Welp, my little MAC700 has been down for a couple days. She was popping the thermal protector switch nonstop, so I had to take her apart and figure out what the hell was going on.
Turns out she was a dirty girl. I must have blown out about a kilo of sawdust from the windings, and you don't want to know what was in the head. After a thorough cleaning, I still wasn't happy with her performance. She was blowing breakers. She never blows breakers. I was shocked.
I pulled the pressure switch and got it in my head that the problem was likely there (it wasn't). I cleaned all the contacts and she did work a little better. She was still pulling too much current, and she simply wasn't running right. I could hear it.
After replacing the pressure switch (yep, I managed to get it back together, but with a leak so...) I worked my way through all the likely causes of a high current, low torque situation. The capacitor tested good. She was clean. No more leaks that I could find. Hmmm.....
It was then I noticed my centrifugal switch arcing at start and stop. A bright flash. I had the cover off running tests, and I could see it. There was some soot from the arcing on the motor housing near the switch. That's bad. That's really, really bad.
Youtube to the rescue. Grizzly did a video about centrifugal switch adjustment that did the trick. I walked through it, cleaned the points and polished them with 1000 grit. Adjusted the switch in, and voila! I got my compressor back!
Unfortunately, putting the reformed girl back together sprung a leak in my lead line right before the check valve. (sigh)
I pulled her hosiery up (don't tell anybody) recut the line and flared the end with a pair of needle-nose pliers of all things. (Hey, it worked.) Put her back together and made her decent so she didn't feel all exposed, and there we go! No more inlet leak!
She's running again. She's still pulling 12 plus amps with the Husky brand full synthetic but, (shrug) it'll work for now. I'm really not happy with that oil performance at all. The pump should be running much cooler with a full synthetic.
No more arcing at the contacts on the centrifugal switch. New tank pressure gauge (the old one was broken). New pressure switch (actually, I like the new switch, and am glad I spent the $14 for it). New thermal breaker (yes, I changed it out with a new one for $9). It's white instead of black. Style matters (lol). And I replaced the pit cock. My old one had rust on the ball. It leaked very, very slowly. $4 was a cheap repair.
Total cost of my tuneup was $27 with tax. Vastly cheaper than a new little red PC banger. Now, I'd like to get a big 'ol pig tank, and put my girl on a cart. With wheels. 50 lb might not be bad for a compressor, but it's still a little much imho. And 7 and a half gallons is better than 2.6.
Someday, maybe. When I find a really good deal on a tank I'll upgrade my teal baby girl.
Sunday, July 22, 2018
Sunday, July 15, 2018
Mini Dust Extractor
I was talking with an acquaintance about impellers. I've been on the lookout for a reasonably inexpensive dust extractor/collector that's light enough to move from jobsite to jobsite. I load up all my gear every day, so it has to be portable, and I'll be damned if I'm going to drag around something with a 20 lb motor on a 50 lb cart. I'm sorry, I mean ANOTHER power tool with a 20 lb motor on a 50 lb cart.
The idea is to reduce tools to the essential so that I: 1) can load and unload everything every day, 2) don't have to pull a trailer everywhere I go, 3) reduce the setup and teardown time to as little as possible.
A small aside to those reading this wondering why I load everything up every day. In the last year I've lost over $300 worth of tools from leaving them overnight. One of our guys lost everything in one night. Stolen off the jobsite. Locks and chains cut through, everything packed up and *poof* over $2,500 gone. I can't afford losses like that. What little I've had stolen is hand tools, and a ladder. I'd die of shock if someone stole everything I had. If I survived, I'd soon after be in jail for murder.
I like my tools. I'd like to keep them.
But why no trailer? I don't make that much, and anything that goes in the gas tank, is by definition not in my pocket.
Back to our story. I've been thinking about picking up a dust extractor, and have had my eye on the Makita because it runs so quietly. The common reports of the remote start switch simply stopping is bothersome, but the price tag is the real kicker. The DeWalt, The Bosch, the Makita, the Festool are all, imho, unreasonably expensive for what they are, and I could really care less about a filter autoclean feature. Give me a tool that works and I'll use it. Give me a reasonably priced tool that works great and I'll buy two. Charge me out the ass for a half-assed product and there's no way I'm touching the fkking thing.
