Wheel sealer for making cheap balloons

[Jeffrey Warren]

Mathew Lippincott found one of these recently and was concerned they were no longer produced but I found a new one a few days ago. Not sure of the cost but it lets you seal 2 layers of plastic kind of like a pizza cutter. Super useful!

[Lentamental]

no way! that looks absolutely perfect, if it can be adjusted to the correct temperature. If you find a place to buy them let me know!

On Sat, Sep 18, 2010 at 12:15 PM, Jeffrey Warren <je...@unterbahn.com> wrote:

Mathew Lippincott found one of these recently and was concerned they were no longer produced but I found a new one a few days ago. Not sure of the cost but it lets you seal 2 layers of plastic kind of like a pizza cutter. Super useful!

--
In space, no one can hear your shutter click.

[Dan Beavers]

I would say: http://mpaksys.homestead.com/BgPr12.html

On Sat, 18 Sep 2010 13:00:54 -0500, Lentamental <lentame...@gmail.com>
wrote:

[Lentamental]

Yikes. That is a bit pricey, but if I can get some school funding, it may be well worth it.

[Mathew Lippincott]

thanks for posting that.

I'm glad they're still being made- and $100-140 isn't that bad for such a tool.  My impulse sealer cost $80.  It would be nice to find one cheaper, but if we can produce some of the higher performance balloons then it would be worth it.

Jeffrey and I also discussed designs like the helikite, which would need circular heat seams:

http://www.allsopp.co.uk/

it's a design that is very high performance for such a small kite balloon and perfect for mapping because it will fly almost any condition from zero to 40mph winds, and is still unregulated by the FAA (less than 6ft). It would have to be made out of PET film.

 

We could call up 3M or Dupont and see if they'd donate a 6' or 8' wide roll of the stuff:

http://usa.dupontteijinfilms.com/

http://www.3m.com/product/information/Polyester-PET-Film.html

http://www.petfilm.com/

McMaster has a 27" x 25' roll for $12.25

http://www.mcmaster.com/#polyester-(pet)-film/=8x2l18

[Mathew Lippincott]

Just had a talk with Gary at Balloonkits.com

he recommends these wheel sealers.  I told him that they aren't making air-tight seams and he said, "yeah, you have to file the texture off the wheel"  I'm going to try it with mine.