Multiple Solenoid Head
Most drop stands have the solenoid valves mounted in a line. This restricts the number that can be used due to the difficulty of getting enough angle on the nozzle to successfully make the drop fall in an arc to the correct collision point. I decided to design and 3D print a more flexible system.
There is 5 solenoids in a hexagonal pattern around a centre nozzle. Each of the 5 solenoids now has a swivel ball joint nozzle which is controlled by 2 thumb screws which allows me to “walk” the nozzle to align it. By “walking” I mean that if I wanted the nozzle to simply angle in a bit I would need to move both the LH & RH screws equally. In practice it is actually very easy. The screws on the underside are only there to apply correct tension to the printed ball joints within each adjuster – I have very rarely touched them.
The centre nozzle alignment can be controlled from above by adjusting a spring loaded mount but that is not really needed because I just use the swivel jointed nozzle to get it near to perpendicular. Gravity will then help the drop fall straight down. If it is off target the whole assembly is on an XY adjuster.
My normal procedure after aligning the bottom SFB jet is to align the centre nozzle with XY adjustment and then individually align the outer nozzles to fall in line as needed. During a session the centre SFB jet alignment might change after changing nozzles but that is easily corrected by using the XY adjusters to move the complete solenoid head as required.
These images taken while setting up a shot demonstrate how accurately the drops can be aligned.
It then just becomes a matter of adjusting the timing to get correct drop size and spacing.
