Author Topic: Air Manifold  (Read 3685 times)

Offline Jasonb

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Air Manifold
« on: February 16, 2017, 07:04:07 PM »
I am getting a bit fed up of having to put a kink in the airhose to alter the speed of my engines when run on air particularly when trying to hold a video camera in the other hand. Also at the Guildford show the only control over teh air flow is a rather stiff and sticky 1/4 turn lever operated ball valve. So Yesterdayday the postie dropped off a couple of jiffy bags of push fit pneumatic fittings and some hose.

I sawed a 3/4" wide piece off a bit of 3x1 aluminium flat bar, flycut it down to size then poped it in the 4-jaw to drill a 10mm hole 140mm deep down it slength then opened up the hole and tapped 1/4BSP. Back onto the mill and drilled and tapped two M5, two M6 and one 1/4BSP for the flow adjusters and jobs done.

A quick test of the Jowitt and they are a real improvement, the adjusting screws have a fine metric thread and the "needle" about a 4 degree included angle which makes for a very fine adjustment, takes 4-5 full turns to go from off to full flow so very easy to tweak the speed of the engine. The straight knurled adjusting screws are easily turned between finger and thumb and can be locked in place so no risk of tehm getting knocked like a lever can. The black bango part of teh fittings can be rotated so I can have them comming out both sides of the bar or just one as below



Two outlets for 4mm OD tube, two for 6mm OD tube and one for 8mm OD tube. 1/4" BSP inlet which suit smy compressor hose.

Offline Steamer5

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Re: Air Manifold
« Reply #1 on: February 16, 2017, 07:46:26 PM »
Hi Jason,
 Looks good!
I brought a couple of coolant misters from flea bay about a year ago they looked the part & had valves simallar to those, the only problem was that the air in was from the tubing & the controlled flow was out the side you have screwed into the header, the side that was screwed into the mister!After several emails back & forth to the supplier including videos showing it was the wrong valves, no more email replies!
It took a lot of hunting to find the correct ones.
So the question is we're did you find yours?

Cheers Kerrin
Get excited and make something!

Offline Roger B

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Re: Air Manifold
« Reply #2 on: February 16, 2017, 08:01:16 PM »
Those are usually used to control the flow into a pneumatic cylinder. They should work in the other direction as well I would have thought  :headscratch:
Best regards

Roger

Offline Jasonb

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Re: Air Manifold
« Reply #3 on: February 16, 2017, 08:06:53 PM »
I did have the same thoughts after buying them but luckily they flow far more air in from thread to pipe, I can only just blow back the other way.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Nylon-Pneumatic-hose-tube-inline-push-fit-connector-air-line-airline-elbow-90-T-/271428401633?var=&hash=item3f3264b9e1:m:m78ag9OiDolIbqUXoNSvMJQ

Offline sshire

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Re: Air Manifold
« Reply #4 on: February 16, 2017, 09:24:34 PM »
SMC Pneumatics valves and manifold. They pop up on eBay on occasion. Removed from decommissioned aircraft. The adjustment screw for each valve is very precise. I also removed the lock nuts as they aren’t needed and are annoying.









I added this Ingersoll-Rand regulator



Then, all mounted on a base



You can barely see it in behind the engines in black powder coat. I’ve also put number identifiers on each hose near the engine so I know which valve to adjust.

Best,
Stan

Offline Jasonb

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Re: Air Manifold
« Reply #5 on: February 17, 2017, 07:58:45 AM »
Thats a nice neat setup Stan, I can see the need for the regulator whan at shows like you have in the US that have the one plumbed in supply. Here we tend to just get a few smaller compressors with their own regulators positioned where needed

Offline Jasonb

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Re: Air Manifold
« Reply #6 on: February 17, 2017, 07:52:37 PM »
As most of my existing adaptors are threaded 3/8" x 32 to suit an airbrush hose I had to make up some new ones to suit the 1/8" BSP push fit connectors before I could test the manifold on a few engines. Quite happy with teh result as it is easy to tune each engine and there is no noticable drop in speed of one engine as the others are opened up.

[youtube1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4X3Mu2x5UA[/youtube1]

Offline Mike Bondarczuk

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Re: Air Manifold
« Reply #7 on: February 17, 2017, 10:01:44 PM »
That is SWEET Jason  :cheers:

Mike
"Everything I can't find is in a totally secure place"

Offline Gas_mantle

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Re: Air Manifold
« Reply #8 on: February 17, 2017, 11:10:41 PM »
An impressive set up there  :)

I really have to get round to making a Benson engine that I keep thinking about.

Offline Steamer5

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Re: Air Manifold
« Reply #9 on: February 18, 2017, 12:22:13 AM »
Hi Jason,
 Maybe didn't make it clear, I'll try again.
The angle flow control valves come in two types. They either control the air IN FROM the tubing side, OR the air OUT TO the tubing side. The coolant misters had the air OUT type, i.e. they tried to regulate the air the wrong way! They will give you very limited control when almost closed but that's it!
The air IN on the other hand has nice fine control. Looking at your setup you need the AIR IN type. The only deference is the knob on the top has OUT (the wrong type see the picture) there is also a schematic on the side but you need a microscope to see it!
Hope that's a bit clearer? These are the guys I finally found that had the correct valves, they actually made 3 for me.....at sample cost!  http://www.xhnotion.com/

Stan that's a nice setup, you guys are lucky to be able find stuff like that!

Cheers Kerrin
Get excited and make something!

Offline Jasonb

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Re: Air Manifold
« Reply #10 on: February 18, 2017, 07:34:23 AM »
Kerrin, I did understand what you meant as I had read about the problems of the wrong valves previously on these misters.

It was after I placed the order and happened to be looking for a diagram of the needle angle that I remembered the problem after finding a supplier that had both types, luckily the ones I have all flow well from thread out to pushfit taking about 5 full turns to gently increase flow from zero to full. They don't flow much when reversed so could not be screwed straight onto an engine for example. Therte is no indication of flow direction on the valve.

I'll see if I can fit one to the engine end of the airline and video it.

Offline Steamer5

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Re: Air Manifold
« Reply #11 on: February 19, 2017, 09:25:13 AM »
Hi Jason,
 That's cool!
The first time I thought I got the right ones, they weren't!

Cheers Kerrin
Get excited and make something!

Offline Jasonb

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Re: Air Manifold
« Reply #12 on: February 19, 2017, 05:24:40 PM »
I had a chance to put the manifold to the test again today giving a new engine its first test run. I only picked up the aluminium for the base plate yesterday but once I had enough holes in that decided to give the engine a try. I'm still waiting for the flywheel casting so used a Unimat 3 chuck to add a bit of ratating mass, valve rod guide is not in place and there are no piston rings, gland packing or gaskets yet but seemed to run OK and the valve made it easy to adjust the speed with one hand while holding the camera in the other.

[youtube1]https://youtu.be/BP2C1XJrRM4[/youtube1]

Time for a lick of paint.

 

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