HoverPad anyone?

Well, for you woodworkers with reasonably flat workshop floors, General has come out with the HoverPad. It's a mobile base for heavy machine tools based on Hovercraft technology.

I was at the Toronto Woodworking show last weekend to take part in the premiere presentation of their new line of Access machine tools designed for people in wheelchairs, who like to sit or who are of lower stature. While there, I had a good look at their HoverPad. Essentially, you can push hundreds of pounds of machine tool around with one finger. I can think of a dozen uses for one of these. They're not much more expensive than other decent mobile bases, can be cut to size and can be run on really low end compressors.

So for those of you interested, here's the specs and a video.

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Reply to
Upscale
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WOW!!!! Sat here watching the video with my jaw dropped!! WOW!!!

How much?? Anything online for the Access tool line?

Thanks!

Reply to
Lobby Dosser

If I remember properly, it's somewhere around $250 CA. I'm sure they will give you exact prices if you email them. I actually giggled while I was pushing around a huge tablesaw within a confined area while peppering the General company president with technical questions about the HoverPad. Being a wheelchair user myself, I can think of dozens of applications for this device, none of them having anything to do with woodoworking. The health industry will flip on it's ear when it hears about this.

Anything online for the Access tool line?

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've been told that the prices for the 5 Access line woodworking machines are the same as the regular line. That itself is great news since sales figures will take considerable time for them to truly make a profit out of them.

Reply to
Upscale

Before you spend 170 bucks you might want to try

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Reply to
J. Clarke

pieces of machinery on some plywood, nuts, bolts and painter's drop sheets. Of course, it's unlikely that machinery would tip over or anything, but it would definitely be a jury rig setup and subject to problems.

Reply to
Upscale

It's a great idea, but I have questions about what happens to the exhaust air. Some of it will escape along the floor level, and wherever else it exhausts, and blow sawdust everywhere. Your typical less-than-exemplary-housekeeping shop would probably present problems. To move the machine you'd have to do a choice cleanup, move the machine, then wait for the dust to settle before you can breathe in there?

The manual says to have the area around the machine clear of dust and debris...how far around and how clear? You don't need a floor you can eat off of with a wheeled mobile base, just clear the bigger stuff out of the way, and it doesn't matter how much crud is on top of the base.

R
Reply to
RicodJour

I think the major issue applies to the Pro and homebuilt versions - inertia.

Yes, you can get it moving at some speed by pushing it with a single finger for a while. *But* when you realise it's heading for somewhere you really don't want it to go you have to apply thew same force for the same time to stop it. Or in the likely event of wanting to stop it 10x quicker than that, multiply the force up by x10 too...

Reply to
PCPaul

PCPaul wrote in news:ACSAj.20396$ snipped-for-privacy@text.news.virginmedia.com:

I'd think that removing the air pressure would just about instantaneously stop the contraption. Then inertia and friction to the ground surface take over. Think Rube Goldberg consequences.

Reply to
Han

What risks? When the air's not on it's a piece of plywood sitting on the floor. When the air is on either it lifts or it doesn't. If it doesn't then you've wasted what, ten bucks? If it does, how high is it going to lift? 1/8 of an inch would be quite a lot.

Kill the air and down it goes. If it's going real fast _then_ it may tip.

Reply to
J. Clarke

tech, as you know, is old hat. I seen those used when moving 100 ton presses. Here's a supplier:

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I did not want to do, is rain on anybody's parade. But the blow- up dust is a huge issue, as mentioned in here already. The nice thing about the whole concept is that it easily done by the little guys on the cheap. I see guys move skids of granite cut-offs all the time. Whole sheets of granite moved on pucks, home-made from 3/4" UHMW, where air pressure is applied to move the piece, and then flipped over with a 3- way valve to vacuum to hold while machining. Their problem is water flying all over the place.

