Way too small to bother. My 16a DC is strickly marginal.

(CBlood59) wrote in
:

Hello,

I have abandoned my plan to use the central vac as a dust collector.
However, my wife's late father was a pipe organ builder, and left a
blower in the basement. The unit has been, uh, collecting dust for
about 45 years, and I was wondering if it would be suitable for a
homemade shop dust collector.

Curt, your first stop should be he

http://billpentz.com//woodworking/cyclone/index.cfm

There's an awful lot of information in those pages, and it's where a bunch
of us folks learned at least some of what we think we know.

Patriarch

On 01 Jan 2005 18:40:18 GMT, (CBlood59) wrote:

Hello,

I have abandoned my plan to use the central vac as a dust collector. However,
my wife's late father was a pipe organ builder, and left a blower in the
basement. The unit has been, uh, collecting dust for about 45 years, and I was
wondering if it would be suitable for a homemade shop dust collector.

I'll try to describe the unit, and my plan.

The blower specs a

CFM 500
Pressure 3.6"
The intake and exhaust ports are 8 inches in diameter.


The GE motor specs:

1/2 HP ball bearing motor
115/230 V AC
7.8/3.9 Amp.



This sounds like something that I could make into a DC. I haven't been able to
start it yet, since it seems to have a 220 plug on it (but not the same size as
the dryer).


Would you like a free 20" Jet dust collector center section, and top
bag?

The metal is brand new, the bag comes pre-caked. G Pay the
shipping and it's yours, I'm going to toss it if nobody wants it.

Email me directly if you're interested.

Barry

"CBlood59" wrote in message
...

So, if I were to switch out the motor for a more powerful one, would this
work?
Assuming the blower has the capacity to be driven by a bigger motor, the
CFM
(500) and static pressure (3.6) should be adaquate, from what I've seen of
manufacturers specs.

Curt




More HP will not give you any more CFM or static pressure. More RPM and HP
will, but I would be wary of increasing th RPM of the blower, the fan may
not take it and come apart.

Using as it is will give you some dust collection capabilities, but very
limited.
Greg

"CBlood59" wrote in message
...
I'll try to describe the unit, and my plan.

The blower specs a

CFM 500
Pressure 3.6"
The intake and exhaust ports are 8 inches in diameter.


The GE motor specs:

1/2 HP ball bearing motor
115/230 V AC
7.8/3.9 Amp.


Curt, those specs indicate a capacity less than 50% of the smallest dust
collector available commercially - one that sells for about $200. I think
you would be wasting your time.

Now that we have sufficiently discouraged you, the general setup of a dust
collection system:

1. Pipe from tool to inlet of the blower.

2. Outlet of blower exhausts into dust filter bag.

I left out some pieces normally included but your blower doesn't have a hope
of handling things like a trashcan or cyclone separator. Just don't let big
chunks of wood get into it.

Bob

This sounds like a good candidate for making a shop air filter/sanding
table. A DC generally needs a higher air volume movement. ShopNotes
Issue #24 has good plans for a shop air filter that uses disposable
furnace filters (I made one).

On 01 Jan 2005 18:40:18 GMT, (CBlood59) wrote:

Hello,

I have abandoned my plan to use the central vac as a dust collector. However,
my wife's late father was a pipe organ builder, and left a blower in the
basement. The unit has been, uh, collecting dust for about 45 years, and I was
wondering if it would be suitable for a homemade shop dust collector.

I'll try to describe the unit, and my plan.

The blower specs a

CFM 500
Pressure 3.6"
The intake and exhaust ports are 8 inches in diameter.


The GE motor specs:

1/2 HP ball bearing motor
115/230 V AC
7.8/3.9 Amp.



This sounds like something that I could make into a DC. I haven't been able to
start it yet, since it seems to have a 220 plug on it (but not the same size as
the dryer).

I have two questions:

1.) Can this thing be used for this purpose?

2.) How should I set it up?

I'm not sure how a DC works. I envision the following setup:


machine blower
____ ____ ______ _____
| |=====| |==| |==| |
|____| |____| |______| |_____|
dust bin filter bag

air flow ------------------


I'd put some sort of screen on the dust bin to keep the big stuff out of the
blower.

Alright, you can stop laughing now. As I said, I really don't have a clue as
to how these things work. Anyway, if anyone can help with this, I'd appreciate
it.

Curt Blood
Amateur Furniture Builder