So I was discussing the possibility of building one with someone who's had some experience at this, as I'm not above learning from someone if they're willing to share their wisdom. The problem, as I saw it, was that with more than one person on site (meaning more than one array of tools running) energy usage becomes a major concern. I'd really rather not burn my motor on my table saw and 12" slider up. With only one working circuit in the house while we're there, running and starting watts become one of your daily concerns. Most I've worked with though, don't give it a second thought. They just burn up tools like someone else is paying for them.
And so, 400 watts was the number I was building to. 400 running watts isn't a lot of power. At 110v (most homes run around 120v, not the rated 110v) that's only 3.64A you can safely draw and not exceed 400 watts.
Wait, why 400? My table saw starts at 1800 watts. A 20A circuit is 2200 watts. 1800+400 is? Most 20 Amp breakers will trip at 2400 watts.
That 400W is a harder limit than one might expect.
Any dust extractor that's paired with a high running watt table saw must be conscious of energy usage. Most shops have separate circuits for dust collection. Running those big motors ain't cheap. In a jobsite setting, there are only a handful of times when 220v is available, or more than one lonely, overworked circuit is on hand. So, if I wanted dust collection it had to be economical dust collection, if not downright frugal.
It was my friend's suggestion that a 400W dust extractor that could do 50cm of static pressure was impossible. The impeller, he said, would have to be so large to produce 50cm that it would far overload a 400W motor. I kind of took that as a challenge.
I knew that universal motors could be reigned by a variable voltage controller. When you change the voltage, but the amperes remain constant, wattage is reduced as well as voltage is a multiplier in the energy equation. So, a voltage control that runs a universal motor at a lower voltage (and speed) was entirely possible. Was the 400W barrier possible? Yes, indeed it was. Would it break the 50cm ceiling? We were about to find out.
I had a couple reclaimed vacuum motors with backwards impellers already attached, so I tested a few of them.
That seemed to work surprisingly well. I went on to build my extractor based on a few designs I had seen around youtube and the web in general. I wish I could thank all the contributors to this design that I ran across. Without their efforts, I would not have built my own.
I spent the weekend putting mine together. This following video is v2. V1 was just a box with a filter, which worked, and worked well, but the box filled up amazingly fast, particularly during the build of some large barn doors for a client north of Edmond.
The idea is to reduce tools to the essential so that I: 1) can load and unload everything every day, 2) don't have to pull a trailer everywhere I go, 3) reduce the setup and teardown time to as little as possible.
A small aside to those reading this wondering why I load everything up every day. In the last year I've lost over $300 worth of tools from leaving them overnight. One of our guys lost everything in one night. Stolen off the jobsite. Locks and chains cut through, everything packed up and *poof* over $2,500 gone. I can't afford losses like that. What little I've had stolen is hand tools, and a ladder. I'd die of shock if someone stole everything I had. If I survived, I'd soon after be in jail for murder.
I like my tools. I'd like to keep them.
But why no trailer? I don't make that much, and anything that goes in the gas tank, is by definition not in my pocket.
Back to our story. I've been thinking about picking up a dust extractor, and have had my eye on the Makita because it runs so quietly. The common reports of the remote start switch simply stopping is bothersome, but the price tag is the real kicker. The DeWalt, The Bosch, the Makita, the Festool are all, imho, unreasonably expensive for what they are, and I could really care less about a filter autoclean feature. Give me a tool that works and I'll use it. Give me a reasonably priced tool that works great and I'll buy two. Charge me out the ass for a half-assed product and there's no way I'm touching the fkking thing.
So I was discussing the possibility of building one with someone who's had some experience at this, as I'm not above learning from someone if they're willing to share their wisdom. The problem, as I saw it, was that with more than one person on site (meaning more than one array of tools running) energy usage becomes a major concern. I'd really rather not burn my motor on my table saw and 12" slider up. With only one working circuit in the house while we're there, running and starting watts become one of your daily concerns. Most I've worked with though, don't give it a second thought. They just burn up tools like someone else is paying for them.
And so, 400 watts was the number I was building to. 400 running watts isn't a lot of power. At 110v (most homes run around 120v, not the rated 110v) that's only 3.64A you can safely draw and not exceed 400 watts.
