PINCH CLAMP/GUN

If you have got a pressure pot and cannot afford the luxury of a foot operated pinch valve then you need one of these.
 My original version was a winemakers pinch clamp on the tube and it has served me well for a couple of years but it has started to pop open at random intervals. So I rummaged around the shed for something suitable to adapt.
I found a woodworking clamp that I thought would work but it did not have quite enough strength with the original clamp ends to shut off air flow. A piece of 1/4 flat steel bar was cut for the bottom part of the clamp and glued in place with gorilla glue. Still not quite enough oomph to close off air flow and another piece of bar would be too much so  more rummaging found an old 1mil syringe I had  used for silvering/mirroring (More on that in a later post) cut it to size and glued it into place.
That did it a perfect seal. So I drilled a hole for the tube to go through and thought that would do, but it was quite hard work on the hand  to hold   it open so with what was left of the bar I fashioned a handle and attached it gun style. 

I know the picture isn't brilliant but it gives you the general idea. It is nice and comfortable to hold and should work well. 

When the tube wears through at the pinch point as it will eventually do you just cut off the worn part pull the tube through and put your nozzle back in.

The only tools used were a hacksaw and a battery drill and some brute force to bend the bar. 

Enjoy your build.

UPDATE!!!!  The urethane tubing has now been  changed for some soft rubber tube normally used for Bunsen burners. The pinch action is much sharper and flow is easier to control.

UV EXPOSURE UNIT ON A BUDGET

I am starting this blog for anyone that wants to get into glass engraving using the sandblasting method. Hopefully I will cover other forms of glass engraving but will concentrate mainly on sandblasting/sandcarving.
When I started I was out of work and on a very tight budget so a lot of my gear  was home built. With that in mind this post is of one of my first builds. All in I think it cost me less than £30.00.

This project is for anyone that would like to get in to using photo resist films but find the cost of the exposure units prohibitive. I dont have all the photos but this should give you a fairly good idea as to what to do.

First you need an old style scanner one about 3" deep. 

Strip out the insides so you have an empty shell then cut a piece of mirror to fit on the bottom of the inside.

Then you need one of these 

A 36w UV nail dryer i went for the cheapest i could find on ebay. strip it down so that all you have is the inner workings (keep the screws they may come in handy later)

mount the uv tube holders on the side casing of the scanner

i used one of the holders to mark where i wanted them to go then drilled and screwed them on but glue would work just as well

i tried to cut as few wires as possible but when mounting the switches it was inevitable
first i cut holes for the switches ( before pic not shown ) then mounted them

the timer switch ( the square one in the pic) had five wires coming from it all white so i used diferent coloured markers to identify them before cutting them and mounting the switch they were then re soldered

a glue gun was used to mount the mirror and to secure the main pcb into place
the wires for the lamps were made longer to reach the main board then secured into place

a quick check to make sure all wires are insulated then close up and suture ready for a test drive

the timer is for two mins and i find it takes about four both for rapid mask and the hd but a few snap tests on a couple of strips will give you a better idea, Not tried it with washout yet but it should work fine.

i hope you all will find this useful.

Bert.