Thread: Dust extraction cyclone WIP

A solid old set up....looks like it would suck the chrome off a towball lol

Looks pretty solid compared to domestic level DE fans, how big is the impeller?
The inlet shroud looks pretty small, is it only 4" or something?

Hi Harry,
Yeah, it's pretty solid - the motor mounting plate is about 10mm steel and the blower body is 3 or 4mm thick.

The impeller is a tad under 400mm in diameter and is about 80mm high - made from 6 or 8mm steel - very heavy.

The inlet and outlets are only 100mm, which is a bit on the small side, but from the testing I've done the air speed is still very good (probably because of the large impeller). I think I will run everything through 150mm ducting and if I find the blower is not performing well enough I will open the inlet and outlets on the blower to match (I just don't fancy cutting through all that steel).

WOW!!!! I will watch for the next installment.

What you wana do is buy/borrow a clamp meter and measure the current draw why its running with no ducting connected(the highest current draw), then if its well under the motor's rating you can open up the inlet a little and remeasure it. The outlet should be bigger than the inlet too(think of a 2" exhaust on a hot V8 that sucks on a 1000cfm Holley carby!)
Being made from thick steel if you cut it too big and its drawing to many amps... it can be welded!

When I modified mine to sit outside in an enclosure with PFC filters I cut the rim/lip in the inlet opening(the rim held a gunsight shaped grid which I removed long ago...), only gained 12mm in dia but the increase of flow was impressive, current draw went from 4.4amps to 5.1amps the motor is 3hp rated at 9.8amps... although thats with all the ducting connected with every blast gate open(6 gates, its a 6" mains with 4" drops to the machines all pvc)
The inlet was restricted to 140mm but they advertise it as a 6" inlet... well it tis now

Hi Harry,
I have a clamp meter and have checked the current draw on all three phases, however as I am running from manufactured 3 phase (i.e. a 480V split phase static phase converter - now that's a mouthful) the results are not as easy to interpret as single phase or balanced 3 phase.

I want to do a bit more checking/testing, but basically I am already running the motor above it's rated specs, so I need to be careful not to overdo it.

I am on the lookout for a 5HP motor and if I can get one I will most likely end up opening up the inlet and outlet, as a 5HP motor should be able to better handle it.