Project for school shop class...

Well I am in my 4th year of welding one of two in the class lol yes, thats right one of two. It is the U/C class tho so not many people take it. Anyways my teacher knows I can pretty much build anything and so I need to get a good project design. This is welding and fab class btw.

He wants us to build something motorized but with an uncommon energy source. So basically anything but gas. I believe he wants us to build and electric minibike or something but I think I would be more interested in building something powered by compressed air. Something different. Anyways my idea was to make a gocart with 2 scuba tanks to power it. Got the scuba tank idea from Lance's post so you can give him the credit for that. But they can hold about 3000psi each so I could get a combined total of 6000 unless I do opt to have a third tank in which case I would have 9,000psi. So I can deal with that and everything else my only concern right now is the motor.

My initial thought was actually running an air compressor pump in reverse. Now let me explain. Many older compressors have either a gas or an electric motor and a separate pump which is belt driven by the motor. Now imagine the motor gone so you only have the pump.



My idea is to basically force air thru the output which in theory should pump the piston inside and in turn rotate the motors shaft which a chain and gears etc. could be hooked up eventually spinning the back wheel...

So my current problem is whether I could run a compressor pump in reverse and if so could I get ample power to do so with scuba tanks.

Anyone know anything about compressor pumps?

Zac

Seems like that might work running the compressor backwards, but I dont know if you would be able to get enough power out of it because I think the compressor would self destruct with that much psi after it got going very fast. One thing with the scuba tanks if you have 2 tanks at 3000 psi it doesnt add up to 6000 psi. The air is still at 3000psi but theres twice as much volume.

Lol I meant that and there would be regulators, I doubt it would ever be running at 3000psi. I am trying to figure out what it takes to turn a motor like this and what potential energy is actually in these tanks.

Zac

yah its to late to be figuring out potential energy and whatnot, haha. If you do end up doing somethin like that keep us updated on here, cuz I know my mechanical design teacher would love to see it.

Mechanical design eh? I am possibly going to University for Mechanical engineering.... Are you in a College or University course or what?

Zac

Im in a state college. Right now In mechanical design engineering right now which is a 2 year degree, and then once I finish that Im going to transfer to the
Mechanical engineering program.

we did something like this in my shop class but with a 5hp briggs. it was a long time ago so i cant remember any specifics but i believe we reworked the cam to switch the two lobes. pretty much like swapping the intake and exaust lobe. hope this helps.



-justin

Hmm that sounds pretty neat. If you can remeber any specifics let me know I'd love to see this. I think we are gonna go ahead and try to test the compessor pump in reverse. I am guessing we are gonna have to switch some sort of valve inside that prevents the air from coming back out the pump. Or in otherwords a valve that would stop the pump from doing exactly what we want. If we can do that I think in may work.

Thanks for the help guys, if you have any other ideas let us know!

If all else fails we may try modifying a regular gas motor. Do you remember how fast and powerful it was? What type of air tanks? How many?

Thanks,
Zac

Just found this kinda neat.



Zac