RTS Engineering 8-Foot Articulated Boom Arm

[Rick Christopherson]

Shooting. Got started with handguns and have an AR Pistol inbound.

Gee, I donno. If you're too girlie to have a full buttstock I'm not sure you could handle a full boom arm either. You'd probably ask me to put extra safeties on the thing too.

[big grin] [big grin] [big grin] [big grin] [big grin]

Just yankin' your chain...I got 223 myself.

 

[Rick Christopherson]

I'm really glad I posted this last night, because I'm surprised about the comments regarding lengths. Changing the length doesn't even require any re-engineering or special parts. I can literally change that on the fly. My final fabricators are the ones making the cuts that determine total length. So that's easy.

Tell me what lengths you guys want, and I can make those happen as standard configurations.

 

[Cheese]

Rick, I’d be looking at a 6 foot unit...works well for me.

As far as 223’s go...I have a Colt HBAR and it’s a tack driver.

I got interested in firearms from strictly a machining standpoint when examining a S&W handgun with the removable side plate...it was truly a thing of beauty. Line to line contact with absolutely no gaps in the fitting. You can do that type of fitment fairly easy with wood but it’s darn near impossible with steel...especially stainless steel...think Model 66.

 

[Rick Christopherson]

As far as 223’s go...

Stock and Barrel just opened up a new gun club in Eagan just south of you. It is like walking into a ski lodge, but is also super inexpensive. You should check it out. Pretty much no restrictions. You can shoot full auto if you have it, and up to a 50 BMG.

 

[Cheese]

Stock and Barrel just opened up a new gun club in Eagan just south of you. It is like walking into a ski lodge, but is also super inexpensive. You should check it out. Pretty much no restrictions. You can shoot full auto if you have it, and up to a 50 BMG.

Thanks for the heads-up Rick...I’ve been meaning to go to the range for the last 15 years..but there’s always something else that needs to take precedence.  [eek]

A 50 BMG...I can only wish.  [big grin]

 

[semenza]

In the current environment perhaps this should stay on the topic of articulated arm. A couple comments is one thing but lets not have this turn into a gun topic.

Thanks,

    Seth

 

[blk65brd]

Rick, I would be interested in an 8 foot boom arm, would also like a bit more information on attachment requirements, thanks.

Richard

 

[Rick Christopherson]

Rick, I would be interested in an 8 foot boom arm, would also like a bit more information on attachment requirements, thanks.

Richard

Yes, I plan on having my nephew do some engineering on mounting requirements. Even though I'm an engineer, my nephew is a civil engineer that deals with this stuff daily. He's the one that did the engineering on my own boom arm years ago.

 

[blk65brd]

Rick, additional question would be size of tubes, could a second tube have power, compressed air and VacSys in the same tube?  It would be nice to have an outlet at the end as well, just trying to cover all the bases here and reduce the amount of things now laying on the floor of the shop.

 

[Rick Christopherson]

Rick, additional question would be size of tubes, could a second tube have power, compressed air and VacSys in the same tube?  It would be nice to have an outlet at the end as well, just trying to cover all the bases here and reduce the amount of things now laying on the floor of the shop.

Yes. The upper tube is specifically intended for a CT-vac, and is 2 inches diameter. The lower tube is also 2 inches, and is intended for running various hoses and wires. My own personal boom arm runs VacSys, compressed air, and electrical through the lower tube. Anything you can fit inside the lower 2-inch tube you can run to the end of the arm. That's the whole point.

It's not shown in my graphic, but both the upper and lower tubes are connected together across the 8-foot length with a flexible tube between them. It's all continuous.

[attachimg=1]

 

[Rick Christopherson]

Hey, Installation is so easy, you can just do it by eye.  [blink] [big grin] [eek]

[attachimg=1]

 

[rljatl]

Can it be mounted from the ceiling?

For a typical two car garage, an eight foot radius might not be enough if mounted on a wall.  Mounting on the ceiling in the center of the garage might work?

 

[Bob D.]

Can it be mounted from the ceiling?