To make your own? I was thinking small inner tubes... wheel-barrow/ lawn-tractor style. Cut them along the external and internal circumference... maybe, if small enough, leave them whole and perforate them on one side? Insert them in a channel routed out of a slab (doubled) of MDF with a bowl bit and a circle cutter? Maybe a bicycle inner tube stretched into a rectangular slot with rounded corners? The inlet is already on the tube...even...

Come ON PEOPLE!! We're a smart bunch here. One groove for the tube, one groove outside that tubed perimeter for the shop vac? I want ideas on my desk by night fall. hehehehe

Reply to
Robatoy

Seeing that they were running it from a small air tank, I assume the volume of air actually escaping is pretty low. Once the physics get it up and floating, you just need a dribble of air to keep it there. They show a small amount of dust being displaced along the edge on one of the close-ups and you can see it is not blown but a few inches to the side.

Plus, they say it can be cut to shape. That is really cool. Looks like a great packaging of an existing idea. I'd say watch for Craftsman and Grizz to have the mass market and low cost versions out soon.

BW

Reply to
SonomaProducts.com

Have you ever used compressed air to blow out a tool? That's only using a small volume of air. It's the pressure which translates to speed. Of course they're not going to show clouds of dust being blown about in a promotional video because it would kill half of the market on the spot. Like I said, it's a nifty idea, but it's problematic in a working woodworking shop unless you have a shop like in one of the Festool catalogs.

R
Reply to
RicodJour

"Han" wrote in message news:Xns9A5C6C92898CFikkezelf@199.45.49.11...

The principle behind these isn't new, but this one has to be the flimsiest design that I've ever seen.

Boeing has been designing and using hover pads to lift and move aircraft sections into position since WWII. In fact, Boeing formed a subsidiary to manufacture commercial versions of these for sale. They come in all sizes (and cost), but the commercial ones are far too expensive for small shops and hobbyists. A version was available some years back for use under refrigerators, to be powered by a vacuum cleaner whenever the lady of the house wanted to clean behind it, but I don't know if they are still available. If you can find one it would likely be a cheap way to move your cabinet saw.

Using only one large air chamber in the design produces a very tippy and unstable unit that would not be very suitable for moving machines (remember the hover craft show on Myth Busters?). If you look closely at General's hover pad you will see that it is composed of many small hover pads. The use of 3 or more give the platform the needed stability. In use, the pad only needs the thinest of air film between the skirt and the floor for it to work, but with only a very thin film of air, the floor has to be very smooth. Increasing the air flow to increases the thickness of the air film and will allow it to pass over less than perfect floors, but any significant void in the floor surface will cause all of the air to leak out of the affected chamber and the pad will bottom out and drag. In other words, they will work great on a tile or concrete floor, until you try to cross over a crack or other significant irregularity in the floor surface that the skirt can't seal. When the air leaks out faster than it's coming in, the pad will bottom out. A platform with 3 or 4 chambers under it will provide even lifting and stability. Boeing makes single chamber pads, but they are intended to be used in groups of 3 or more to distribute the load and provide the needed stability. It's amazing how much weight they can lift and move. 4,000 pounds can easily be moved using only 4-8 inch diameter pads with only 6-11 pounds of air pressure. More air pressure raises the pad slightly higher, allowing it to cross slight imperfections in the floor more easily but it isn't necessary for most use, and it wastes a lot of air. It doesn't take much air loss for the pad to collapse.

