Any reason you can't drill out the center of the SS Stem?
The stuff in the middle is adding no real strength...
IE Turn it into a tube....
Leaving 0.075 wall would reduce the weight ~35%..
0.050 wall would save > 50%
On Wed, May 25, 2016 at 9:21 AM, Robert Watzlavick <rocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
I'll weigh the components tonight. The heaviest component by far is the SS
stem.
-Bob
On May 25, 2016, at 10:59, Paul Breed <paul@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I'd be interested in the mass break down of your final valve, ie weight of
all the components....
I was looking at building a plug valve with bearings to support it and
a hollow 3D printed plug....
Paul
On Wed, May 25, 2016 at 5:57 AM, Robert Watzlavick <rocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
I never though to ask McMaster but they responded quickly:
The vendor for the PTFE seal is Bal Seal Engineering Co Inc and their
part number is 100MB-012-T or X124209.
I can't find that part number in their catalogs but the MB describes the
spring. The 012 is probably the series and T corresponds to Virgin PTFE.
Attached is the datasheet I received from them.
I recall our conversation about leakage a couple of years ago and my
quick fix was to use two of them and a pressurized cavity with both U-cups
facing toward the pressurization port. That did wonders for the leakage
and almost completely eliminated it. Now that I've improved the bearing
situation, maybe it will be better. I could add a 2nd seal in this design
but it would shrink the distance between the bearings down. I could always
make the valve body longer if needed but that means redesigning a few other
things on the vehicle.
I'm using these shafts:
https://www.servocity.com/html/3_8__precision_shafting.html
and it says they are 303 SS with a 10 RMS micron finish. There are
better shafts out there but the 303 makes it easy to cut for threads for
the nut. They tend to have some very small nicks in them from rattling
around in the bag so I used graduated sanding pads to polish them up:
http://micro-surface.com/index.php/products-by-type/soft-touch-pads/micro-mesh-soft-touch-pad-variety-packs.html#
These go all the way up to 12000 grit so I hopefully I am improving the
surface finish - it looks almost chrome plated when I'm done with them.
I suspect though that due to shrinkage, the seal locks itself around the
shaft and it is the OD of the seal turning against the bore that becomes
the new sliding surface. The bore looks pretty smooth, mainly because I
ran the last pass by hand instead of using the mill power feed but I would
like to polish it up some more if anybody has a good suggestion. I thought
of making my own 0.500 sanding pad but I don't want to oval the bore or
take too much off since it is 6061-T6. I've seen rotary grinding stones -
maybe those would work without taking too much off. I did find these
although 140 grit seems pretty low:
http://www.artcotools.com/precision-diamond-pin-gx-141c.html
-Bob
On 05/24/2016 10:20 PM, David Gregory wrote:
Another note: some amount of leakage for spring energized seals in dynamic
aoolications is quite common in my experience. Often the leakage will
subside after the motion stops. Also, I think I've mentioned before I've
seen higher leakage with lower pressures due to insufficient preload (at
higher pressures the seal is assisted by the fluid pressure). What surface
finish do you have on the shaft? 16 or better is typically called for.
David