I just received the pneumatic air valves I got off Ebay, so will be working on my automatic blast gates.
The valves are currently ganged together in a manifold but can be broken down into individual units. They have 110V coils so I will power them directly from the tools. I will likely need to use a resistor as a voltage divider on the 220V machines.
I am still working on the actuators, like the prototype at the left side of the picture. I could buy actuators, but haven't seen ones with the right throw and at the right (cheap!) price yet.
In operation, when I turn on a machine, machine power will cause the solenoid air valve to open and send shop compressed air via 1/4" PE tubing to a pneumatic cylinder which will be mounted on to open the gate. When power (and air) are secured, a spring will close the gate. A magnetic switch will also be mounted on the blast gate which will start the DC- but will not be wired to stop it, to avoid rapidly cycling the DC.
Stay tuned . . .
The valves are currently ganged together in a manifold but can be broken down into individual units. They have 110V coils so I will power them directly from the tools. I will likely need to use a resistor as a voltage divider on the 220V machines.
I am still working on the actuators, like the prototype at the left side of the picture. I could buy actuators, but haven't seen ones with the right throw and at the right (cheap!) price yet.
In operation, when I turn on a machine, machine power will cause the solenoid air valve to open and send shop compressed air via 1/4" PE tubing to a pneumatic cylinder which will be mounted on to open the gate. When power (and air) are secured, a spring will close the gate. A magnetic switch will also be mounted on the blast gate which will start the DC- but will not be wired to stop it, to avoid rapidly cycling the DC.
Stay tuned . . .