Materials list
Everything that you need can be bought at: hardware store, office supply store, art supply store or grocery store
Everything that you need can be bought at: hardware store, office supply store, art supply store or grocery store
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With some modest carpentry skills you can build a sandbox yourself. The design specifications and instructions are in this 1.5 MB pdf file: Analog model set up and sandbox design, by Mario del Castello and John Sweeney. The file includes:
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Specialized parts can be purchased from McMaster-Carr http://www.mcmaster.com/
Expensive option but guarantees compatibility of lead screw and nut | Cheaper option. The threads the same but may need adjustment |
Potentially cheapest but you are on your own |
Bronze nut #95072A109 + Mounting flange #95082A642 | Standard plastic nut for lead screw: McMaster part #6350K41 |
Buy a nut and screw from Home Depot that has v-shaped rather than square (acme) threads. |
Lead Screw: McMaster part #99030A005 | Lead Screw: McMaster part #99030A005 (see alteration note below) | The v-shaped threads will not be as strong as the acme threads of parts listed in columns 1 and 2 |
$107.43 | $29.54 | ? |
Alteration note: The tolerance for the lead screw is slightly large for some of the standard plastic nuts. With a griding wheel you can take off the first bit of the threads on the rod and this will cause the threads to bite into the plastic making the threads of the plastic nut large enough for the rode.
You will also need
Interested in sharing ideas with other teachers? Join the sandbox listserve.
1. send email to majordomo<at> geo.umass.edu with 'subscribe sandbox' in the body of the message
2. reply to the confirmation email that you get from majordomo.