Thread: Small battery opereated bellows?

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I bought a couple of squishy brains today and thought it would be neat to put inside a miniature bellowes so it looks like the brain would pulsate. Anyone have info on how I can achieve this?

Another idea might be to mount the squishy brain on some sort of tray, with a hole cut out. Then up through the hole, rig a small wooden dowel (perhaps with a slightly wider, flat disc of wood or other material affixed to the end), which could then be pushed up-and-down like a piston.

Then again, I'm rather new to all this, so I've no idea.

Squishy how? If the brains are all gel, I doubt air pressure would affect them much. If they're made out of a closed-cell foam, I could see how you might be able to shrink them by putting them under some additional air pressure, or expand them a little, by putting them under vacuum. But I would guess you'd need more +/- air pressure than a bellows would give you.

Are you looking to expand, or contract them from their normal size? Do you have access to an air compressor?

- Hook

You could put a balloon inside. Attach it another balloon that is slightly inflated. Now get two small boards wide enough to cover the partially inflated balloon. Then attach them on one end with a hinge. Get a 60 rpm gearmotor and attach a crank or you could use a cam to compress the balloon sandwich. I have attached a simple drawing.

If the heart is very stiff or rigid, the balloon idea may not work. At least on the pump side. The balloon may just push out to the sides if the resistance to expansion inside the heart is too high. In this case I would use some surgical tubing inside the hinged boards. Mount it lengthwise with the board. This way it will collapse completely and the only path for the air to expand to will be the balloon inside the heart. Make sure you use large enough surgical tubing to provide enough air to expand the balloon. You will also want to put some hard tubing around the neck of the balloon so it can not expand there. You will want to design the hinged board to have a spring that will try to open it. Otherwise the surgical tubing may stay partially collapsed.

I think the tubing idea would work good. I don't know what these brains are made out of I haven't done brain surgery yet on them. I think they are foam inside it feels like nerf squishy.

As one of the other members pointed out. If the material is like what a nerf football is made from, you will need to do some serious internal expansion to get the outside to show any movement. But maybe you could try creating some movement near the surface by running thin wall surgical tubing like veins. Then you could connect them to the larger tubing pump. Oh and you could use water instead of air, which will not compress. I think you could get a multi barb manifold from an aquarium store. The small surgical tubing you can get from a hobby shop. We use it for fuel line on our gas cars.