Sometimes you need to clean some corrosion off of a hard to reach spot on your fuel-injector hardlines. There's not a lot, but it's down in the corner by the fitting and you can't get to it with a wire brush or sandpaper. The obvious solution would be sand blasting, but that requires an air compressor, an abrasive blasting gun, and you still have to buy the sand. I propose a one-time-use aerosol can full of sand with a plastic nozzle designed for up-close sandblasting. It may require some internal plumbing in the can to get the sand to fly out at a good speed. This can be solved with trial and error. Now when you need to blast that small part, doodad, or fuel injector hardline you just buy a couple cans from the store, blast away, and throw them out when you're done. Vacuum up the excess sand.-- DIYMatt, Oct 25 2018 Here's a standard can bursting, https://www.youtube...watch?v=rR-S7-fAVTgThe top of the can stretched loudly at about 225 psi, the can burst at around 365 psi [doctorremulac3, Oct 25 2018] US20060211339A1 https://patents.goo.../US20060211339A1/enAerosol sandblast [xaviergisz, Oct 25 2018] US5181349 https://patents.goo...atent/US5181349A/enSelf-powered unitary portable granular particle ejector tool [xaviergisz, Oct 26 2018] Public Patent Application Information Retrieval https://portal.uspto.gov/pair/PublicPair [xaviergisz, Oct 26 2018] Diagram 6 - duckling in the can https://drive.googl...BCNx7Kn7l88tDJkZ520 [not_morrison_rm, Oct 26 2018] This is actually a bloody brilliant idea.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Oct 25 2018 If this would work somebody HAS to have thought of this no?
I'm assuming that the pressure necessary to cause actual abrasion is way beyond what you can cram into a metal can.
Bun anyway.-- doctorremulac3, Oct 25 2018 Hey, wait...
what if you have the sand, then a two part mixture that when mixed by depressing the nozzle basically causes a controlled explosion driving the sand out at the required velocity?
Then you'd only need a very small hardened mixing area / combustion chamber that could then vent to the outside bernouliing or otherwise carrying the grit with it.
Eh?-- doctorremulac3, Oct 25 2018 Sounds like a money maker. I was first thinking about how it is a shame to have one more source of cans in the trash (or possibly recycling). On the other hand, if this encourages more people to do more to fix up used items rather than just replacing them, it might more than offset a few cans in the trash. [+]-- scad mientist, Oct 25 2018 //I'm assuming that the pressure necessary to cause actual abrasion is way beyond what you can cram into a metal can.// Well, regular compressors have reservoir tanks, so at least they can take the pressure. And smaller pressure vessels can take higher pressures.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Oct 25 2018 I have seen dry ice generators attached to a CO2 generator in print. Perhaps another version could make its own dry ice and fling that down the nozzle.-- beanangel, Oct 25 2018 //Well, regular compressors have reservoir tanks, so at least they can take the pressure.//
Yea, but I've owned one, they're built like a bomb. Very thick metal, cans are very thin. Guess you could have a thick can, but then aren't we getting away from cheap and convenient? Don't get me wrong, great idea, just wondering how much you'd have to have can that's made of thick metal and is 5 pounds empty.
Ok, so a standard can blows up at 320 PSI. Let me look up how much pressure you need for a sandblaster.
Hmm. Says you only need 100 PSI to sand blast. Maybe you can just use an existing can. But waaait a minute. I've put my hand in front of a can of hairspray and a sandblaster. The sandblaster almost takes your hand off so it's the flow of air not just the pressure which I thought were directly related. High pressure high air flow. What am I missing? It says you need 25 cubic feet of air per minute. Can an aerosol can deliver that? If so I'm guessing you'd get about 3 or 4 seconds out of it.
But remember, if it is a problem, the problem is solved with the heavy chamber where you have the hypergolic propellant mixed and simply throwing the sand into the escape stream. If it's not a problem, the idea of having a rocket in your hand powering your sand blaster is very awesome. Plus it's a blowtorch.-- doctorremulac3, Oct 25 2018 // hypergolic //
Yes. Do it ... do it NOW ...-- 8th of 7, Oct 25 2018 High Test Peroxide would do it but then I think we're getting away from cheap and convenient.-- DIYMatt, Oct 25 2018 Otto fuel (PGDN) would be a reasonable alternative to HTP ...-- 8th of 7, Oct 26 2018 Re the patent:
Did they have a three year old generate their patent drawings?-- doctorremulac3, Oct 26 2018 How about a gunpowder sand mixture and a cycling ignition chamber? Sort of a machine gun in a can only shooting sand.-- doctorremulac3, Oct 26 2018 I think sometimes patent applicants in the US file deliberately bad drawings so that the examiner directs them to file better drawings. If they only filed slightly bad drawings, they might not be given the opportunity to amend. (this is just a hypothesis)
You can have a look at the the documents associated with the patent application (I've put a link to the US patent office Public Patent Application Information Retrieval).
