Small Garage Flowbench Build

[stef-1]

Well, this is the first flowbench I've built for my own use at home. I have a constraint in that I'm limited with power supply. This restricts me to four motors which I can then run off two 13amp 240v plug sockets.
I started by collecting a bunch of old vacuum cleaners from friends and family. I ended up with six in total which I stripped down and removed the motors and wiring (to reuse in the bench). I also collected some 6" deck plates, 110mm soil pipe caps, a dwyer gauge that reads up to 30" H2O and a few other bit's and pieces.



After some crude testing to see how well they "sucked" I decided to use the four YDK units. These were also the newest of the bunch. Two of them were YV-2200s, one was the same wattage as the YV-2200 (probably an older version?) and the other was a slightly lower wattage motor. With these details in mind I used my spreadsheet for the YV-2200 motor flow curve and set the bench efficiency to a low 50% to see what the flow bench capacity is at 28" and 25" test pressures.





The flow capacity seems about right for the four cylinder heads that I normally work on.

[bruce]

Great start, we'll be following along!

[stef-1]

After speaking to my father we managed to get a good deal on some 4' x 8' 25mm (1") thick MDF sheets which were then purchased and delivered to the garage. My father also had some spare sheets of 22mm thick flooring grade particle board for me to use in case I did not have enough sheet.
After reading through Bruces plans, other members projects and the various advice on here I decided how I was going to approach the design. I spent an evening on CAD at home designing the bench and producing the drawings.
Below are pictures of the finished design (some parts are hidden for clarity). I wanted to make it easy to change flow direction and for the bleed valve not to disturb the flow in the orifice chamber. There are holes at the back of the bench to allow a back board to be bolted on the mount the manometers etc.









You can see it's quite easy to reach in the deck plate and undo the soil pipe cap to change directions. The hole above the side deck plates is for a throttle body to act as a bleed valve.

[stef-1]

My father and I spent about an hour the other day cutting up the MDF sheet to the required sizes. I've noticed that the MDF dust can give a rash if your arms are exposed! Still it's all cut up now and I've just got some 1/8" thick aluminium sheet to make a protective cover for the top.
Should be able to start cutting holes etc. this weekend.

[msj442]

did it pass the dogs approval? lol

[UKDoug]

Looks like we should have a litttle race to see who can finish their bench first!

We can compare results from the same orrifice plates.

Is that Solid Works you have used to draw your bench up?

[stef-1]

[UKDoug]

Stef,

How are you planning on cutting your motor and deck plate holes?

Have you made any provision for access to the "guts" of the bench if say a motor fails and needs to be swapped out?

I shall check the bolt pattern for the plates.

[stef-1]

[color=#000000]Well a little bit more progress with some holes cut out and screw holes drilled etc.

Motor plate


Direction change using soil pipe caps. I found I could radius the inlet one using the router.




Doug, I did some holes with the normal hole saws you can get up to 2.5" dia. But you have to go at them from both sides of the board as they're not deep enough to cut right through. All larger holes I did with the jig saw. You just need to be patient with it and have a few spare blades lol.
There will be an access hatch at the back of the bench for motor replacement.
I also went to a boot sale and got a decent set of four 2.5" castors for a couple of

[jfholm]

I was walking through the local NPS warehouse that sells freight damage etc and found a bunch of Rigid Brand hole saws. They are the ones Home Depot sells and are deep and very nice. I got sizes up to 4.5" and are at least 2" and some 3" inches deep. I use them in my drill press and can go all the way through with 1 plunge. I also have some shallower ones up to 6" diameter that are not nearly as nice.

I got the ones at NPS for half price and NPS actually sells on ebay

John

[stef-1]

Got a few more panels finished off recently.











I've added an extra hole to where the throttle body attaches. This will be blanked off at first but if I get the garage rewired for more power in the future I can then attach a spigot to it and build a motor box to couple to it. Then I can easily get some extra airflow.

[UKDoug]

Crikey, you're cracking on!

I'm starting to lag behind. If you finish yours first i'll have to pop over with my plates and we can also try out the digital manometer i have from Bruce.

Give me a bell. 07886005962.

Doug.

[stef-1]

Some more progress....















I'm really pleased with the way the build is going and I'm looking forward to firing it up soon!

[ttvracing]

Hi Stefs-1 how do you mounted your motors can you take some pics from that.
Tanks Jan

[stef-1]

Should be mounting the motors soon and will post pics. Which ttvracing are you by the way?