Wait, why 400? My table saw starts at 1800 watts. A 20A circuit is 2200 watts. 1800+400 is? Most 20 Amp breakers will trip at 2400 watts.
That 400W is a harder limit than one might expect.
Any dust extractor that's paired with a high running watt table saw must be conscious of energy usage. Most shops have separate circuits for dust collection. Running those big motors ain't cheap. In a jobsite setting, there are only a handful of times when 220v is available, or more than one lonely, overworked circuit is on hand. So, if I wanted dust collection it had to be economical dust collection, if not downright frugal.
It was my friend's suggestion that a 400W dust extractor that could do 50cm of static pressure was impossible. The impeller, he said, would have to be so large to produce 50cm that it would far overload a 400W motor. I kind of took that as a challenge.
I knew that universal motors could be reigned by a variable voltage controller. When you change the voltage, but the amperes remain constant, wattage is reduced as well as voltage is a multiplier in the energy equation. So, a voltage control that runs a universal motor at a lower voltage (and speed) was entirely possible. Was the 400W barrier possible? Yes, indeed it was. Would it break the 50cm ceiling? We were about to find out.
I had a couple reclaimed vacuum motors with backwards impellers already attached, so I tested a few of them.
That seemed to work surprisingly well. I went on to build my extractor based on a few designs I had seen around youtube and the web in general. I wish I could thank all the contributors to this design that I ran across. Without their efforts, I would not have built my own.
I spent the weekend putting mine together. This following video is v2. V1 was just a box with a filter, which worked, and worked well, but the box filled up amazingly fast, particularly during the build of some large barn doors for a client north of Edmond.
You can see my buddy Jon mugging for the camera there. He's a great guy. Learns quickly too. For reference, Jon is over 6 ft. These doors are 113" tall, and the largest of the two is 94" wide. The #2 pine 1x12's that make up the field on each door had to be tongue-and-grooved. #2 twists and bends so much according to temperature and humidity, just moving them inside would have showed cracks between the boards over 1/8". The builder was adamant that this was not to happen on his doors. Understood.
I set these up for a 3/8" t-n-g with a 1/4" show. Should be easy to touch up when they shrink. Paint is not my circus, not my monkeys. Thank you, God.
V1 had to be emptied 3 times during the routing (done on a router table). It worked, but was a pain in the ass. That's why v.2 received a Thien baffle. Thank you, Mr Thien! These are dead simple to build. It works great. I even tested it with a flashlight in the bucket so I could watch the heavy stuff swirl to the bottom, which is really cool, btw.
So, with my weekend gone, I finished my build.
Works like a charm. I can get more than 50cm of suction out of 400W running through a Thien baffle and a 12x24x1 furnace filter. The baffle and filter keep the throughput clean enough that I don't have to worry about my impeller imploding. Well, exploding, or whatever happens when a piece of debris with some mass to it hits a thin piece of aluminum at roughly 65mph (the real reason dust collectors use robust radial fans that require big motors to drive them at comparatively low rpm).
RPM is a major factor in the performance of backwards-vaned impellers. They function best at high rpm, which is also why your shop vac is so damned loud. It's taking lots and lots of little bites of air, and the air is screaming at each nip. Lots of little bites equals big chuck of flesh. Mosquitos know, you need not be big to be really annoying, or have a big impact. You just need lots of friends.
My 400W Jobsite Dust Extractor build isn't finished yet. I have to make a handle and a transport strap for it. That's about it, though. And some teal paint. Can't skip the teal paint.
You know, I have a 2.4A 3450 motor. I could build an induction variant. But then, what I've got works, and works well. Why bother? It'll be just as loud with an impeller spinning at 20k rpm.
You know, I have a 2.4A 3450 motor. I could build an induction variant. But then, what I've got works, and works well. Why bother? It'll be just as loud with an impeller spinning at 20k rpm.
Cabinets and bandsaws and dust collectors and stuffs
I've been busy lately. I haven't updated in a good long while, but then I read more than write and a blog always seemed to me as more of a tool of the ego rather than a valuable addition to human knowledge. Let's face it, I don't know all that much, and what I do know is most likely wrong, and very probably useless.
