New Bench Nearing Completion

[blownalcohol]

Just 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

[riga team]

very nice and impressive

Anatoly

[Tony]

Well done !

A very fine looking flowbench.

[larrycavan]

Really nice job on the bench. As you're already finding out, the FP1 was an excellent choice. You're going to like it a lot better than traditional guages.

[rusty105]

Nice work
Similiar to what I am designing right now, although I think I may mount the motor box front to back, as opposed to left to right, like you have. And I think I am going to continue the bevel on the front panel all the way across, maybe not as deep. Since my budget is small for this little project I am considering going with an orifice type, that can be later converted to a pitot tube, with FP-1 controls. For now I am going to use manometers (budget reasons).

Question:
Is that paint on the outside or laminate? If it is laminate, where did you get it from??

Thanks
Rusty

[blownalcohol]

[apex944]

Jeff, one of the nicest benches I've seen, well done. In my head that's what my final bench will look like someday.

I too am going with mostly FP stuff and some of Bruce's parts where possible.

So can you put anymore pix up of the inside? I want to see how you've laid things out.

Also, I really like that plate on the top. It looks like maybe it was originally for some other purpose? Or did you machine those corners like that?

[blownalcohol]

[bruce]

No problems with space I can easily add them if you email them to me like before.

[blownalcohol]

[1960flh]

Jeff;

How do you switch between suck & Blow for testing?

Nice bench,

Rick

[blownalcohol]

[ERNIE CANTON]

[Thomas Vaught]

What is the part number for the check valves and the source location? Thanks

Tom V.

[blownalcohol]