Slinging.org Forum - Making giant pill roller

curious_aardvark

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Making giant pill roller - finished project
Mar 30^th, 2008, 11:00am

For slingfest uk on june 29th I figure I'm going to need at least several hundred near-identical and reasonably aerodynamic missiles just for the target shooting. So I'm going to have to make them myself :-)
Hence the need for a giant pill roller.

So I've been to my local hardware store and bought some plastic pipe. They didn't stock anyting as large in diameter as a golf ball. I ended up with white (so I can see where I've marked it - the black looked sharper but was less practical) 40mm diameter drainage pipe.
2 metres for £1.48. Cheap enough I think you'll agree :-)
I figure I can make a seven or eight lane roller and still have the piece I need to make the sausages.
40mm cement balls should be a good size and weight for target shooting. Slightly smaller but heavier than a golfball.

I've worked out the design (in my head) also a design for a little gadget to mark the exact centre of a half pipe piece. I've even found the bandsaw blades I'd lost so I can fit a finer blade than the heavy duty thing I use for wood. I've worked out how to remove the sausage from the pipe and transfer the sausage to the roller and hold the two halves of the roller exactly over each other while rolling.
I even found some chipboard to use as a base (might not use it - we'll see)

So I just need to build it now. Pictures and progress report as an when I have them :-)

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« Last Edit: Apr 19^th, 2008, 2:07pm by curious_aardvark »

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curious_aardvark Slinging.org Administrator Taller than the average Dwarf Posts: 9040 Gender:	Re: Making giant pill roller - ongoing project Reply #1 - Apr 7^th, 2008, 7:22pm step one. Cut your 2 metre 40 mm drainage pipe into 10 15cm sections leaving a 50cm section that will be used as the sausage maker later on. On reflection I really should have used the bandsaw as my hand cutting with the hacksaw didn't exactly result in straight cuts :-)
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curious_aardvark

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Re: Making giant pill roller - ongoing project
Reply #2 - Apr 7^th, 2008, 7:30pm

cut each 15cm section in half lengthways - use a bandsaw if you have one - if not, good luck. But it really does need to be quite precise.
I certainly couldn't cut all ten sections by hand well enough - but then I didn't have to :-)

Once cut you need to use some rough sand paper - I used 120 grit - to remove all the fuzzy plastic edges.

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curious_aardvark

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Re: Making giant pill roller - ongoing project
Reply #3 - Apr 7^th, 2008, 7:38pm

Mark each half pipe exactly down the centre with a narrow marker/cd pen.
To do this I made a little jig. Lay a half pipe cutside down on a small piece of thin wood. Super glue two upright bits of wood either side so that the pipe is held firmly between them.
Drill a hole the diameter of your pen exactly between the two uprights (should be at the 20mm mark for 40mm pipe).
Push pen through the hole just enough to mark the pipe when the jig is held over a section of pipe and run it up the lenght of tghe pipe. Marking a line dead centre.
Mark all 20 pieces in this way.
This really works - I was impressed :-)

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curious_aardvark

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Re: Making giant pill roller - ongoing project
Reply #4 - Apr 7^th, 2008, 7:50pm

next you need two pieces of wood 40 cm in length. In the spirit of my usual 'just make stuff from crap in your workshop' I used a piece of pallet wood from the big-box-of-odd-bits-of-wood-in-the-corner.
You would probably be better off with wood slightly less wide than the pipe (14cm) but, hey that would have broken the use-crap-lying-around rule.

Use a long thin nail to make your first hole (use the guide line marked in the previous section) and then nail the first section parellel to the end of the plank with a shorter nail. Add a second nail to the first and last section. You can add extra nails to the middle sections - but I didn't bother.

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curious_aardvark

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Re: Making giant pill roller - ongoing project
Reply #5 - Apr 7^th, 2008, 8:02pm

if you can be bothered - and want a better roller. Sand the sections where the edges of pipes meet to sharp edges - power sanding probably required (I didn't, but don't let my low standards influence you).
Then carefully apply strips of marking tape between each section. This binds the sections together and just looks good. Also it narrows the diameter of the pipes slightly - hopefully this will help in rolling the cement sausages.

If you cut the original lengths of pipe as badly as I did - trim them even with the bandsaw. If you did it properly - no trimming needed :-)

Make the second section the same way as the first section.

More next week :-)

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curious_aardvark

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Re: Making giant pill roller - ongoing project
Reply #6 - Apr 19^th, 2008, 1:36pm

Okay next I cut the wood bases exactly level with the sides of the tube and nailed and glued a couple of wings on the side of one section (curtesy of the big box of bits again, see end of article for pic) - hereby called the BOTTOM :-) Your pill roller is now done. Put the top piece in and make sure it slides up and down freely - and yes it did, I was amazed lol.

