A day in The Cave

[redboat219]

That cat is stuffed. Time to mount him on the wall with the other toys.

[HardRock]

And now a look at MY day in the cave! Please note the complete lack of organisation AND creativity.

You know M, the Navy made you many things (apart from grumpy) and gave you many skills upon which to build. You're a bit of an inspiration mate. Onward!

I'm on the way outside to give the Alpha a test run in the pond.

Judge and jury is already in place!

[Von Hilde]

I think your in for a Cat-ass-trophy soon. I have 3 in house, and they tag team the work spaces. One will plop down right on the table and want to help, the other two will be climbing all over and into everything. God forbid I leave a box open anywhere or a bag. The only thing that keeps them out is if Im painting with keytones or ther is food in their bowls. Making your own QA test equipment is impressive, Bravo Zulu sir! As for Chinese products......^#**!)X!!! gotta deal with them everyday. The volume we do in the magnet biz I find theres about at least a 2% loss in product due to quality of the item. Thats only in the large orders. Usually the initial runs are perfect. I think it a Commie plot. They toss in a small load of "ringers" to the large order as fill, like watering down the whiskey. Or like a bogus $20 doller bill stuck in a $1000 pack. Somebody down the line is going to have to eat it.

[redboat219]

Could this "bald spot commutator" caused the lost of Tom's Type XXIII?

Guess we'll know if they recover the boat.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

And now a look at MY day in the cave![ATTACH=CONFIG]28691[/ATTACH] Please note the complete lack of organisation AND creativity.

You know M, the Navy made you many things (apart from grumpy) and gave you many skills upon which to build. You're a bit of an inspiration mate. Onward!

I'm on the way outside to give the Alpha a test run in the pond. [ATTACH=CONFIG]28692[/ATTACH]

Judge and jury is already in place![ATTACH=CONFIG]28693[/ATTACH]

Oh, God! What a beautiful place to drive model subs! I so envy you, sir. And a very impressive job on that ALFA's weathering too.

What happened to your work space -- a bomb just off in there???

The Armed Forces of the United States offer so, so much opportunity -- all you have to do is step up, shut your yap (for me a Herculean effort), do what they tell you, and fill your brain with all the formal and practical training that is offered -- all you need to bring to the table is an empty brain and a want to fill it with stuff.

As a young Torpedoman (a rate no longer) I learned about and operated and maintained torpedoes and their launching systems; learned about and operated Polaris-Poseidon launching systems; qualified and rode submarines; became a second-class (hard-hat) Diver; and met and married a true Filipino Princess.

The military was good to me. Taught me a lot of neat stuff and introduced me to the one gal in my life. Can't ***** at all.

M

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

I think your in for a Cat-ass-trophy soon. I have 3 in house, and they tag team the work spaces. One will plop down right on the table and want to help, the other two will be climbing all over and into everything. God forbid I leave a box open anywhere or a bag. The only thing that keeps them out is if Im painting with keytones or ther is food in their bowls. Making your own QA test equipment is impressive, Bravo Zulu sir! As for Chinese products......^#**!)X!!! gotta deal with them everyday. The volume we do in the magnet biz I find theres about at least a 2% loss in product due to quality of the item. Thats only in the large orders. Usually the initial runs are perfect. I think it a Commie plot. They toss in a small load of "ringers" to the large order as fill, like watering down the whiskey. Or like a bogus $20 doller bill stuck in a $1000 pack. Somebody down the line is going to have to eat it.

Don't we sound like two old fag's going on about our cats?!....

Mr. Cat caught some fleas and Ellie locked him in with me till I give him a bath. Me, the work, the cat, and the litter box, in one confined space ... Why me, Lord!!!!

The little **** keeps spitting up hair-balls in my lap. I'm one more hair-ball away from kicking his fuzzy butt through a glass window!

