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o-ring size calculator

Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2011 8:25 pm
by JDP12
Hey all- thought I'd post this.

In anticipation of my counterbalanced hammer valve i've been doing alot of research on properly determining o-ring size. Since I order my o-rings from http://www.mcmaster, I really don't want to have to order new ones, so I decided to make a calculator based on my research.

The word document is the best research I've found on determining o-ring size.

the two matlab files are derived from the equations in that word document.

I haven't quite finished oringcalculatorbasedonoring.m its inches only, the other one does have some metric aspect, but its all primarily inches.

I originally wrote oringcalculator.m This calculates O-ring sizes based on bore diameter and groove diameter. However, it became very difficult to find aluminum tubing within the acceptable ranges of what I wanted, so I wrote oringcalculatorbasedonoring.m to determine bore size and groove size based on the actual o-ring dimensions, as its easier to adjust groove size than find an o-ring within the range.

I realize very few people probably use matlab, I may adapt this into C over winterbreak we will see though.

Attached is a sample display from oringcalculatorbasedonoring.m

Enjoy!

EDIT: Doh! Don't know why I didn't think of making this an excel document so everyone can use it. Expect an excel calculator for all of this either tonight or tomorrow

EDIT 2: Made the excel document, there are 3 sheets, please be sure to look through all of them before starting. While the excel sheet shouldn't have any errors... it might. the matlab files don't, but excel files were thrown together quickly and might not be perfect.. if i find any mistakes i'll update it.

PLEASE USE THESE! This made designing o-ring seals loads easier for me, and hopefully when i order all my parts, it seals perfectly! The numbers shouldn't lie..


I got all of this information off of one website, and it had a built in calculator... unfortunately you can only view the site about 3 times before they try and force you to shell out money to join the website... So I copied the info and made the calculators to make them open to everyone.

Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2011 1:11 am
by jackssmirkingrevenge
Nice one, good job :) shame it's only imperial...

Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2011 1:12 am
by JDP12
JSR, don't fret, I'll work on the metric excel spreadsheet tomorrow and upload it then.. shouldn't have to wait more than 12 hours.

Originally I designed this for a hammervalve I had planned out..

but now I'm tempted to build a barrel sealing piston with a floating o-ring setup... ugh decisions decisions.

I hate having so many ideas, but being at college pretty much screws me over as far as building stuff goes..

Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2011 2:52 am
by jackssmirkingrevenge
Cool, cheers :)
I hate having so many ideas, but being at college pretty much screws me over as far as building stuff goes..
Unless you're designing for a specific purpose, it's hard to get down to building, especially when you're doing something "for the heck of it". Story of my life :roll:

Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2011 3:13 am
by JDP12
Unless you're designing for a specific purpose, it's hard to get down to building, especially when you're doing something "for the heck of it". Story of my life
Couldn't have put it any better myself.. I love designing new ideas and such, but its hard to actually build it when a) I don't have much time as it is and b) I have way too many ideas to ever build unless I get rich and get a machine shop.

I think i may focus on projectile design for now.... Going for a saboted round, aiming for accurate shots on a 5"x5" plate at 50-75 yards with penetration goals TBD... I think its rather feasible, if I can ever figure out how to optimize Cg and Cp...

well its 313 in the morning, and my brain isn't functioning.. time to hit the sack..

Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2011 6:36 am
by Gun Freak
well its 313 in the morning, and my brain isn't functioning.. time to hit the sack..
Once again, story of jack's life :D minus the sleeping part of course :D

Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2011 3:58 pm
by JDP12
Alright bit o' an update here....

Gonna work on the excel files some more later... also gonna make them older formats of excel since i saved them as .xlsx documents which is why so many people probably will have issues openin them..

Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2011 12:51 am
by Gippeto
Gun Freak wrote:
well its 313 in the morning, and my brain isn't functioning.. time to hit the sack..
Once again, story of jack's life :D minus the sleeping part of course :D
HOW could you forgot man whoring. :lol:

Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2011 7:47 am
by jackssmirkingrevenge
Gippeto wrote:HOW could you forgot man whoring. :lol:
Oh come on :) It's been worse hehe

Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2011 4:12 pm
by JDP12
finally got around to updating the spreadsheets, now 97-2003 excel compatible.