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curious_aardvark

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Re: Making giant pill roller - ongoing project
Reply #7 - Apr 19^th, 2008, 1:43pm

Okay next we need a couple of other bits to help us make the BPR work.
First off cut the remaining length of tube to fit the wings.
Then cut a couple of pieces of wood approx 5 cm by 45. Nail and glue them at a right angle lengthwise and add a bottom piece.
This contraption is what you push your cement sausage onto and then transfer it to the roller with.

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curious_aardvark

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Re: Making giant pill roller - ongoing project
Reply #8 - Apr 19^th, 2008, 1:53pm

Okay next we need a plunger to help push the cement out of the tube once it's full of cement.
I got a bit carried away and used apiece of metal tubing and turned a wooden plug. As it turned out this was pretty useless lol. And I ended up using a bit of chopped down star rod I got from the Big box of bits.
So the rule for the plunger is make sure the end diameter is a lot less than the plastic tube. I made my fancy plunger too tight a fit.

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curious_aardvark Slinging.org Administrator Taller than the average Dwarf Posts: 9040 Gender:	Re: Making giant pill roller - ongoing project Reply #9 - Apr 19^th, 2008, 1:56pm Okay so now I've got all the bits - did it work ? (sorry no pics as I was wearing latex gloves covered in cement the whole time) Well actually yes. BUT.....
Back to top	big_40mm_missiles.jpg « Last Edit: Apr 19^th, 2008, 7:23pm by curious_aardvark » Do All things with Honour and Generosity: Regret Nothing, Envy None, Apologise Seldom and Bow your head to No One - works for me :-) IP Logged

curious_aardvark

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Re: Making giant pill roller - ongoing project
Reply #10 - Apr 19^th, 2008, 2:02pm

Okay - here's what i did wrong and you don't do :-)

1) 40mm is too big. I'll go back to b&q tomorrow and see if they've got some 30 mm pipe.

2) When you buy your mortar mix, make sure you get a dry premixed mixture and not a bag of wet sand and a seperate bag of cement that had more lumps in it than powder.

The texture and consistency of the sausage mix is pretty crucial. Too dry and it just crumbles, too wet and it makes ovals not rounds.
I'm going to dry the sand out and try making a mixture with just pva and a little water.

bear in mind a pill roller will also work well for clay and quite probably mud as well. It's all down to texture.

All in all the experiment to date has cost me less than £5 (including mortar and big bottle of pva glue). And I now know what I did wrong this time (not as much as I'd have thought lol) and what to do next time (and so do you :-)
Soon as I've made the smaller version I'll post pics.
And yes I am intending to spray paint the final missiles flourescent colours.

Oh yeah (as promised) here's the most useful item in my workshop (after the bandsaw) the big box
of odd bits :-)

ps. Thanks ethan - he and I know what for lol

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Do All things with Honour and Generosity: Regret Nothing, Envy None, Apologise Seldom and Bow your head to No One - works for me :-)

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Ethan Funditor so much depends upon a red wheelbarrow... Posts: 858 Gender:	Re: Making giant pill roller - finished project Reply #11 - Apr 19^th, 2008, 2:08pm Wow. Although I'm sure they sling well, it appears as if you've just cleaned up after some horses... Are you going to spray-paint them at all? (I moved this )
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Thomas Descens Rocks? Posts: 284 Gender:	Re: Making giant pill roller - finished project Reply #12 - Apr 19^th, 2008, 2:52pm c.a. Your results are worth the effort. As I said before, standardizing the ammo removes a major variable. Just use discretion when putting a return address on them. tom
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curious_aardvark

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Re: Making giant pill roller - finished project
Reply #13 - Apr 19^th, 2008, 3:59pm

ah well - just been having a brainstorm session with a mate of mine - result is tomorrow I'm off to buy a box of table tennis balls ;-)

Watch this space lol (actually if it works, watch for another topic entirely - called 'the crocodile' lol)

But I am pleased that how I thought it through worked - I don't draw up plans or do proper measuring you see lol
The art of the bodge will not die as long as I'm around ! Drives gunsonwheels spare lmao.

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« Last Edit: Apr 19^th, 2008, 7:11pm by curious_aardvark »

Do All things with Honour and Generosity: Regret Nothing, Envy None, Apologise Seldom and Bow your head to No One - works for me :-)

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jax Interfector Viris Spurii Take me out to the ball game........ Posts: 1160 Gender:	Re: Making giant pill roller - finished project Reply #14 - Apr 19^th, 2008, 6:38pm I must be slow..I wasn't sure what you were doing.Uniformity?Excellent effort!!
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