In this case the applicant did file better drawings, but alas it was to no avail. The examiner had found good prior art (US 5,181,349) which the applicant was unable to overcome.-- xaviergisz, Oct 26 2018 The can might be reusable though this gets away from the original idea. A thicker can, more air under higher pressure and an internal straw to pick up the sand from the bottom. A screw port on the bottom would accept replacement sand, then re-pressurize an air fitting beside it. [+]-- whatrock, Oct 26 2018 Maybe have it like of them paint spray guns, but with the reservoir of sand in the top, and the compressed air in the bottom.
NB US20060211339A1 there is quite clearly a duckling in diagram 6, so not likely to go down well with the animal welfare bods. Link.-- not_morrison_rm, Oct 26 2018 Good idea but I could think of some terrible things to do with this… Need to find a way to get the big fat squirrels off the birdfeeder…-- xandram, Oct 26 2018 Good idea in principle, which is why it already has a patent on it. Don't want to be a humbug, but..... reaches into humbug jar......-- xenzag, Oct 26 2018 It’s not just a good idea, it’s a grit idea. Like the good [doctorremulac3] says the can walls would need to be thick, but it it could be a rechargeable unit. No need to throw in the trash [scad_mientist]-- AusCan531, Oct 26 2018 This is great. It's small and expensive on a per-use basis, but that's just fine, it also has 0 setup time, so you can have different varieties. You could have cans with media calibrated by shore hardness or whatnot so that you could tune the abrasive effect. Walnut shells, Glass, aluminum oxide, whatever. "This bolt's rusted solid, pass me 9 cans of the tungsten carbide, we'll see who's boss"-- bs0u0155, Oct 26 2018 A regular aerosol can will take 200-250psi, though without a lot of safety margin. Sandblasters (apparently) need anywhere from 50psi upwards.
To get decent life out of the can, the contents would need to be a liquified gas (as is the case in most aerosols). One problem is that you could only spray for a short time before the can got too cold; then you'd have to wait until it had warmed up again.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Oct 26 2018 Nice.There's a video of some guy making a DIY sandblaster using a compressors' spray attachment and a plastic pop bottle full of sand which gravity-fed into the air-stream. It works pretty well. You might be able to rig up a reusable sand blaster by substituting one of those hand-pumped herbicide containers if they hold enough PSI. (+)-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Oct 26 2018 Well, I guess considering there's half a dozen patents for this already we're abandoning the whole "baked" thing.
Which is fine I guess, as long as the subject is interesting, which is the whole point anyway.-- doctorremulac3, Oct 26 2018 It's not fine with me. The half bakery is supposed to be about generating new ideas, and not restating ones that already exist, as verified by rhe patent documents in the links. Maybe I'll post an idea for a bunch of hairs tied to the end of a stick that you can dip into a tin of paint, then rub it up and down on a surface to colour it in. I'll call it The Hairy Stick.-- xenzag, Oct 26 2018 I'm sorry, but my entourage has patented "The Hairy Stick"-- 4and20, Oct 26 2018 I'll bun it.-- doctorremulac3, Oct 26 2018 It may be baked but, like [xenzag] it is not WKTE.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Oct 26 2018 Some ideas just get a sort of defacto amnesty I guess.-- doctorremulac3, Oct 26 2018 The slack bakery.-- xenzag, Oct 26 2018 I guess it depends if the posting is genuine or not. If it is an original independent invention then... kudos, but being known for scouring obscure patents to present as one's own for fake internet points is pretty lame so I doubt anyone would really want to make a career out of it.
You don't have your Decade-Card yet [DIYMatt].We're watching you... ...you and your cool ideas nobody has gotten around to making yet shenanigans mister.-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Oct 27 2018 I need this for the detail work on sandcastles at the beach.-- jonthegeologist, Oct 27 2018 I posted this because I was actually looking for said product and couldn't find it. I googled by any search terms I could think of, and of course searched HB first. I did not search through decades old patent filings that were never developed upon. But a large part of why I post here is to hear people's thoughts on an idea and poke holes in it, often explaining /why/ something was never developed. The fact that someone dug up an old patent on it and we have a discussion going about whether or not it would work makes me think it was worth posting.-- DIYMatt, Oct 27 2018 I poorly recall a guy etching car windows with license plate numbers using a scuba tank and a airbrush type unit. Does that count?-- wjt, Oct 27 2018 Did they ever catch him?-- MaxwellBuchanan, Oct 27 2018 No, he ran off and hid in a nunnery, claiming diplomatic immunity, benefit of clergy, and droit du seigneur.
Then he phoned you and got you to send one of your helicopters to rescue him before the police arrived, don't you remember ? Quite why those nuns keep letting Sturton in after dark is inexplicable. And they really should turn that grail-shaped beacon off when it's not needed.-- 8th of 7, Oct 27 2018 random, halfbakery