Mr. Caswell does the bulk buying for me. And I agree with you, Von: those *******s will salt the mine with good product on the initial buy (or sample package) then -- after they know they have their product firmly entrenched in your production system -- they start selling you the 'normal' un-QA'ed product.

So far we're seeing a less than 5% failure rate on the LPB's. I'll be able to better quantify the loss after I go through a hundred of these things using the new testing protocol. Not only are we seeing the below discussed bald spots on the motors, but also units with broken pump assemblies. Not many, but enough to **** me off. To be fair -- we pay so little for them (in bulk), that even a 10% loss rate would be well within Mike's and my comfort level. The problem is finding the bad units so they don't make it into the hands of paying customers.

A few years ago we had a similar problem with Mtroniks -- but once we alerted them to the issue, they were on it and put things right (they took the offending product out of the catalog, no less!).

M

[redboat219]

The military was good to me. Taught me a lot of neat stuff and introduced me to the one gal in my life. Can't ***** at all.

M

Say this to Ellie, " Mahal kita."

[MFR1964]

David,

Nice contraption for testing those LPB units, i only encountered one in the past which failed, the membrane inside war torn due to high pressure/ demonic experiments, never encountered the problem you've mentioned above, those LPB units can take a lot of punishment.
The only modification i always do is, glueing down the housing which contains the rubber membrane with 2K glue, more as a precaution when i need high pressure, did some soapy water testing to see how the performance under high pressure would be, resulting in glueing them, i must say i went for the extreme performance for my scopes adventure.

Manfred

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Say this to Ellie, " Mahal kita."

She's taken, pal!

M

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

David,

Nice contraption for testing those LPB units, i only encountered one in the past which failed, the membrane inside war torn due to high pressure/ demonic experiments, never encountered the problem you've mentioned above, those LPB units can take a lot of punishment.
The only modification i always do is, glueing down the housing which contains the rubber membrane with 2K glue, more as a precaution when i need high pressure, did some soapy water testing to see how the performance under high pressure would be, resulting in glueing them, i must say i went for the extreme performance for my scopes adventure.

Manfred

To date, with over 200 of these things passing through my hands, I've only encountered a couple that had pin-holes in the rubber diaphragm. The majority of defects have been broken securing arms -- the two that clamp the two halves of the plastic pump housing together.

As you noted, these things will leak at the gasket if you don't compress and glue the two housing halves together. I came up with this little purpose-built vice to compress the halves together as I install CA adhered clamping strips of polystyrene sheet to each side of the unit.

M

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

The basic LPB commutator checker. Yes, I've settled on a proper name for this specialized piece of test equipment. Here are the pictures of today's work as well as a little video to demonstrate its operation in real-time.

I made the LPB foundation out of a hunk of dense (40-pound) RenShape for two reasons: 1. It's non-conductive which made it an easy matter to mount the two power leaf-springs without worrying about a short between poles and foundation material. 2. It's easy to machine.

"No! You are NOT a Gato!"

Average current draw (both motors running) is about 300mA.

My design methodology goes like this: I identify a need for a new device; I think it over a few days; I sit down at the morning coffee at Denny's with Ellie and skull the mechanics and/or circuit out on a napkin; in the shop I break out the components involved and work out a practical geometry (what goes where); I draft things out if they are mechanical and/or work out a schematic if electrical or electronic; bread-board the circuit or fabricate the mechanism if mechanical; kick the cat when the first attempt fails; take my hideous nap and think it over; back to the shop and put myself in lock-down till the jobs done right.

And ... the hideous movie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJvNAH0OABQ

M

[Von Hilde]

Don't we sound like two old fag's going on about our cats?!....

Mr. Cat caught some fleas and Ellie locked him in with me till I give him a bath. Me, the work, the cat, and the litter box, in one confined space ... Why me, Lord!!!!

The little **** keeps spitting up hair-balls in my lap. I'm one more hair-ball away from kicking his fuzzy butt through a glass window!

