J. Phil Thien's Projects

This is so awesome, I have only given it a glance but I look forward to studying the photo albums.

Thanks for posting!!!

Not sure, maybe it is the air howling through the 1-1/2" hose?  Can you disconnect that?

Mine don't make any objectionable noises.

The dryer has a blower wheel and the laws of fluid dynamics apply.  Adding a separator may put enough of a hit on the airflow (because or resistance) that the clothes dry more slowly.

And I'm not sure it will get the lint.

I'd say it doesn't look promising.

Quote from: retired2 on June 03, 2015, 06:09:44 AM

Quote from: DennisCA on June 02, 2015, 09:45:51 PM
No pics but I can see that the epoxy had let go, the bond wasn't very strong after all. So only the screws held it in place and they had been pulled straight through the the plywood bottom when things let go, one vane shot off into the ceiling and broke a fluorescent tube. These vanes are heavy and dangerous, I was lucky I put the circuit breaker on an extension cord and moved to the other side of the shop and stood crouched behind the jointer.

I'm remaking this but using plywood or MDF vanes like Marius hornberger used in his build- I think the lighter weight means there's less momentum to overcome as it starts up so less stress in that initial jolt, at least the vanes shold be light I now feel, the backing disc could probably be made heavier from 18mm plywood for deeper grooves.

Also I think the wood glue bond with wooden components will be a lot stronger than this failed epoxy joint, and safer if it blows up. Next time I'll be testing it with the top on too. I think I will follow Matthias wandels design closer in terms of vane layout for this new design, perhaps make it a little shorter, I had aimed for 10cm but perhaps 8cm will make for a stronger impeller.

Even with a successful build, I would always be worrying about when it was going to explode at full speed.  Home built blowers, especially large ones, should be isolated from the rest of the shop with a "blast barrier" - a very strong one to keep it from adding to the amount of shrapnel in an explosion.

I imagine a sufficiently strong wood housing would absorb most of the damage, no?

I think one important factor demonstrated here is to never spin-up a partial blower, one that doesn't have both the top and bottom glued on.  Having the top in place would have made the entire wheel exponentially stronger.

That is disappointing.

I had high hopes for this.  Any pics of the unit where things came apart?  It would be interesting to see how parts look after the spin.

Quote from: tvman44 on May 26, 2015, 02:51:46 PM
Is there an advantage to larger line after the separator, larger than the line between the blower and separator?

The input side typically has to be constrained to maintain enough fpm to keep debris entrained in the airflow.

No such requirement on the output side, the bigger, the better (provided you aren't taxing the motor).

Quote from: DennisCA on May 26, 2015, 01:32:02 PM
I got a pretty serious angle on these vanes too... it sorta looks like an airfoil impeller...

It sure does, it will be interesting to see how this performs.

It is actually a little difficult finding weights for blower wheels alone.  I went to eBay and found an aluminum 20" blower wheel that is about 20#.  But it is wider than yours and has a large hub installed:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/HUNTAIR-71100005-20-BLOWER-WHEEL-105-WIDTH-CW-BORE-1-3-8-175487-/361205375235?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item541984a103

But I think the answer to your weight question is, you're in the right ballpark.

The smaller the D, the higher the velocity, the greater the resistance, the more the loss to CFM.

I'd advise making the separator as wide as possible, given the other parameters of your vessel.

Quote from: R.True on May 13, 2015, 04:29:36 PM

Quote from: phil (admin) on May 13, 2015, 07:30:42 AM
Yeah, I would do a top hat for a conventional DC.

On other alternative is, if you could figure out how to add a side inlet to a drum, you could add a top with a suspended baffle.

I've often thought it would be nice to have some side-inlets molded for standard-size containers like 55 and 30-gallon drums.

This is what I want to do!!

Which part, make a side-inlet for a drum, or make a mold for side inlets for a drum?

Why haven't any mold makers joined up here?

I suppose something could also be 3D printed.

Yeah, I would do a top hat for a conventional DC.

On other alternative is, if you could figure out how to add a side inlet to a drum, you could add a top with a suspended baffle.

I've often thought it would be nice to have some side-inlets molded for standard-size containers like 55 and 30-gallon drums.

I watched a Marius Hornberger video on youtube and at first glance it looks impressive.

But he didn't have a filter on his vac.  So anything fine entering the vac could have just blown right through.

Mine doesn't have any problem with handplane shavings and never really clogs.

I have heard of clogging problems with the smaller cyclones.  Heck, there was a guy at SMC the other week complaining about their full-sized cyclone clogging.

I've seen the one Dennis linked, you can find them on eBay.  I sort of like it, it may be a little better than the little dust deputy.

Still curious about the resistance compared to my larger unit, though.  That is a couple of very tight turns.

For a conventional DC, a side inlet no doubt reduces losses and leads to better performance.

My "daily driver" with top connections and an elbow on the inlet is connected to a shop vac.

The additional friction created by the elbow may be a wash, as slowing down rotation actually decreases overall resistance.  That is because the overall resistance of the units is proportional to the air speed squared.

I've often wanted to test another one of the small plastic cyclones.  I had one designed for dental work years ago, but I didn't have any ways of testing airflow at the time.  But the diameter of the units is a quarter of mine, I'd be curious how big a hit that puts on air speed.