Centering Bellows Update

Gang,
   Should be two more weeks till the centering bellows are done.
The other night, I picked up the finalized metal mould for the casting, and
I ordered the release agent the other day, so as soon as I get that, a
casting
we will go. Things I need to do are:

1. Wait for release agent, all the normal molding agents that I've ever made
in
the past, don't work with this stuff, it sticks to anything.... So I had to
actually buy the correct stuff.

2. Hand sand mould to clean up burrs etc.

3. Cast away, the only drag is, It take 24hrs to set, so thats one a day
with one
mould....

4.Final pricing, still haven't figured that out yet, should be around 10-12$
each.

I've got some pictures of the clay mould, it has some light curves in it to
insure the rubber
bends where it needs to. The metal mould (not pictured) is angled, with
additional rubber races to insure
that it stays in the stick assy.

www.enteract.com/~twisnion/PIC00030.jpg
This is the first one out of a clay, hand made mould to test the shape.
The white on the left is the actual bellow before trimming.

www.enteract.com/~twisnion/PIC00031.jpg
This is the bellow, after trimming on the stick, I was sizing the inner
hole, needed a little adjustment...

www.enteract.com/~twisnion/PIC00032.jpg
Putting it in the stick holder, oops, upside down, but you get the idea...

Overall, the tension was really good, a little softer than the rubber one I
had, but that
could be due to the old rubber hardening. The metal mould has been adjusted
to increase the tension a
bit, and I added a few inner races of rubber to insure that it stays in the
slot. The first one I made was fine,
then I started to experiment trimming rubber away, and when it would flex,
it would pop out of the
slots that held it, thus the mods.

As for durability, this stuff is used to make car motor mounts, so it should
be ok, I've been bending it
180degrees for a while now, and it has not cracked, and impossible to tear
without tools...

TomW

Thats the scoop...

TomW
Received on Fri Jun 25 10:18:13 1999