Been 3d printing some large gunge release valves..... not bad.

White one is 2.25" and the larger black one is 3.5".

Uploaded a video, but not available yet...

Controller can run 4 valves, and you can set opening speed 1-30 seconds, hold open time 1-30 seconds, and how many degrees it opens.
All of the above can be set to random (so a random pick of 45 degrees only opens the valve half way).

These are not 100% water sealed (no 3d print ever will be), but they seem to hold gunge, porridge etc very well (no drips past the valve).

Saying that, simply seal around the inside of the ball with Vaseline and it seals thinner liquids very well.

Lightweight, low voltage and very easy to clean.

Fun eh? Sorry Tara.... you will be the test girl again this weekend

Steve

Apparently nobody can see these pics....

I'll delete and repost some other time

Oooh, do let us know how it goes. The "Wamtech" label is a nice touch!

So cool! Hope we get to see it in action!

All images from unverified users have to be pre-approved before they appear, until they're approved all that shows is a clock icon to indicate waiting for approval. Images from verified users don't have to be pre-moderated so if you upload ID (which MM will then securely store off-line, so safe from hackers) anything you upload will go live instantly. This is all down to MasterCard's crackdown in the wake of the PH debacle, not something MM has any choice over. Until a couple of days ago even verified user content had to be pre-moderated but its now been clarified by the billing people that it doesn't.

Steve, I really hope you're not jerking any chains here, unless they're connected to a gunge release system over Tara's lovely head.

Really hoping you guys make a welcome return!

Came here for big ass and gunge. I am disappoint.

Impressive work there. We did okay with regular pvc gate valves where you could just yank the handle. It would have been easy enough to put a servo on there and automate it. Real curious to see how you put all this together.

Engineering myself, what sort of 3d printer is it, just goes to show engineering is fun!

Printed on my home made Delta printer.
No particular make.

Wow these look real nice, great work.

Are you going to sell these or make them open source?

This could sure be a great project to tackle with the rest of the umd community.

Sort of like an 'open source gunge valve' project.

Here's what I knocked up in fusion 360 in the space of 90mins.
0.1mm tolerances which are perfect for the mesh printing of most common ender3/5/prusa's to name a few.

So the guy builds his own 3D printer, then designs really smart valves to be printed on it with seemingly infinite amount of control. Is this guy a genius or what?

Thanks for this Steve, we plebs of course simply look for to seeing the test results. BTW do not apologise to Tara, I'll bet she can't wait to be the subject.

Certainly more sophisticated than a balloon and pin!

As a fan of big asses, gunge and Valve I approve.

Now, off to play BBW forfeit Portal.

Hi all

OK, to put a few questions to bed...

3d printing is fine, but slow. The big valve here took nearly a week to print.
The surface of most types of 3d prints is made up of layers, so it's not smooth. You can sand them, but this takes away the finish.

But, it also makes it nearly impossible to make a 100% sealing valve. The tolerances are just not good enough. That is why a large diameter ball valve off the shelf costs big money.

Saying that, the thicker goo won't get past it anyway. Pretty much only very runny gunge will leak past, and that is easily solved with vaseline or something similar.

Then you need to open them. If you are happy to pull a string, then fine... no real problems.
But electrically, you need high power servos that can deal with the sticky goo that WAM involves.

If you work out a 50Kg servo is £50 from China (testing has shown this to be the size required), and add a week long print and the filament cost, you are looking at probably £150 for the large valve. That is without some way of operating it and not much in it for me.

So, at the moment, I can't see them being a viable sale item

If enough people did want one, then fine. But at the moment, it looks like people are only really interested in my uploading the files for people to use themselves (which I may do).

Watch this space.
Oh and Tara tested them last night (porridge and beans). Sorry... in the heat of the moment, no pics occurred Steve

PS... The video is up: https://umd.net/profile/i/stickytits2021/section/videos/video/3d-printed-valves

The given link is not quite right, but if you go onto profile "Latest actions" you will find the vid.

You say Tara will be your test subject.
I hope we will be able to see the video of the results of your test.

:Looking forward to seeing MESSY TARA back again, as filthy as before.