Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2007 4:50 pmJust an update on the progress of my bench. Thanks to everyone who threw in their ideas in my original post....general flowbench...."newbie bench questions"
I decided to go with a cabinet style with a seperate motor supply box (Modified Audie's). The vac motor route was much more feasable at this time.....my research into new centrifugal blowers showed them costing several thousand dollars. This way I have an operational bench but it is of a design that will allow me to upgrade to a centrifugal blower setup at some point, should I decide to. The supply box can be removed very easily and replaced with the blower assembly.
I ended up with 15 of the surplus center motors....planned on 14, but when the box was laid out dimensionally I found 15 fit just perfect.....so 15 it was. I have 8 of them wired to run at all times and have the others set up with check valves on the inlets to allow them to be brought in as necessary.
The bench ended up being a little larger than I had initially intended, but was necessary due to the length of my flow element.
I went with all FP stuff.....FP1 with extra pressure sensor, 2.5" HV flow element, and their PWM valve for depression control. John is awesome. His products are first class, he can be reached via telephone or email very easily,and he takes time to answer everyone of my questions....no matter how dumb they may be. I am an absolute newbie to this bench building, but he didn't hesitate helping me every step of the way. I highly recommend his products to anyone considering building a flowbench. As a side note....when I first hit the switch with his calibration plate installed I was within .2 cfm of his number....I was thoroughly impressed with his accuracy.
My bench is pretty much operational at this point. I still have to build a head fixture and valve opening set-up. I hope to work on these items this weekend. I am having some decals made to make it look a little more finished.
I have some pics below, and if anyone sees something that doesn't look right, please speak up.
Okay....I'm having trouble with the pics. I think I got one uploaded by just using a file attachment. If nothing is here then I was wrong.
Edited By bruce on 1173835061
I decided to go with a cabinet style with a seperate motor supply box (Modified Audie's). The vac motor route was much more feasable at this time.....my research into new centrifugal blowers showed them costing several thousand dollars. This way I have an operational bench but it is of a design that will allow me to upgrade to a centrifugal blower setup at some point, should I decide to. The supply box can be removed very easily and replaced with the blower assembly.
I ended up with 15 of the surplus center motors....planned on 14, but when the box was laid out dimensionally I found 15 fit just perfect.....so 15 it was. I have 8 of them wired to run at all times and have the others set up with check valves on the inlets to allow them to be brought in as necessary.
The bench ended up being a little larger than I had initially intended, but was necessary due to the length of my flow element.
I went with all FP stuff.....FP1 with extra pressure sensor, 2.5" HV flow element, and their PWM valve for depression control. John is awesome. His products are first class, he can be reached via telephone or email very easily,and he takes time to answer everyone of my questions....no matter how dumb they may be. I am an absolute newbie to this bench building, but he didn't hesitate helping me every step of the way. I highly recommend his products to anyone considering building a flowbench. As a side note....when I first hit the switch with his calibration plate installed I was within .2 cfm of his number....I was thoroughly impressed with his accuracy.
My bench is pretty much operational at this point. I still have to build a head fixture and valve opening set-up. I hope to work on these items this weekend. I am having some decals made to make it look a little more finished.
I have some pics below, and if anyone sees something that doesn't look right, please speak up.
Okay....I'm having trouble with the pics. I think I got one uploaded by just using a file attachment. If nothing is here then I was wrong.
Edited By bruce on 1173835061
