Stainless Steel Better Than Wood Or Plastic?

This is my idea of a sand castle. I do not think that this is what you mean, particularly because this has nothing to do with a push rod. Please clarify.

I am trying to get a better picture but I hope this helps.

No, this doesn't help. What are you pushing with the push rods?

I think he's pushing sand out of a box, but you'd better ask tcmtech's six year old to be sure.

Pushing sand out of a box does not make sense to me. In all the years I made sand castles, if the sand does not release easily out of a molding box then the box is the wrong material. A push rod will just make a hole in the sand.

The push rod is attached to a "push plate" which is the same dimension as the bottom of the box. It pushes all the sand out at once, I think.

Yeah, that's one possibility. It seems odd to me that a push rod or plate would be needed to remove sand from a mold at all, let alone that wood or plastic push rods could break in pushing sand out of a mold in any reasonable fashion. The images provided don't help me understand the desired activity nor the problem with using steel wood or plastic in doing that activity.

Me, too.

I'd weld a steel rod onto a steel plate and be done with it.

Or, enlist the help of a certain 6 year old.

Pretty sure if given the chance she would do the welding herself too!

As long as she uses the proper eye protection.

Haven't found a kid yet that didn't think my auto darkening welding helmet wasn't the coolest thing ever!

One of my boys wanted to view the solar eclipse through mine. That won't work. Not enought light.

We had to go to the "manual" mask.

Iget very frustrated ZInoifrn td Znrnlop*ent with thiRiley Lohr I get very frustrated with the operation ofmy my computer. I do get technical help once in awhile. Enclosed is part of the original letter from Riley Lohr which he wrote back in 1977. i visited a Patent Attorney doown (darn) and told him my idea. He suggested dthat I should take hthe mold to the beach and take pictures of my using it. I have soome good pictures of our visit at Santa Cruz showing its use. Luckily I found the pictures just recently and with the help of our computer guro pur put them in i-photo. I need help gettygetting them oon fce facebook. I had better end this comment befoe I lose everything.

W,J,/o Creative Design and Developmenl Prototype and Engineering Models Parts Made To 0rder
On ttre square sided tower, it helps to really pat the rim and also to shake the mold up and down so that you can see and feel the sand rise in ttre mold. Push ttre sand back down and shake it
-- '-'-----rf,p-age:rtr'*' Doi*g:t+]is a-few times will loasel}*.it"-e*ou6ih-€or*tJae*---- sand. to come out when you are read.y. The pistons realIy" help on these molds.
ftre eight sided cone, #1- is one of the hardest, especially to get the thin I'beakrr sectj-on out in one piece. The bulk of the sand comes out easily. It is the rrbeakrr that breaks off and stays in the mold.. Pat,ting the mold in the area of the rrb.ek, helps. Experiment with packing pressures and. techniques and also with patting the mold
The cone #3 will also give trouble with the sand breaking off near the tip. It takes good packing in ttre beginnj-ng near the tip to get it to come out weII.
Ttre stairs #5 need to be tapped on the side so that ttre sand actually breaks away from the mold before you try to push it out. They definitely need the pist,on.
fhe ring pieces, M aud the tops for #6 and # 7 come out nicely if you pack ttrem well, and then push them out wj.th the pistons.
You will have to practice wj-th all of ttrem, but I donrt think Etrat'lrou tLll ffi€=-anf 'reuI trouble with alTv*of theni, except the beak on #1.
The digging tools for the doors and windows require a light scrapping action toward the center. The edges will crumble and be rough no matter what you d.o. Cutting the slits at the top of the turrets is done with many light strokes, using downward pressure.
If you have any qu

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Sand

I have to get going with the day's activities. Sand of course (see previous comment) I tried to get a picture from the beach. Perhaps latter.

So you are attempting to corner the market for sandcastle construction by kids who have no imagination or skills?

(Sadly an all around likely and rapidly growing target market I might say.)

Sand, making towers, walls, stairs, corners, either cylindrical or rectangular, cones, base for tower (larger than the rest)

Trying to get Riley Lohr's letter, the one who made these sand mold's. He describes the technique that he developed. Will try another time.It will tie in what you are talking about.

That's driving the point into the ground!

