Fluffing up the Sand when
a Muller can’t be found!
(or
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this page.
The Fluffer ready to go.
It starts with a frame
Which needs a motor and a disk with posts to break up the sand.
Cast out of aluminum and cleaned up by Jens on his lathe I marked out
and drilled the holes for the carriage bolts.
The disk is well balanced and turns with almost no vibration.
The longer section of the propane cylinder has a cross piece and some
feet welded onto it and the cross piece rests on the two tangs on the
frame. The feet sit on the angle iron
rails and although there are holes to bolt it in place I haven’t found the
need. The smaller part of the tank is
the funnel and I used a 2.125” hole saw on the drill press to cut the hole and
then tack welded the two pieces together.
Finally with it sitting on my plastic sand box I can fluff up the sand.
What I would do differently the next time is use the rails with the
point up or round tubing so that the sand wouldn’t get caught on the
edges. It’s not a real issue if the unit
stays in one place but annoying if I need to store it off the sand box. Time will tell how well it works. I’ve found that if I put a 2.125” x 3” cylindrical
screen in the inlet that the big clumps bounce around but don’t always break
up. The solution would be to put some
sort of impellor or spikes in the middle which would cause the chunks to
break. Haven’t tried that yet.