For a typical two car garage, an eight foot radius might not be enough unless mounted in the center of the garage (from the ceiling)?

Seems like that would be possible with a braced pylon mounted to the ceiling and swivel joints. That would make a good accessory kit to the standard boom arm. You'd loose some headroom so if you had a low ceiling (or joists if not finished) in your garage. For me my garage shop ceiling is 10.5 feet. I have multiple LED shop lamps hanging at 9.5 feet AFF, but I could raise those. I also have dust collection running at 10.1' AFF and can't be raised any higher. I think I could probably clear a path between 9.0 and 9.5 feet without too much trouble for the boom arm to swing all around if mounted near the center of the shop or 180° if mounted to a wall. My shop is 24' x 24', with an 8 foot radius I could reach just about any place in the shop where I might use a tool. since most of the walls have benches or stationary power tools occupying space on them, I don't think I would need more reach than 8 feet.

 

[denovo]

I would be interested in the 8' version in the next year

 

[KescoNY]

  I would take 1 possibly 2 8-10ft version as soon as it’s available if it’s suitable for commercial use.
I would like to run vacuum, 2 electric cords and air to meet my needs.

Would it be possible to mount a shorter version off the ceiling to an I beam ?

 

[Rick Christopherson]

I suppose I could look into designing a ceiling mount, but it could not give you 360 degree rotation. There would have to be a stop at the back, mainly for a support gusset.

However, a ceiling mount sounds nice at first, but then you have to ask, where is your vacuum hose coming from? Your vacuum hose would need to be nearly 20 feet long just to reach a nearby wall.

The design on my end would be easy for me to do. But the engineering you would have to do to ensure your ceiling structure could support it is more complex. At a minimum, you would have to use a large mounting plate on your ceiling to distribute the load across multiple joists.

 

[Bob D.]

" At a minimum, you would have to use a large mounting plate on your ceiling to distribute the load across multiple joists."

Agree, it is possible but maybe not that practical for most applications.

 

[jeh]

While they may be other mounting options, let's not sidetrack Rick with ideas. Let him get this model into production. Different configurations and mounts are things that can come later. For this application wall mounting is a known quantity as it is consistent with a product Festool sells.

 

[KescoNY]

I suppose I could look into designing a ceiling mount, but it could not give you 360 degree rotation. There would have to be a stop at the back, mainly for a support gusset.

However, a ceiling mount sounds nice at first, but then you have to ask, where is your vacuum hose coming from? Your vacuum hose would need to be nearly 20 feet long just to reach a nearby wall.

The design on my end would be easy for me to do. But the engineering you would have to do to ensure your ceiling structure could support it is more complex. At a minimum, you would have to use a large mounting plate on your ceiling to distribute the load across multiple joists.

I currently have a ct48 on one of the pallet racks and have the hose coming down from the ceiling at the sanding station to prevent the hose from snagging or scratching the workpiece. I also have 4 ct36 on the shop floor with the boom arm and the workcenter attached to them.  Having your design would eliminate the ct36s on the shop floor, stored in the corner and used when needed.
It would not be necessary to have it ceiling mounted but would be a nice option on one of the units

 

[Rick Christopherson]

While they may be other mounting options, let's not sidetrack Rick with ideas. Let him get this model into production. Different configurations and mounts are things that can come later. For this application wall mounting is a known quantity as it is consistent with a product Festool sells.

I'm probably going to stop by the welding shop tomorrow to discuss the details of how we will proceed with this. Need to work through the business details. Instead of ordering the laser cut/formed components for a single prototype, I'll be ordering enough for 20 first-article units. The cost of doing that is a trivial risk, and I've gone through this design enough times that I have fairly high confidence in it. (I rarely ever need to make full prototypes for any of my designs.) Considering the comments here, I'm going to see if his guys can handle the cut list necessary for doing both 8 and 6 foot lengths right off the bat. We'll have to see about that, because it will also require figuring out shipping for two sizes too.

After I get the business details worked out, I'll probably get the website active for initial ordering.