My Shell Pasting Machine

[Dean411]

This is a shell pasting machine I've been building the last couple of weeks.

 

there are also a few videos on my youtube page and a link below.

 

please comment or ask questions .

 

 

 

this entire machine was custom built and except for the motors and the roller wheels it is completely made of Aluminum.

 

please ask questions or comment.

 

Dean

[californiapyro]

you build some cool stuff, Dean!

 

How are the breaks, have you tested? Also, how did you deal with the tape wetting dilemma present with these sort of machines?

[MrB]

Real neat. Just got to make sure it always stops with the wetting / glue dispenser at the bottom. Are you reinforcing the shells on the north / south poles when you make the shell casings, or do you hand paste the ends a little, to cover the "hole" ? And how do one use 2 (or more) time-fuses with a machine like this, one on each end?

B!

[Dean411]

you build some cool stuff, Dean!

 

How are the breaks, have you tested? Also, how did you deal with the tape wetting dilemma present with these sort of machines?

 

Hunter ,

 

I fired the 4" that was pasted in the video and will post it to my you tube when I get it from my brothers phone

it was a red pvc red gum bound it was boosted with whistle and after this pasting looked like a 6 and was unbelievable how much of the sky it filled .

 

as to your other question right now i am using gummed tape right now the tape enters a container that has a water soaked sponge then exits quite damp . i plan to use glue here soon (working on it right now)

 

Dean

Edited December 13, 2012 by Dean411

[Dean411]

Real neat. Just got to make sure it always stops with the wetting / glue dispenser at the bottom. Are you reinforcing the shells on the north / south poles when you make the shell casings, or do you hand paste the ends a little, to cover the "hole" ? And how do one use 2 (or more) time-fuses with a machine like this, one on each end?

B!

 

the pole of the shell where the fuse is requires no pasting it gets covered quite well i do put a little hot glue back around the fuse to make sure the fuse didn't get loosened during pasting the top of the shell gets about 6 pieces of kraft tape to cover the top that gets missed .

as for the multiple fuses i have made adapters for 5" ,6" and 8" shells that fit around the 2 fuses (that the nice thing about engineering something you can make changes on the fly)

the machine currently will do 3 thru 8 inch shells.

[californiapyro]

cool! I'm interested to see how larger shells fare, normally not so well for this type of paster. If you get the big'uns to work, you're onto something.

[Col]

Nice clean bit of engineering Dean. A glue station with 3 rollers will coat the tape on both sides and add some tension. For larger shells you`ll need multiple angle and speed changes during the pasting process to prevent an egg shaped shell. The alternative is to use the wasp magnet idea for the fuse and re-orentate the shell for each pass to distribute the build up around the shell. If you can make a tape slitter you can make your own custom tape widths, much cheaper than buying gummed tape,

 

Here`s the glue unit i came up with, it has 3 fixed rollers and 2 spring loaded which add tension and wipe the excess glue off.

Edited December 13, 2012 by Col

[Dean411]

The machine does multiple angles the arm the shell mounts to pivots I will post another video and the motor speeds can also change.

Here are a couple pictures with the shell on its seam

 

 

This machine is a work in progress and everyday I am tweaking it so it does what I need it to.

Edited December 13, 2012 by Dean411

[Col]

Tweaking is half the fun

For a 4" shell, you should get a fairly good result with 3/4" tape and 0.635rpm on the shell rotation motor. Setting fractional rpm isnt too easy but it should equate to about 94-95 seconds for a full rotation. The chinese wheel pasting machines use a 30% overlap for larger shells.

[Dean411]

I will try and post a video of a 6 or 8 inch shell being pasted this weekend.

[Bobosan]

Sweet! Nice work Dean411.

 

Is that a recycled bicycle rim?

[Col]

Hi Dean

I did some calcs based on your estimated wheel speed in case you want to give it a whirl. I dont know what pole diameter you have so i went with 15 degrees for the starting angle, 45 degree intermediate and 75 degrees for the final angle. These are for a 4" shell using 3/4" tape.

1st wrap: 15 degree angle, shell rotation speed: 2.6rpm, duration: 19.11 seconds, then make the first angle change over 4 seconds (shift frame down by 30 degrees). The 2nd wrap shell rotation speed change coincides with the completion of the angle change.

2nd wrap: 45 degree angle, shell rotation speed: 1.9rpm, duration: 27.5 seconds, then make the second angle change over 4 seconds (shift frame down by another 30 degrees) The 3rd wrap shell rotation speed change coincides with the completion of the angle change.

3rd wrap: 75 degree angle, shell rotation speed: 0.88rpm, duration: 68 seconds. Use the same speed and duration for the burnish run.

Edited December 14, 2012 by Col

[Dean411]

I will give that a try Col I am Waiting on more 3/4 tape which seems to work the best for all the shell sizes I have tried. I am curious what you averaged my rpm to be the pasting wheel rotates at a fixed 30 to 31 rpm. the axis motor is variable.

 

the only real issue I have is the tape wetting I am currently using water soaked spongeswhich the tape passes between in the gray case but they run dry fairly quickly,otherwise the machine preforms better than i hoped for.

 

I am sure I will modify orredesign it as I have alreadycome up with 2 other designs I may try in the future but for now i am quite happy with it.

 

Dean

[Col]

Hi Dean

Yep. i estimated it at 30rpm, The shell rotation speed is a little harder to set with a slower wheel speed as the range is only 0.5-1rpm across 2"- 8" shells for the final wrap. If you run 100rpm on the wheel that increases to 1.5-3rpm. It would be cheaper to do most of the testing with a dummy shell painted white. Lash a water based marker to the 1st wiper to indicate the centerline of the tape. There are a few ingenius designs knocking around and they all have plus and minus points, most use single axis pasting for simplicity. The single axis doesnt create too much of a build up on smaller shells but it may have problems with an 8" with 220-240ft of tape.

[50AE]

Hats off! Very neat, creative and beautiful.

[Dean411]

Thanks for all the compliments and suggestions I am making a couple changes currently and hope to add a new video soon.

 

Dean

[Dean411]

Here is a slightly updated version of my shell paster. The video is of a 5 inch shell being pasted.

the pattern is much better now

 

 

Dean

[pyroshell]

If I am right this is much like one of those Chinese machines. Can this one paste with time fuse in place?

EDIT: Never mind I saw the video.

Edited January 18, 2013 by pyroshell

[Bobosan]

That last shell looked rather wrinkled. Is that what happens when the tape/glue dries completely?

[Dean411]

that was a shell for a 2 1/2 mortar i was trying on my machine.

 

they look smooth

[pyrojig]

My hats off to you! Great job. It looks very similar to the one Cols working on. I love the simplicity of it.

[Dean411]

My hats off to you! Great job. It looks very similar to the one Cols working on. I love the simplicity of it.

 

I prefer mine even over the W. A. S. P. no need for a computer and they can be fused before pasting, not to mention I've only invested about $200.00 and most of that was for the 2 gearmotors

 

Dean

 

 

[Dean411]

Here is a pasting of a 3" shell with 1/2 kraft tape.

 

 

I will Post some video of the breaks from these as soon as the wind dies down , high winds for the last 4 days here.

 

Dean

[Pretty green flame]

This is an absolutely amazing machine. Looking forward to seeing the shells, pasted with this machine, in action.

 

Again, great job.

[Bobosan]

Looking good!