re-clamped.

For the dry spots/voids I dripped some water on them and used the shop vac to pull the water though the gap to wet the surfaces. I then injected some glue into the dry spots with a needle and syringe and used the shop vac again to suck the glue into the voids and then applied pressure.

The expanding action of the PU glue seems to have fixed my voids and the minor delam at the tip. The rest of the sidewall seems to be holding well with some moderate pressure applied to them. I guess well see tomorrow when I finish profiling this core.

Some very rookie mistakes but so far none that could not be fixed and still on track to press this weekend.
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doughboyshredder
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Post by doughboyshredder »

All looking good. You may want to rethink your idea of adding a veneer layer. That may give you a full length weak spot (glue line). No reason IMO, not to just rabbit your sidewall for the edge. Another solution that wouldn't give you a weak spot is to use fiberglass mat, cut to lay inside of the edge on your base. This won't add much weight, will add a little bit of strength and solve the spacing issue.
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vinman
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Post by vinman »

I'm worried about tearing the sidewalls off with the router if I rabbit them now.

I guess I'll cut my glass and see how much extra I have. If I need more I could go the auto parts store and get some lightweight glass to make the filler. Thanks DBS.
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OAC
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Post by OAC »

Rabbit?
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vinman
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Post by vinman »

umm, er..... rabbet sorry for the bad spelling. Rabbet as in route out the edge of a material in order to countersink another material on it.
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OAC
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Post by OAC »

:)
I just took the chance.. ;)

BTW, you can do it freehand. Check how "Swellpanik" does it. http://www.swellpanik.com/uk/
8:47 in the video

I've found out that this is more or less mandatory for a successful build. Better overall look, no convex or concave base or other strange behaviors by the fiber and epoxi.
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