You are probably right. The only way I think out of thie is to play in slow motion a video of the original comments from Riley Lohrs's original efforts along with a recent version of what various contributors might provide and then use various formulas and insight to come to some conclusion. This is suppose to be Research so someone very very bright could probably fit well into this. Not me. I did pay Riley $300 to develop a sand castle mold about 30 or so years ago. I would like to know my money spent was worth it. r

About 30 or so years ago I had a great (?) idea of using sand molds to make a sand castle. Then, I tried to imagine what would it look like. So I went to the library and found drawings of all kinds of sand castles. I then tried to use the various drawings and pictures to do my own version. I found somebody who agreed to give it a try. In order to do this request he thought he would need push rods. This push rod consisted of a plastic plate cemented to a plastic rod. (One of my comments show part of a letter that he sent me, in order to understand how all this could be done.) The plate is placed inside the roof which is then upside down.(The mold, that is,,,, The attached rod then goes thru an opening, protruding outside and the rest is obvious. You would think. It is quite an art. I do believe that the push rod was his idea. It was more than thirty years ago that this all happened. I am not ssre how this will all pan out. I am not in any positon right now to spend any money on this. As you can see, there are a lot of gyrations of how to perfect all of this. We are in a computer age so amazing things can happen. I am sure that thru the studies of fluid dynamics, aerodynamics, you name it, the shape of the molds could be worked out so nothing sticks. This all could be compared to designing a bette mouse trap. Then there is the bucket and Moon Sand.

Stainless steel will probably be the strongest....

A day at the beach....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ad-_3vmm-2E&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnTHmE9xucs&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=GPPysrWfcdg&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=hqR2Cjr96yg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJdCboFiArY&feature=related

Thanks. I will try to get my wife to watch all of this tomorrow.

So whats you fascination with the need to over engineer simple house hold/kids toys items?

That vast majority of your threads and posts seem to always revolve around needing the mechanical and structural or similar specs to common items and materials that most kids could figure out as to which is best or is at minimal more than adequate to do the job at hand.

Tell me, really.

Is this thread more vexing than all the truly imbecilic questions asked here every day by random people wanting instant knowledge?

Depends.

When a 6 year old of average intelligence could figure it out which material is stronger given their limited life experience, powers of observation, and the use of their two hands over someone who has been vexed by this problem for 30 years yet wants to patent the concept of a plastic form, a plate, and push rod to make sand castles how would you rate the question?

Personally I think I have been rather nice so far really.

No big deal. Please read my reply to #3.

Please read comments to Tornado: #9 reply to #7. Just put "Stresses in Silos" derived from another comment on all this in my Sand Castle binder. Another day, our neighbor accross the street just arrived. He is putting a newer house inside the original house. It is interesting to watch during the day between various jobs around our house.

Material selection for this is easy.

Just use whatever you have lying around in your shed.

Gold bars would work just fine too. No need to think too much or to buy anything special.

!/2" or so wooden dowel, perhaps with a drawer knob mounted on one end.

Okay then just stop by your local hardware store and buy a common 1/4", 3/8" or 1/2" socket extension bar of what ever length you need.

I have seen them in sizes all the way up to 24" long and I can guarantee that a 1/2" x 24" socket extension bar couldn't be bent or broken by pushing on it with all the strength you could ever humanly generate by hand or even foot power.

They are heat treated high carbon tool steel with a chrome plating if you need a metallurgical analysis as well.

(Seriously now. My six year old niece understands the concepts of materials well enough to figure out that a metal rod would be far stronger than a wood or plastic one of the same size without needing advice from an engineer.)

Well, I found this for cake decorating: http://www.bakedecoratecelebrate.com/techniques.cfm?cat=8 Seems like the same principle.

Plastic and wood can easily be cut to length. Wood is biodegradable. So, for a beach sandcastle, use wood. For something that is going to be in a museum use plastic. If you want your sand castle to be more expensive, use gold.

Paint roller handles should work.

3-piece Wood Extension Pole | Benjamin Moore

It's just like racing cars..."How fast do you want to go? How much money do you have?"

If you want to contribute to the steel industry buy stainless, if you are a bit more conservative, use a chunk of scrap wood!

According to Heidi's posting history, this is the 10th thread on the same subject, in the past year and a half.

I would skip the push rod idea altogether, just use a thumb or finger to push through the hole in the outer mold, and then lift the inner plate away.