Nevertheless, I've built a few things that I'd like to share, mostly because I had fun doing them. What follows is a series of articles that I'm working on to maybe help someone else have some fun. After all, what could be better than futzing around in the garage?
So far, I've built a thickness sander, a bandsaw, a dust extractor, and a jointer. I intend to show how I put each of these together so that maybe someone else can save some grief in their builds.
Nevertheless, I've built a few things that I'd like to share, mostly because I had fun doing them. What follows is a series of articles that I'm working on to maybe help someone else have some fun. After all, what could be better than futzing around in the garage?
So far, I've built a thickness sander, a bandsaw, a dust extractor, and a jointer. I intend to show how I put each of these together so that maybe someone else can save some grief in their builds.
Saturday, January 21, 2017
Existential
Do you ever have one of those nights when everything feels like graduated approximations of a desired end result?
Wednesday, January 11, 2017
Honorable Mention
Just a quick note with some pics of what I've been working on. We're currently in a roughly 4,000 sq ft new home building all cabinets on site. I'll have more pics soon. Taking a few days to wrap up another new home with some wire baluster and hardware. I should have pics of that soon as well.
Wednesday, October 26, 2016
Doors
Delivering cabinet doors today, which I'm excited about. Not because they're great doors, but because we're planning on getting an electronic drum set for my son. And, you know, pay bills.
Sunday, October 2, 2016
I Had a Vision
With the move coming up next year, we were in a spot. We, like everyone, have more stuff than seems possible. I couldn't imagine trying to stuff all of it into a 5x8 enclosed trailer. Besides requiring a portal to another dimension, or even better, quantum teleportation, we were up against a wall trying to figure out how to take all of this... stuff... with us.
So, since half the states between here an Washington don't allow tripling, we went ahead and sold the 5x8. I found a cheesy trailer on craigslist. One can always find a cheesy trailer on craigslist. It wasn't all cheesy, though. Apparently just the top layers were cheesy.
What I found was a 20 ft gooseneck trailer that used to be a travel trailer. It was converted to to a gooseneck from a fifth wheel and cut down in length, but not by much. The original tandem 3500# Dexter axles and equalizers are in good shape. It has working electric brakes on both axles. The frame is C5 x 9. Nothing more than surface rust. The gooseneck coupler is rated at 30K#. So, the guts of it is actually a pretty damned good trailer. It just looks like a piece of crap.
Once I pulled the treated 2x8 decking off, which is all fairly new, and in good shape with no rot, I was able to take a peek at the few problems I had. The biggest issue was that both jacks were busted. Non-working. They were, at one time, plumbed together. If you've ever seen a busted Atwood Landing gear setup, then you'll know what I'm talking about. The center bar was missing, and the gears were missing on one and completely stripped on the the other.
The challenge was how to reinvent the wheel, or at least the twin jack. I did some thinking, and some research around the net, and didn't find what I was looking for, but I found a possible solution. Sidewind square tube jacks had the right motion, and could push the GVWR of the trailer. Turns out Curt made exactly what I was looking for. The Curt HD 28575, 7k lift fit the bill. I ordered two of them from Amazon for $54 per.
$108 for 14k of lift capacity? Oh hells yeah. Still, if I didn't want to walk all the way around the trailer 10 times just to get it off the truck, I had to come up with a way to make the work as twins. I popped the top of one of them off the night they came in, and thought I had a good plan immediately.
The only thing that was keeping the jack handle on was a knurled roll pin. Once I drove that out I was able to pull the gears and bushings, and replace the stock handle with a solid steel cold rolled 1/2" rod. I could only get 3 ft sections from Lowes, so I had to splice and weld it together. A 3/16" drill bit and I could insert the stock roll pin through the gearset and was good to go.
I slid a short piece of 1/2" black iron pipe over the connecting rod and welded it to a footing to keep the rod straight under torque. Worked like a charm. And a 14k# twin lift capacity for $24 in steel, and $108 in jacks? It just can't be done cheaper.
I welded a 1/2" bolt to the end of the rod, then made a nifty little custom jack handle.
Used a short section of 1/2" black iron pipe, a matching socket, and the original jack handled, all welded together into a nice little package.
Amazingly, my build plan does not include any bailing wire, or duck tape, although the trailer did actually come with some.
