DIY Powder Valve

blackbrawler

A few months ago I was desperately looking for a powder valve for a project i wanted to do but could not find one that wasn't for industrial use.

I'm thinking I can build my own valve that has cylinders rotate on a disc or have a disc rotate under cylinders.The cylinder would be holding the powder and the disc would have holes that the powder would fall through when rotating.

My question is do you guys think this will work? am I just reinventing the wheel? Also I'm thinking of using pvc for this build because it's very smooth and so they're are no grooves for the powder to hide in.

joecaption

If you let us in on what it is your really trying to do not just ideas on how you think will work to do it I'm sure someone here will come up with some ideas.
Guiltene type valve set up that's piston or level activated is how commercial bakerys add things like flower and suger.

blackbrawler

the powder valve is for an automatic blender i want to build. I was able to build small one but the float valve gave me problems when blending.

Now i am starting over and I want to go back to my original idea for a bulk automatic blender. The big thing that's missing is a powder valve after that I just need to figure out the best way to wire everything.

The powder is harder flour and I've been told many times by many people that a gate valve wont work.

joecaption

Wrong valve.
I'm talking about one like this.
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=...D4609&first=81

Also called a slide valve.

If you search on Bing there's hundreds of pictures of differant valves line this.
"guiltene valve"

blackbrawler

can they be automated? and wont the sugar get stuck in the crevace of the valve?
I remember seeing something like this for the sewage system in a RV

joecaption

Works the same way.
Notice how the sewerage did not leak when it was closed. WHy would it be any differant with a powder?

blackbrawler

because powder is hard and if it did work with powder wouldn't it need a lot of force to be closed? Sewage is soft or atleast i think it is lol I never have actually examined the texture of it.