Pneumatic switch control

Yeah, I had problems finding the cylinders on their site by normal navigation...

I did find the catalog on their site:

Interesting... I looked at Compact automation, and I also could not find the miniature cylinders... drat.

I think what we want starts on page 160:

Sigh, guess we have to find out who makes these, or search ebay for onsies...

let me know what you find, I post what I find...

Greg

Sorry for the delay in getting back to yall with the air cylinder information. I took a look through my emails and found the information about the Bimba brand pneumatic piston. It is the Original Line Air Cylinder and you can see by visiting the site there are many things that can be customized... bore size, stroke length, single or double acting, etc.

I ended up buying a 5/16" bore with 0.25" stroke cylinder as a sample a year and a half ago to see if they would fit in those del aire/ez air housings I mentioned. These Bimba cylinders are smaller in diameter than the del aire/ez air cylinders, but a bit longer by about 1/4".

In addition to the cylinder you would need to buy a barb/gasket that screws into the back of the cylinder (#10-32 thread) and has the hose bard for the small ID tubing like what Sunset used to sell (I think it was 1/16"?). These can be bought from Clippard or found online from other sellers with the Clippard item# CT2-PKG.

The Bimba cylinder just has a threaded end on the rod, so unless you want to chuck it up in a drill press/mill and put a center hole, the end clevis and pin would be necessary to buy. That is a Bimba product, item# D-26690.

All the parts assembled look like this:


I originally chose the 0.25"stroke to match the Tenmille ground throw stroke, but it wouldn't hurt to give it a bit of extra room by getting another 1/16" of stroke (0.313" rounded up to the thousandth).

The price for the cylinder is about $20, the hose barb/gasket is $1.05 ($5.21 for a pack of 5), and the end clevis and pin is $7. So this would put you in for $28.05 plus shipping for each cylinder set prior to buying any sort of mounting solution. It's still not too bad considering the stainless construction.

I will try and get some sort of mounting housing 3D model designed and some 3D printed examples made next month. I imagine if I am successful, the owner of Llagas Creek wouldn't be objected to having them made available on the website along with some accessories like hose, toggles, end clevis, barbs, etc. with a small mark up to cover the costs and make it worthwhile to stock. I'd put all that stuff under a new section "Pneumatics."

I'm still looking for reasonably priced toggles, they tend to be quite expensive those little things... more than the cylinder itself!

-Mike

Mike, I find that the EZ-Aire had quite a bit more stroke, over 1/2" as i remember, and that helped make the mounting less critical (centering the throw mechanism).

I'll look at the Bimba line, I saw their catalog, will start documenting, so I can make a decision.

Any thoughts on internal mechanisms?

Did you ever see the EZ-Air mechanism?

I have several that not everyone saw:



Not the lowest friction design, or the most "dirt proof":