I was concerned about all that weight on the pin, as I wasn't able to lift the trailer at the gooseneck coupler, The bare trailer only weighs about 1300#, axles included. At 15% pin weight I should be able to lift it with my legs.
To combat all that forward weight, I moved the axles up to the approximate center of the belly. They're actually about 8" back from the center of the belly.
It should have been much more balanced, but two of my friends and I stood on the last cross-rail (that gawd-awful 4" square steel bumper) and we couldn't get the pin to budge. There's still more than 650# on the pin, probably a lot more.
I'm afraid to move the axles up any more. I don't want to introduce an opportunity for it to want to sway at speed. I'm just going to have to be careful how I load it.
Next week, I'm working on wiring and checking the condition of my brakes. then I'll be decking and enclosing it. As a stroke of luck, I happen to have a nicely sized stack of pressure treated 2x8's just ready and waiting to be cut down.
So, since half the states between here an Washington don't allow tripling, we went ahead and sold the 5x8. I found a cheesy trailer on craigslist. One can always find a cheesy trailer on craigslist. It wasn't all cheesy, though. Apparently just the top layers were cheesy.
What I found was a 20 ft gooseneck trailer that used to be a travel trailer. It was converted to to a gooseneck from a fifth wheel and cut down in length, but not by much. The original tandem 3500# Dexter axles and equalizers are in good shape. It has working electric brakes on both axles. The frame is C5 x 9. Nothing more than surface rust. The gooseneck coupler is rated at 30K#. So, the guts of it is actually a pretty damned good trailer. It just looks like a piece of crap.
Once I pulled the treated 2x8 decking off, which is all fairly new, and in good shape with no rot, I was able to take a peek at the few problems I had. The biggest issue was that both jacks were busted. Non-working. They were, at one time, plumbed together. If you've ever seen a busted Atwood Landing gear setup, then you'll know what I'm talking about. The center bar was missing, and the gears were missing on one and completely stripped on the the other.
The challenge was how to reinvent the wheel, or at least the twin jack. I did some thinking, and some research around the net, and didn't find what I was looking for, but I found a possible solution. Sidewind square tube jacks had the right motion, and could push the GVWR of the trailer. Turns out Curt made exactly what I was looking for. The Curt HD 28575, 7k lift fit the bill. I ordered two of them from Amazon for $54 per.
$108 for 14k of lift capacity? Oh hells yeah. Still, if I didn't want to walk all the way around the trailer 10 times just to get it off the truck, I had to come up with a way to make the work as twins. I popped the top of one of them off the night they came in, and thought I had a good plan immediately.
The only thing that was keeping the jack handle on was a knurled roll pin. Once I drove that out I was able to pull the gears and bushings, and replace the stock handle with a solid steel cold rolled 1/2" rod. I could only get 3 ft sections from Lowes, so I had to splice and weld it together. A 3/16" drill bit and I could insert the stock roll pin through the gearset and was good to go.
I slid a short piece of 1/2" black iron pipe over the connecting rod and welded it to a footing to keep the rod straight under torque. Worked like a charm. And a 14k# twin lift capacity for $24 in steel, and $108 in jacks? It just can't be done cheaper.
I welded a 1/2" bolt to the end of the rod, then made a nifty little custom jack handle.
Amazingly, my build plan does not include any bailing wire, or duck tape, although the trailer did actually come with some.
I was concerned about all that weight on the pin, as I wasn't able to lift the trailer at the gooseneck coupler, The bare trailer only weighs about 1300#, axles included. At 15% pin weight I should be able to lift it with my legs.
To combat all that forward weight, I moved the axles up to the approximate center of the belly. They're actually about 8" back from the center of the belly.
It should have been much more balanced, but two of my friends and I stood on the last cross-rail (that gawd-awful 4" square steel bumper) and we couldn't get the pin to budge. There's still more than 650# on the pin, probably a lot more.
I'm afraid to move the axles up any more. I don't want to introduce an opportunity for it to want to sway at speed. I'm just going to have to be careful how I load it.
Next week, I'm working on wiring and checking the condition of my brakes. then I'll be decking and enclosing it. As a stroke of luck, I happen to have a nicely sized stack of pressure treated 2x8's just ready and waiting to be cut down.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)