Geo and/or anyone else with experience dealing with acrylic tubing....

[MarkS]

I am designing a reverse Carlson surge device for my 55 gallon. I threw out the idea of using the regular Carlson surge device after reading about this one. I like the idea of no pumps, bubbles or problematic siphons to deal with! [img]/ubb/biggrin.gif[/img]

The design that I am following is here. Thank you Geo for posting this on Reefs.org.

Anyway, I want this to be very professional and want to have a plastic shop cast these parts. I expect this to cost alot, but I want to know what to expect in price, what to ask for, etc.

Due to the extreme pressures involved, the parts need to be solid and not glued. Has anyone ever had parts cast? I'll have complete drawings of the parts to give to the plastic shop.

TIA,
Mark

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Bad luck and extreme misfortune will infest your pathetic soul for all eternity.
-Fortune Cookie

[This message has been edited by MarkS (edited 12-02-2000).]

[geo]

Marc,
I have not looked into a molded part, I have those thoughts but I am quite sure it would cost a fortune to have the dies made. My brother builds aluminum horse trailers an almost all of his parts are extruded aluminum. He has over 15,000 tied up in dies and must purchase large amounts of the extrusion at a time. I would assume that the plastic extruders aren't much different.
Clear PVC is most likely the way to go if you want to see through it. Please let me know what you find out, I am also interested.

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george w.
see my aquarium & diy calcium reactor

[Ltspd]

If you know anybody at a local collage that offers some engineering programs you may be able to get it done there. I would also suggest that you search for your required parts on the internet. The cost of the parts to make are cheap, like it was said the dies are the big buck items.
I looked at your links and dont really know what the "parts" are you want casted. The look like bolted pipe connections for the drawing. As far as pressure are you exceeding 100psi? Pvc fittings are designed for high pressure applications. Ie: schedule of pipes, 40, 80 etc. When a house is plumbed they test the pipes @ 100psi over a period of time, so the glue is strong enough for that and may be strong enough for your application. Just in case you dont know the pvc cement that is used actully melts the plastic pipe and fittings together more so than "glueing" them.

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Paul C
The important thing is not to stop questioning.
Einstein

[MarkS]

Oops.... Sorry, I was not more clear on the pic.

The parts that I am refering to are the three pipe fittings in the pic. I wanted to stay away from PVC so that I can see inside and I needed it to be able to be completely taken apart for cleaning. This is how I came up with this three part design.

Now is where the main problems come in. If I were to use PVC, I will have to resort to glue. This means that I will never be able to open it up and clean it. I could make these parts by taking a 8 1/2" x 1/4" acrylic disk, cut a 6 1/2" hole in the center and glue the pipe into the hole. However, this device has been known to shake the reef structure apart during the surge and I am afraid that the glue joints will not hold for very long. This is why I wanted to use cast parts.

OK, now I am open for suggestions.

Thanks,
Mark

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Bad luck and extreme misfortune will infest your pathetic soul for all eternity.
-Fortune Cookie

[This message has been edited by MarkS (edited 12-03-2000).]