# First time prop builder



## mopar44o (Sep 8, 2015)

Hello all,

Hoping I can get some guidance from the more experienced prop builders here.

Building my first prop a monster box.

I'd like it to rock forward, the lid to pop, have a fog machine, and sounds.

I want to know if the components I have / ordered are sufficient so far.

I ordered a picoboo Plus for the brains / controller.

This is the pneumatic cylinder I purchased for the rocking / opening of the lid
http://www.princessauto.com/en/deta...pneumatic-double-acting-cylinders/A-p8188187e

I was looking at this solenoid on ebay to operate the cylinder.

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/4V210-08-5Po...DC-/171028522144?hash=item27d21824a0#shpCntId

and then some sort of manifold to feed both.

On the pneumatic side am I missing anything? How do those components look?

Thanks


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## Richie4540 (Jul 23, 2015)

The solenoid is correct , you will need some pipe to connect and the correct sized fittings to screw into the valve that connect to the pipe. Also consider getting exhaust silencers with speed regulators. These allow you to fine tune the speed of travel in each direction.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/25pcs-8m...for-PU-Hose-/191238774685?hash=item2c86b81f9d

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/PU-Polyu...Ft-Air-Tube-/331619294144?hash=item4d360cdbc0

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Sintered...l-1-4-Valve-/130711658254?hash=item1e6f059f0e

There are heaps of options to consider, like pipe size, bigger is better with air lines, if the lines are too small you may still be able to move the small ram that you have now but thinking ahead to your next prop if you want a larger ram then small pipe may not let it move quickly enough.

Also check out your local industrial shop as they may have things like the pipe as cheap as you can get on eBay.


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## mopar44o (Sep 8, 2015)

Thanks for the reply.

Hows that muffler work?


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## Richie4540 (Jul 23, 2015)

Mopar, the muffler has two functions, one is to muffle the noise through the sintered element and the other is the adjustable needle valve with a locking nut, basically you can open or shut the needle valve which can throttle the air flow through it which will then control the speed of the ram movement, by having one on each of the exhaust ports on your 5 way valve it allows you to control the open and close speeds of the ram independent of each other and also separate to the overall air line pressure. without them you can control ram speed by changing the air pressure that you supply to your 5 way valve from your compressor, this is ok if you only have one ram on your system but if you want to have more than one ram doing different things in your whole setup then being able to adjust speeds is very helpful and allows you to fine tune the whole effect.

You can also get speed control valves that fit onto the air ram directly or inline in the pipe but from what I have seen the dual muffler speed controllers are the cheapest way to go.

Have fun playing with it all.

richie


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## Richie4540 (Jul 23, 2015)

Here is a picture of a typical setup that I run for rams - I use 8mm pipe as this covers most of my ram sizes from tiny to large, I should say I use quite a few in my business for test rigs and they vary in size from 15mm bore x 150mm stroke to 75mm bore x 900mm stoke and this pipe can run them all with a fair amount of power/speed, it also helps having a decent air copressor that can deliver the amount of air flow required so consider this if you start running big rams and need lots of operations per minute.










I use thread seal tape for semi permanent setups as I tend to reconfigure gear alot - if it is permanent setup I use a thread sealant - Loxseal - as this is alot quicker and just doesn't leak.

Here are some ram mounted flow controllers -










and other examples of simple exhaust mufflers - plastic and sintered metal.










hope this all helps.


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