Shaker Table

[RetiredJake]

I watched Drstrangefart's shaker table and decided I could do something similar. Since I do not cast round blanks, I made mine a little different. Just big enough to handle one mold at a time.

The neighbor was trashing an old computer, so I grabbed the DVD drives and the CPU cooling fan. Got the first DVD motor out and realized that I needed a Double E to figure out how to control it. Looked at the cooling fan, it only had 3 wires, should be simple. Hooked up a 9 volt battery and figured out the wiring. Started cutting blades off the fan until it shook enough to make me happy. Made a small table and mounted the fan. Played with a bunch of different wall warts until I found one that ran at the best speed (most vibration). Turned out, a 4.5 volt unit performed best. During my test run, the mold wanted to walk right off the side of the table, so I added the short border to keep it in place. Set it on some rubber matting and it works like a champ.

Comments welcome. Thanks Drstrangefart for the idea.

Jake

 

[StephenM]

Here I was thinking I was going to see something out of cherry with nice tapered legs, a simple bead at the bottom of the aprons and a low bevel on the bottom of the table top.

 

[Drstrangefart]

We took roughly the same route when we built a bigger table. Much larger fan, larger blades, etc. Exact same principle, though.

 

[alamocdc]

And my daughter wonders why I never throw anything away!

 

[Gary Beasley]

We took roughly the same route when we built a bigger table. Much larger fan, larger blades, etc. Exact same principle, though.

Yup, we used a 110 volt vent fan and lost the blades on one side just like you did. I'm still undecided if horizontal vibrations or vertical vibrations are better for this task. Right now we have the fan mounted horizontal. I might experiment later with a vertical mount underneath and see if it is any more effective.

 

[Haynie]

Here I was thinking I was going to see something out of cherry with nice tapered legs, a simple bead at the bottom of the aprons and a low bevel on the bottom of the table top.

Me too.

 

[GoatRider]

I just use my crappy old Craftman's scroll saw. You can measure the vibration from that on the Richter scale.

 

[ldubia]

Here I was thinking I was going to see something out of cherry with nice tapered legs, a simple bead at the bottom of the aprons and a low bevel on the bottom of the table top.

Me too.

Turners...Go figure. :biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:

 

[Wright]

My bench grinder is mounted on a stand I made and it really vibrates. Just set the mold on it and let it rip! Works great.

 

[Talfalfa33]

Has anyone even thought of using an old pneumatic oscillating sander. It runs a little fast but that's the beauty of pneumatic, is you can adjust the air pressure to the vibration your after.

 

[A10GAC]

Would there be any benefit to using two fans? One mounted horizontally as shown and one mounted vertically providing vibration across two axes?

 

[RetiredJake]

I personally don't think it makes any difference. As long as the mold is vibrating, then the bubbles should continue to migrate to the surface.

After I got mine together, I poured a mold, no tube, just an empty mold. I did not warm the resin, it was about 70°. I added the catalyst a little hot, stirred it for a minute, ensuring I had lots of bubbles. Poured the mold, put it on the shaker and let it rip. I took it off the table when my leftover in the mixing cup started to gel. I turned this test piece yesterday and polished it up. Not a bubble to be found.

Jake