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Cake-pop concrete balls (Read 2565 times)
slingostarr
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Re: Cake-pop concrete balls
Reply #15 - Jun 11th, 2021 at 12:19am
 
Thanks mate! Appreciate your feedback and your youtube channel! 🙂 I got the idea for the eggs from your video.
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slingostarr
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Re: Cake-pop concrete balls
Reply #16 - Jun 11th, 2021 at 12:31am
 
NooneOfConsequence, I have considered putting a piece of chicken wire in each one to act as kind of a mini rebar, like it would in a concrete slab.

Price would work out to next to nothing per piece. 20kg of quickset concrete cost $9.90 Australian, so maybe $4 American, if I had to guess I'd say five cents for the little ones, ten cents for the balls and 20 cents for an egg. A little concrete goes a long way.

I'm not sure about water ratios. It's hard to work with if it's either too dry or too wet. I get it to like a wet clay consistency and it holds shape well while drying. Too wet and it sags as it's drying.

To mitigate that sagging from gravity I dry them in sand so the weight is evenly distributed across the bottom surface area of the shape, then wash off the excess when it's dry enough to soak in water without crumbling.

I have no idea what I'm doing, but it seems to be working 🤣
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NooneOfConsequence
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Re: Cake-pop concrete balls
Reply #17 - Jun 11th, 2021 at 8:11am
 
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“My final hour is at hand. We face an enemy more numerous and cunning than the world has yet seen. Remember your training, and do not fear the hordes of Judas. I, without sin, shall cast the first stone. That will be your sign to attack! But you shall not fight this unholy enemy with stones. No! RAZOR GLANDES!  Aim for the eyes! May the Lord have mercy, for we shall show none!“  -Jesus the Noodler
 
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Curious Aardvark
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Re: Cake-pop concrete balls
Reply #18 - Jun 11th, 2021 at 9:45am
 
All egg-cellent ideas Smiley (it's friday give me a break whistle )

really cool ideas there.

I do mlike the simple egg cup scoop idea.
With something as soft as cement that's an excellent idea - and give me 10 minutes and I'll drop a parametric openscad script in here to 3d print them in any size you like Smiley

If you add pva and shredded newspaper to the mix, it'll make it easier to mould and also should hold up to impacts a lot better.

But 10 out of 10 for innovation !
have a gold star Smiley

I did make some concrete ammo a while back - but never really took the time to get the consistency right.
I also got halfway through a project to make a mass production mould using ping-pong ball halves as moulds.
But a quick scoop and twist of a couple egg cups - love that idea and will be nicking it and giving it the old 3d-printed makeover. Thumbs Up 
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slingostarr
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Re: Cake-pop concrete balls
Reply #19 - Jun 11th, 2021 at 10:07am
 
Good idea!

I will try the PVA and newspaper, never heard of that before. I wonder if jute fibres might work too, would finally have a use for my cats scratching post mess 🤣

Was planning on a plaster of paris/concrete/PVA mix tomorrow. I read makes a very strong casting mix. I bought 48 of those fake chicken eggs to encourage your hens to lay. They're very much like pingpong ball plastic and feel. Difficult to cut though, may need a band saw or dremel grinding disc or something for a clean cut on those. Planning on using them for molds too.

Might have to bust out my 3D printer again too.
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slingostarr
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Re: Cake-pop concrete balls
Reply #20 - Jun 11th, 2021 at 10:19am
 
NooneOfConsequence...I think I just fell in love with concrete 😅 thanks for sharing!

Will undertake my concrete experiments in greater detail this weekend, will be sure to take notes.
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Curious Aardvark
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Re: Cake-pop concrete balls
Reply #21 - Jun 11th, 2021 at 12:24pm
 
openscad: http://openscad.org/

parametric concrete glande scoop script:
Quote:
// Curious Aardvarks concrete glande scoops

$fn=75;


gd=35; // glande diameter
gl=60; // glande length
ll=4; // intersecting lip length
st=4; // shell thickness

module recess(){
difference(){
hull(){
translate([0,0,-gd/2])cylinder(d=gd+st*2, h=gd,$fn=6);
translate([0,0,gl/2])resize([gd+st*2,gd+st*2,gl]) sphere(d=gd);
} // end hull
translate([0,0,gl]) cube([gd+2*st,gd+2*st,gl],true);
translate([0,0,gl/2])resize([gd,gd,gl]) sphere(d=gd);

translate([0,0,gl/2-ll]) cylinder(d=gd+st+0.4,h=ll);

} // end diff

} // end mod recess

module lip(){
difference(){
hull(){
translate([0,0,-gd/2])cylinder(d=gd+st*2, h=gd,$fn=6);
translate([0,0,gl/2])resize([gd+st*2,gd+st*2,gl]) sphere(d=gd);
} // end hull
translate([0,0,gl]) cube([gd+2*st,gd+2*st,gl],true);
translate([0,0,gl/2])resize([gd,gd,gl]) sphere(d=gd);

translate([0,0,gl/2-ll])difference(){
cylinder(d=gd+3*st,h=ll+1);
cylinder(d=gd+st-0.4,h=ll);
} // end diff
} // end diff

} // end mod lip

translate([gd*1.5,0,0])recess();
lip();


copy and paste the above into openscad.
Change parameters for glande diameter and length, shell thickness and lip length. Then hit 'f6'.

generates a positive and negative mould at the same time.

If you have the diameter and length the same - it creates a spherical mould.
The recess and lip are half the thickness of the shell thickness - so don't make the shell too thin.
I could have given it, it's own thickness but i couldn't be arsed whistle

Why would you EVER put a 3d printer away ??????
the single most useful manufacturing tool I own Smiley 
I've currently got one printing polyurethane indestructibly sling pouches and another printing the example mould set Smiley

I'll most likely modify this script over time.