Mr. Caswell does the bulk buying for me. And I agree with you, Von: those *******s will salt the mine with good product on the initial buy (or sample package) then -- after they know they have their product firmly entrenched in your production system -- they start selling you the 'normal' un-QA'ed product.

So far we're seeing a less than 5% failure rate on the LPB's. I'll be able to better quantify the loss after I go through a hundred of these things using the new testing protocol. Not only are we seeing the below discussed bald spots on the motors, but also units with broken pump assemblies. Not many, but enough to **** me off. To be fair -- we pay so little for them (in bulk), that even a 10% loss rate would be well within Mike's and my comfort level. The problem is finding the bad units so they don't make it into the hands of paying customers.

A few years ago we had a similar problem with Mtroniks -- but once we alerted them to the issue, they were on it and put things right (they took the offending product out of the catalog, no less!).

M

Right on. I cant complain on my end since were only loosing pennies on an order and rolling the wheelbarrels of profits to the bank. Now if I could get someone to do the rolling for me.....in the mean time Im ripping my old BP machine apart and pirate some parts. I wont be needing it to check mine since I know when I spike my BP my wife has me sit by the cats. Its better than a pill and works right away

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Right on. I cant complain on my end since were only loosing pennies on an order and rolling the wheelbarrels of profits to the bank. Now if I could get someone to do the rolling for me.....in the mean time Im ripping my old BP machine apart and pirate some parts. I wont be needing it to check mine since I know when I spike my BP my wife has me sit by the cats. Its better than a pill and works right away

I agree with you about the cat being good for your BP, von. On the other hand: yesterday Ellie made me give Mr. Cat a flea bath. Wow! .... like sticking your hands into a wood chipper!

M

[redboat219]

"Okey Ellie I just finished giving Mr. Cat his bath."

" Thsufferin Thuccotash! You didn't have to over do it! "

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

The end-game: a LPB tested for correct operation of both motor and pump, and water-tightness ... is that a word? Here you see a qualified unit sitting next to another LPB attached to an outfitted 2.5 SD motor bulkhead device tray -- ready for sale.

As Manfred posted here, these things can leak if subjected to a significant differential pressure -- remember, these things were designed to move a gas, not a liquid as what sometimes happens in this application. To insure the pumps internal gasket-valve element remains firmly sandwiched between the two halves of the pump housing, I compress the halves with this purpose built vice. While compressed like this I CA two styrene compression pieces, one on each side of the pump housing.

As I beef up one batch of LPB's with compression pieces, I'm running a unit through the commutator tester -- multi-tasking at it's finest.

(Don't believe that! ... multi-tasking is another way of saying, doing more than one thing at a time, and doing each thing poorly)

I drill a hole into the base of the pump housing, well removed from the 'wet' portion of the pump. Through this hole I can see if any water gets by the two diaphragms or the gasket-valve element. Also, its a visual check port I can look into during the commutator bald spot check.

Leak check of the pump is done with a syringe -- after I've further compressed the two pump housing halves. I force water into the suction and discharge nipples of the pump. If the check valves are working then water will shoot out of the discharge when I force it into the suction side. If the diaphragms are pin-hole free and the gasket-valve element is sandwished tight, then no water will enter the dry space between motor and and base of the pump proper -- I blow low-pressure air over the visual check port, if it blows water then I know I have a leak somewhere. Twenty units qualified tonight: no leakers!

Once the LPB motors and pumps had been qualified I soldered Kevin McLeod's wonderful little electronic switch to the ass-end of each motor. What a neat little device! profile is that of the motor and the MPC (motor pump controller ... these Canadian's!) stands back only a quarter-inch or so.

Anyway, a holding fixture, fabricated from shelving board, was used to hold the work as I made up the MPC's. They were soldered to the motor poles along with grounding wires -- just as Kevin outlines in the excellent instructions that accompanies his product.

Enough ... time for bed!

M