Starting this week, a few members have started work on a Giant AirHockey
table Project for HSBNE.
This came about as a result of the “giant CNC” project not needing the
beautiful vacuum-table bed, and realising that “running the vacuum
backwards”, makes it an air-hockey table!.
Here’s the core bed of the table as it is now… after we extracted it
from the filthy CNC machine, cleaned the crap off it, relocated it to a
less filthy place, drained the water from it, cleaned it again, and
discussed what needs to happen next…
there’s also a video of the “draining water from it” at the below link…
quite a bit of rain had got into it over the last 12 months “in the
shed”… so anyone who says that shed is water-proof needs to see this…
install sturdy (aluminium?) edge around table for puck/s to bounce off.
plumb the 6 under-table air-feed lines together, and to the electric
blower.
safely wire the air blower and motor speed controller to each other, and
to a 3phase plug.
make some nice table legs/frame. we have a bunch of wood lying
around, so this can happen whenever.
“goal” pockets at each end or side.
make a cover for it.
Neat features:
As the existing speed controller can do any speed down to practically zero,
it should be fine to use the massively over-powered vacuum table “sucker”
as a “blower”, we’ll just turn it down really low.
If we design the plumbing right ( with a valve or something) , we can use
the table for vacuum stuff in the future too! anyone wanting to do a big
model aircraft wing in resin, or any large cos-play parts that need a
vacuum table, etc.
When not in use, it will be covered with a protective layer ( tablecloth,
vinyl, mylar, whatever) and will make a great table for
measuring/layout/cutting of big flat things… like sewing projects, or
similar.
Wooden bumpers seem fine even for an arcade duty cycle. However if we have any 90 degree steel/aluminium angle section lying around that would be easier.
We can use offcuts of any flat material from the laser cutter to make spare pucks (they always go missing). Acrylic pucks might shatter, but roller hockey pucks are ABS, so we could laser cut some from ABS sheets. We could even 3D print a springy lightweight puck for more safety with strong players. I’ll happily CAD this up if anybody wants to one to test.
What material is the table made from that causes water ingress to be an issue? The only place I can think of that we could put this is in the undercover outdoor area, where some water will be inevitable.
yes, wooden bumpers would probably be fine… I guess it’s whatever we cn get our hands on for (near) zero price.
pucks - they are not a problem, many solutions, but do NOT laser-cut ABS.
water-ingress for the table is not an issue for the table where it stands at present ( it’s inside, out of the weather), so unless or untill it needs to go someplace else, don’t worry about that. maybe we’ll put a waterproof cover on it for something ,again, not a big issue at all. ( P.S. the reason water is an issue, is it’s got wood and other not-really-waterproof stuff in it )
Just a but more detail. … the air table now works.
The aluminum edges are all mounted.
The pinholes were all swizzled.
The experimental pucks have been made and some official size ones purchased and arrived.
The current temporary air supply is noisy but does the job. … it’s a leaf blower.
It’s currently looking for help getting/scrounging some aluminum extrusion
for edging and then we need someone to plumb the 6 under - table air
intakes together into some sort of manifold… and then the blower and
controller need to be connected…
Any volunteers?