Already thought of a way to reduce seams and i'll have it automatically write the glande size of the moulds on them at some point as well.
But this is the 10 minute version whistle

pva is added to concrete to increase it's flexibility and to help different layers adhere to each other. Substitute some of the water for pva.
The shredded newspaper is just because most people have newspapers and document shredders these days - so use what you have Smiley

Jute fibres will no doubt work just as well Thumbs Up

Oh yeah if you find the concrete sticks to the printed moulds - knock them a few times before openeing. That should cause vibration to force water to the surface of the cement and that should act as a release agent.
Or not - I'm basically making this up as i go along Smiley

And did you know the official way to check how thick/viscous cement is, is called checking the 'slumpage'.

You dump a measured amount of cement on a flat surface and measure the diameter it spreads out to - ie: the degree of slumpage.
That is true ! 
https://www.pavingexpert.com/conc_slump
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« Last Edit: Jun 11th, 2021 at 3:46pm 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 Smiley
 
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Morphy
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Re: Cake-pop concrete balls
Reply #22 - Jun 11th, 2021 at 2:29pm
 
Very nice! I love them!

So here’s my pluses and minuses for concrete/masonry mix.

Masonry mix makes nice smooth ammo but it’s less durable and less dense. So you end up trading ease of making and perfect looking ammo with one and get serious durability and slightly more density/ distance etc with the concrete albeit at the cost of less professional looking ammo.

I ended up sticking with just concrete. I realized after some experimentation that the slight bumps in the  finished ammo from concrete were not causing me to miss all that much if at all. But the durability and density were definitely missed. This is assuming you don’t have any huge aggregate sticking out of the ammo.

The masonry mix certainly looks much nicer though.

The real reason I stopped with concrete was the time necessary to make them. If you have a nice large dedicated backstop, you are golden. They work awesome and last forever! Then again if you have the backstop you can also just buy perfect lacrosse balls/baseballs or other things and they last practically forever while also being even more “perfect” than most concrete glandes. Lacrosse balls I think are in the 5 ounce range and work well.

Lastly, recently, I realized there’s a really, really good solution if one wants to use something like stone but doesn’t want to make concrete glandes all the time: buy hard river stones from your local landscape supply store.

Awhile back I bought a whole back pack full of perfect river stones for oh...something like 13 dollars. Even without a backstop it lasted a long time. And they were absolutely glorious. They flew like darts and were very dense and tough.

That being said I still have a soft spot in my heart for concrete glandes and yours are really nice! Well done!
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Curious Aardvark
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Re: Cake-pop concrete balls
Reply #23 - Jun 11th, 2021 at 2:58pm
 
a reason for taking concrete over stone is simply that when stones shatter they produce razor sharp shards.
Concrete doesn't.

Personally I have no desire to injure any animal, plus there's pretty much nowhjere in the uk where someone is not going to walk a dog or have livestock, let alone wild animals.

Stones are not that environmentally friendly.
Well not if you're slinging at a metal target Smiley

And no matter how well graded a bag of stones is - it's never going to match the verisimilitude you get with moulded - even fast moulded - ammo.

As I mentioned earlier I got half way through making a gadget many years ago that would have moulded about 12 40mm concrete balls in a few seconds.

These little hand moulds are probably almost as quick.
never occured to me to do it like this back then lol
If it can be overcomplicated - I'll over complicate it whistle

two pingpong balls made into halves (you cut along the seam and then press the smaller half back into the larger half - really snug fit). and nailed to teo pieces of wood - would have done the job nicely.
Never thought of just doing one lol

Clay is too firm for this kind of thing, plus doesn't self release like concrete does and you can't scoop it and it doesn't really bond that well in this type of mould.

A semi firm cement on the other hand is made for this kind of process.   
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Morphy
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Re: Cake-pop concrete balls
Reply #24 - Jun 11th, 2021 at 3:58pm
 
One does not have to use stones that fracture conchodially CA. Not all broken stones are razors in the making.

That being said I couldnt resist myself.

...
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Kick
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Re: Cake-pop concrete balls
Reply #25 - Jun 11th, 2021 at 4:07pm
 
Depends on the stones. The granite ones over here don't break. They just don't. Super tough stones are the way to go if you're using stones.
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slingostarr
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Re: Cake-pop concrete balls
Reply #26 - Jun 12th, 2021 at 12:16am
 
Curious Aardvark - thanks for that! Impressed you whipped that up so quickly. I have no idea how to use CAD, I make everything in 3D Builder and take it straight to Cura. Bit of a dunderhead with computers, 3D Builder is all my brain can handle 😅

Might copy your design in builder for some smaller eggs 🙂
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Curious Aardvark
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Re: Cake-pop concrete balls
Reply #27 - Jun 12th, 2021 at 8:06am
 
Load openscad.
Copy and paste the script into it.

Change the numbers at the top to the size you want.
Press the f5 button on the keyboard for a quick check. And the f6 button to generate a full render.

Then click 'file' and select: export as STL
Save STL.

Load STL into slicer, or even builder if you want to change it.
Job done.

You don't need to do anything except pick the size and shape.
The rest is automatic Smiley

Depending on your computer, the f6 render might take a few minutes or a few seconds.

Openscad is free software. And works differently to all other cad programs.
You don't actually draw anything, just tell it what to draw.
Once you've got your head around how it works. It's much quicker than trying to draw something.

But like I said all you need to do is change the glande diameter and length and hit f6
Then just file and export as STL.
And print Smiley
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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 Smiley
 
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