Whew, that is one wordy title, but I literally can’t think of any way to condense it anymore…
I am currently building a more efficient and less labor-intensive way of vacuum pumping my vacuum-sealed bags (check out my previous post).
Anyway, I was originally planning on using a hydraulic actuator to push the pump handle forward and backward, but there was no such option available for a small scale design. The things I could find were huge industrial, Kuka robot type builds. So I looked towards electric actuators, which just have a rack and pinion that is linked to a DC motor, or even a servo. Unfortunately, these designs have very high torque, but abysmal speeds. Not very appropriate for my task.
I was doing a bit of research, looking at any similar projects that may have been conducted, when I found a Reddit article, that coincidentally shares the same title as the first part of today’s blog header:
Anyway, somewhere down in the replies/comments, someone suggested a “reverse steam engine” design. (GIF below). The moderator of the post shot this idea down, saying the wheel would have to be too large to move the distance he wanted to move. Anyway, this would work amazingly for my design, as all I have is about a six-inch travel distance. It wouldn’t even require any software to move the piece forward and backward; I could just connect it directly to the power source and turn the wheel.
Keeping this in mind, I started the 3D modeling process. Attached below is a link to a video of me replicating the pump design. Sorry about all the inches to mm converting, it’s just that I only had an imperial tape measure on me to measure the pump, and I was too lazy to go into my Fusion 360 preferences to change the units. Also, it’s not sped up. It is just four and a half minutes long, but I just wanted to show that I am doing something with my time 😉
