George Koller on sun 28 mar 04
Hi Folks,
I'm thinking of "robustcating" another 3KG 1/2 gram accuracy $40 scale
for my glaze making. If I'm ordering and cruising around buying the
parts I need I might as well do up two units as one..... so if there is
someone out there in Clayart land that is really seriously interested in
getting real-time g-e-n-u-i-n-e - as-you- spray - total weight of glaze
added feedback I will do another one for materials. Write me off-Clayart.
Project to be completed sometime by the end of April. Price with
shipping should be about $100 unless we get all fancy.
For pictures and the original write-up see note clipped in below
My experience so far has been very encouraging. I think I've
lucked my way into another good thing, like that HVLP system unit
from Harbor freight. A little difficult to explain. the critical
difference between using the scale just before and after to using it
as-you- spray. With wheel time you can see how much one rotation
adds ;). You get More feedback, Better feedback, and for Less effort
(no special transfers, no guessing when to take off). IE you see the
difference between full open and 1/2 open on the trigger. You find
yourself making adjustments and glancing at the display to confirm.
Maybe you make your 4 passes but glance at end of 3rd to see if 4th s
hould be heavy or light - like that. It is just there passively letting you
get better. And that's not all!!! Oh yea - now I'm getting carried
away but what the heck - you will even know if your nozzle is getting
plugged, or perhaps if you have viscosity issues. (I think). But seriously
I think it's a useful tool - better than I thought and I was pretty excited
about this - and with the price today - wow -you can likely pay for it with
one saved pot. (Also, I did a lot of weighing before and after - what a
pain
- and if you sprayed too much before you weigh - it's too late to
adjust....)
In my first unit I epoxied a 4" lazy susan bearing race right to the weigh
pan. The scale is separated into two seperate units and each one is
screwed down firmly to MDF board. The display/control panel can be
positioned anywhere with 20' or so of the other unit which is most of the
casing plus the strain gage. You will provide the protection - which is
easy - duct tape works - but you can see what your sealing up this way.
(Finding just the right bowl or something is probably possible but a bit
tricky as it absolutely must not interfere with the underside of the weigh
pan or the measurement will be comprimised.)
This thing will look and feel like you can drive your car onto it - but
please don't. There cannot be any warranty from me or the manufacturer
as this is an experimental use. All I can say is that my first one has
stood
up nicely for hours of use already - and I have every expectation it will
last
a long time if it is not abused by dropping heavy weights abruptly onto it.
This should be common sense - that strain gage is sensitive enough
to pick up a thin/hungry minnesota misquito flying over it. I think it
will be
robust enough to survive years of normal studio use but not enough to let
you drop a 48 oz cruncho-matic hammer on it - bam - after that probably
not sensitive enough to pick up a fat bood filled minnesota tick dancing on
it!
Anyway I'll do one for somebody if that person is ready to test and use
and write the thing up. I think the time might be ripe, these little scales
are
just about being given away now......
you won't "tare" mine away,
george koller
sturgeon bay, wi - door county
northport, mi - leelanau county
two great places separated by 100 miles of great lake.
George -
I did the following (1) created a Yahoo Group called "Homemade Pottery
Equipment"
Which has a mailing address of
HomemadePotteryEquipment@yahoogroups.com and posted your notes and
Your photos to the group. This is an attenuated hassle (but I do not now
have
Any web space of my own to use, and Yahoo is free, open, and loads
reasonably
Quickly) and is nonetheless better than not having access at all.
You have to 'join' the group to get access, but once you do, you can read
messages, post messages, and look at photos. So far I have only one
photo 'album' and it's just your three pictures, but I believe this is a
reasonable approach, and if I'm right, other tinkerers can do the same
to put their ideas up.
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