When filling the hopper, your abrasive must pass through a screen in order to filter out any large particles or other material that may have made its way into the abrasive. It takes some time for the abrasive to work its way through the screen, this makes filling the hopper take a bit longer.
On our in-house workshop machines we’ve created a simple extension to the abrasive screens to act as a funnel. This allows us to dump a large scoop of abrasive into the hopper without having to wait for it to travel through the screen, making filling the hopper much easier.
First we needed to cut the sides out, then we then used packing tape to form the shape of the funnel and hot glue to secure it all together. The funnel was then secured to the top of the abrasive screens again using hot glue.
Nice!
Can you turn this design into .svg drawing file, so WAZER can cut the pieces to be assembled into a pair of hoppers? Perhaps add a slot and tab onto each corner so that the pieces can snap and lock together into a hopper?
My solution to filling the hoppers is a bit different. I was having trouble with the combination of skinny hoppers and a large cup to avoid so many scoops. So, I spent about 10 minutes in Fusion 360 and 3D printed a scooper cup that fits my hands and has a skinny spout. I can post the STL file if anyone is interested.
@DanatWazer Designing with tabs and slots is a great way to join together simple shapes, but it does have its limitations. The size of the tabs and slots will be dependent on the thickness of the material used, as well as the type of material due to how it responds to being cut with a waterjet. Some post processing may be needed to get the tabs and slots to fit perfectly depending on what material you choose. The file included in your tool kit should help with that part!
@brendoncheves Now THAT is a great solution to filling the abrasive hopper. Looks clean and has a dual purpose for both scooping and pouring! Thanks for sharing, I’m not sure that .stl files can be uploaded to the forum but do you have somewhere else it can be downloaded?
Welcome to the Forum @brendoncheves and thank you so much for sharing!
This is an impressive solution! The combination of hand-held cup and angled funnel makes for a very intuitive design. I shared this picture to the internal team and everyone threw their hands in the air - we’ve been scooping abrasive all wrong this entire time
As for sharing .stl files, the best and most common place is Thingiverse! Please let us know if you decide to share, we would happily make some of our own
I really like the scoop that you have designed. By chance did you upload it to thingiverse? I just received the Wazer the other day and just starting to get it setup. I am looking for ways to make using the machine easier.
I deleted the pictures as you could hardly see the lines. I will repost with thicker lines and the svg file. I am uploading a .stl file named chicken feeder to thingiverse that is for the 3D printer I
used fill of 30%
