my first flowbench diary - (mixture of bruce plan & CREs bench ...)

[77-1212596771]

I think I just have to start a thread and hopefully post some news day by day.
I'm living in Europe, so sometimes it a bit hard to get the stuff and parts which the US and Australian guys use generally in this forum.

However there is always a way to go.

Some month ago I started reading this forum and getting details from here and there. Then I registered this forum and bought bruce plan.
I found the thread of and I liked the simplification of the bench contruction.

I'm sure bruce concept will be technically better, but thats a bit too much work for me as I will use the bench just for some smaller jobs and mostly for small engines.

After struggling with getting vaccuum motors,
.

I received the vaccuum motors today. They are dry/wet, two step vac motors which have 1200 Watt at 240Volt.

Now where I have the motors I will write down my bench plan with all important measures.
My idea is to work with 4 motors, but leave space for additional 4 motors.

The first 4 motors will be controlled by 4
. These modules are widely available over europe (eventually worldwide). I got mine from an ebay seller for 16 euro per module.

I ordered four 6x6inch orifice plates from bruce which are made for 50, 100, 150 and 200 cfm. I hope they are enough for my bench.

If my bench will work someday, I will start with a watergauge system first. If everything works fine, I will start switching over to a digital system, but thats for the far future.

Thats all for now. The next posts will be some details or questions which are still popping up.

Cheers,

Daniel

[77-1212596771]

Not so much updates on my side ... I catched a herniated vertebral disk after we made a motorswap on last saturday. #### and I'm just 33 years old. I have to my a back a rest, so the flow bench (and digital sensors) project had to wait a bit.

However I received after a little struggle with an ebay seller my four power controllers.



Cheers,

Daniel

[77-1212596771]

My back is feeling better again (and I am back at the real life job since monday).

Hope It gets forward in the next days.

I need to get some quotes for mdf wood plates here in my city.


Daniel

[77-1212596771]

Okay guys. I have a question.

Today I measured the place to put my flow bench into the workshop and I really have a problem with the space.
The maximum I have is a place of 100 cm wide and 60 cm deep.

I have 4 blower motors, but former idea was to prepare the flow bench to house up to 9 blower motors. So I tried
to write done a sketch how I could fit everything into the CRE-style flowbench:


I hope you don't mind the metric measurements. The 9 blowers would be in a 3x3 arrangement.

I have a bad feeling with the rooms A and B, as they are not very high. However since the rooms are quite wide and deep (100x60 cm), so that the volumes are: A: 4,45 cubic feet and B: 2 cubic feet.

I still have a bad feeling on this, so I would like to know what you guys think.

I have the feeling it would be better to remove the upper of the three rows for the blowers and just use 6 blower motors as the maximum. This would give me additional 20 cm for the rooms A and B together.

Please let me know.

Daniel

[SWR]

Daniel,most the air comes in from the sides anyway,so having the box shallow but wide should work fine.. I hope so,because my new bench is made in almost the same way

[MrHijet]

My forum account was broken again. Anyhow, I received the orifice plates from bruce. Thanks for that!

Now I will get the remaining inspection holes and then start building the bench.

Cheers,

Daniel

[MrHijet]

Yesterday I received my inspection holes from a sailing shop. They look quite well and solid.

So now I can go out and buy the MDF plates and start building the flow bench.

Daniel

[stevenford]

Did you buy your Domels direct from Domel Solvenjia

[MrHijet]

No,
I bought them from a ebay seller who bought them directly (when I understood him right).

Daniel

[MrHijet]

Just a short update.

I struggle with the power supply of my flow bench. At the moment I just have a one phase 240volt connection in my garage as the 380volt (3 phase) looks like it was disconnected many years ago by the former owner.

I am thinking about building it in the first row with just two running suction motors. This would be not very powerful, but at least I should be able to test the overall setup and the digital sensor stuff.

Daniel

[MrHijet]

I had to take a long out time, because of many other jobs I had to do. Now I am back at the flow bench work, so I have to continue on the power supply issue.

I have following idea:

I changed the positioning style of the suction motors, so I can install 6 motors.

My powerering idea is following:
As long as I just have 240 volt, I would power up 2 of the 6 motors.
When I have access to the 400 Volt 3-phase power supply, I would connect all 6 motors.


Question:
If I am installing alle 6 motors, but will run only two of them, will I lose a great amount of air transfer du to leaking air which flows in reverse from the exit to the intake of the 4 other motors ?

If so, It would be better to install just 2 motors first and when it is time to upgrade, I have to install the rest of the motors.

Any comments on this ?

Thanks,

Daniel

[racehead-1]

I also have 240 volts and 50 hertz. I bought my vacuum motors from Rick they are 110 volts they are conected in series. What you need to know is how many Amps you have available at your house and also how your motors are wired. If they are 110 or 240 volts but 50 Hertz you will lose some cfm because of the diference in the frequency between 60 Hertz U.S.A. 50 Hertz Europe. The motors will turning slower because of the frequency. If I have two motors runing they draw 7 amps with all six of them 21 to 22 amps. I hope this helps.

[MrHijet]

Yes it helps a bit. I already bought 4 motors ( see: )

If I am running at 240 volt (1-Phase) I have the typical maximum of 16 ampere in Germany. My motors do have around 5,2 ampere, so I could connect two in parallel (They are 240 Volt / 1200 Watt units).
When I could switch to 400 Volt (3-Phase) I would have up to 32 ampere available.

My questions is more: As long as I am only able to run 2 motors, is it okay, to install all 6 already, or will I lose too much suction power through the 4 non-connected motors (reversely through their motors exit-to-intake).

[racehead-1]

In my opinion Yes. If those motors are not runing they will be turning counterclokwise. You need to have the one way valves there. Anyway you gone need them, this way you are safe.

[bruce]

If you are able to access the motor area what you can do is use a large round magnet on the face of the motor to stop flow. Then when you need to use the motors you just remove the magnet.

I did this when I was testing check valve designs the other week.