Re: Toroid from inner tube

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Thomas McGahee by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <tom_mcgahee-at-sigmais-dot-com>

1) build a jig that allows you to rotate an inner tube several times a minute.

2) Partially fill the inner tube with a fast setting resin (say 1/4 full).

3) Use air to fill tire to actual desired final size.

4) Use jig to continuousely rotate the tire. Rotate until resin has
FULLY hardened.

5) Use razor blade to remove inner tube.

6) Use files/rasps to clean up shape around area where air valve
was located.

TADAA! You should now have a HOLLOW plastic toroid. Apply metal foil
tape and pizza pan type center.

I haven't tried this, but I think if one carefully controlled the
process it might produce a useable toroid.

The jig that rotates the tire shouldn't slip, as a smooth rotation
would be necessary.

Fr. Tom McGahee


----- Original Message -----
From: Tesla list <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
To: <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Sent: Thursday, December 21, 2000 1:48 PM
Subject: Re: Toroid from inner tube


> Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>"
<MaverickIce00-at-aol-dot-com>
>
> Hi Alan,
>
> I think this was already suggested by Gregory Hunter (if my memory serves me
> correctly), but with all the talk about fiberglass coated Al duct, I think it
> might be possible to fill the thing with some sort of fibergalss resin that
> would work just as well. Basically, one could find an inner tube with the
> right ratio of diameters (outer :cross section) and find some way of filling
> it with the resin until the proper size is reached. Then you could just shape
> it as it dries, getting rid of all the imperfections and forming it into a
> nice donut shape in the process. Then when it dries, cut off the inner tube
> and sand it down, then add some more coats of resin then coat the thing with
> Al tape. I'm not sure how expensive fiberglass resin is, but if it isn't
> cheap, you could always use it on a small toroid with maybe a wheelbarrow
> tire inner tube or something along those lines. An advantage of this would be
> that one could fill the ! tu! be to nearly whatever size they want, without
> overfilling it and making it burst, which would probably be quite messy... I
> haven't tried this yet, so it might not even work, but it probably should.
> Any suggestions?
>
> Just a thought,
>
> - Josh Hunsaker -
>
> Denver, Colorado
> Email/AIM - MaverickIce00-at-aol-dot-com
>
>