I have made some strong and reliable pads by gluing small new lawn tractor inner tubes to 3/4 thick birch plywood (tractor tubes are available with center holes as small as 4" dia and overall diameters of about 8"). The air path for my pads is similar to the one in the link above, where the air first enters the tube and then exits the tube into the center "hub hole" of the tube, where it then leaks out between the bottom of the tube's surface and the floor, forming the "air bearing". You will need to buy new tubes for this project as their shape needs to be flat and not all stretched out of shape, so they can be easily glued to the plywood. I use a wide ring of automotive door gasket cement to bond the inner tube to the plywood and then place a concrete block on top as a clamp "until the glue dries". The regular filling stem is cut off and the resulting hole in the tube is glued to the plywood so that it is in line with the air entrance hole (glue it well - no leaks allowed around this point). Using a razor knife I then cut 4 slits about 1/2" long around the center of the tube to allow the air to escape from the inside of the tube into the center chamber, similar to the design in the link above. Using rubber tractor inner tubes makes the pads survive much longer than the 6 mil plastic, as small scratches from a rough floor surface (pebbles, etc.) won't immediately tear the rubber like it will the plastic. Many years ago I made some out of hemorroid cushions, but the ones that are available now aren't very well suited for this. The old ones were made from a vulcanized canvas material and the ones that are available now are made of thin vinyl. (I got strange looks from the drugstore cashier when I bought 4 at the same time - nobody gives you a second look when you want to buy 4 inner tubes). I use my 18 cfm shop air compressor to power them, with an air pressure regulator and hose connected to each pad (this lets me vary the pressure and flow to one pad at a time) and my pads are all made separate so I can put one under each corner, leg, etc. of whatever I want to move. I can use 3, 4, or more if necessary (my compressor won't likely handle more, but that's the plan). For a table saw or other small machine 3 or 4 pads mounted on a board that's large enough to carry the tool would work out fine. In a large commercial cabinet shop it would be handy to have them separate so they could be placed under each corner of a very large cabinet, etc. for movement around the shop floor.

Once up "on air" your tool will move very easily, so easy in fact, that you will need to be careful not to get it moving too fast, or you may not be able to stop it. It will stop very quickly if the air is shut off, but in a one-man shop you won't have enough hands to hang on and shut off the air too.

Charley

Reply to
Charley

video.http://www.general.ca/pagemach/machines/10824_929.htmlWay cool, especially how it makes heavy objects levitate

1/2" above the floor. I wonder if a sheet of plywood with a hole in the middle wouldn't do just as well.
Reply to
Father Haskell

Actually, the answer is "No" it doesn't require an increased amount of pressure to stop it. When I was playing with it at the woodworking show with a sizable tablesaw on it, I was able to manoeuvre and stop or change directions quite easily. So much so, that my wheelchair was only slightly prone to rolling away when I was moving it around.

Reply to
Upscale

Momentum is the word.

It's easy to get something moving when it's on an air bearing, but there is so little friction that it wants to keep moving at whatever speed you get it up to. Instead of the normal friction slowdown that we are accustomed to, you will need to supply very nearly the same force to stop it as you did getting it moving. We are so accustomed to friction slowing and stoping things that we move our bodies aren't really prepared to have to supply this much negative force to stop something once it's started moving. After a few minutes of pushing and pulling we quickly adjust to it, but the first experience with a relatively heavy object on an air bearing (like 1-2 tons) can be a bit of a surprise and an almost certain crash. I almost pushed a

3600 pound robot through a wall with my first experience. I got it stopped in time, but nearly got pinned in the process.

Charley

Reply to
Charley

I dug around a bit more and found $170 for the small and $250 for the large.

I can believe it! The folks in the video look like they're having a good time.

I'm out of my wheelchair now, but still need it for long distances and anything that requires standing without leaning on something - a tablesaw, for example.

Now I need to figure out the best way to mount everything to minimize the number of pads needed.

Lots of places will flip.

Yeah. Normally the prices would be higher. Just like "computer" furniture that one word adds 40% to the price.

Thanks for that, I couldn't seem to find it.

May I ask what kind of chair you use? Insurance paid for a rental for me for a year and then the provider said it was mine. But, it's too heavy for me to wrestle into the truck - an invacare, blue seat and lots of chrome model. I'm looking for something light weight -

Reply to
Lobby Dosser

Thanks. I've bookmarked that one too.

Reply to
Lobby Dosser

Reply to
Upscale

Can't answer that. The time and effort I'd need running around to get the parts and assemble one to my satisfaction would be put to better use my just doing my job the equivalent amount of hours and buying the General version. Guess which one I'd choose?

Reply to
Upscale

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