What 120V Lighthouse vac motors would you recommend?

[jeffreymcgrew]

Looking to upgrade by vac table by using four Lighthouse motors together ala Gary's 'black box'.

Thanks to Gary's posts, I'm really interested in the Lighthouse motors for this. However, I'm think that using 120v motors would be easier for me.

Looking at the long list of motors however, I can't seem to find a comparable 120V motor to the 220v one Gary recommends. Which one would you use?

Or is this not a big deal? Should I just use the 220v motors and get my electrician in here to wire me up another outlet instead?

[ken_rychlik]

I have two of these under my machine and they outperform a friends 20hp blower. Ametek 116765-13

With that said, I will use four on the setup I am building for him. One to each zone and switches to turn off zones instead of valves.

They came from here http://www.centralvacuummotor.com/shopbot.htm

They have a higher rated 120v version, but I have had good luck with the ones i run.

Buy the mufflers too. Major difference in sound.

[michael_schwartz]

By all means use the 240 volt motors if you can. The amperage required for the same performance from a 120v motor is roughly double that of their higher voltage counterparts. If you ever want to run more than two motors, 120 volts would be impractical.

I am using two of the LH 6765-13 120 volt motors due to circumstance. I don't own the building I am in, and I have already had enough electrical work done, so I ended up going that route. I also had two 20 unused 20 amp circuits available. I have only run them for about 6-7 hours now, so I haven't had a chance to test how they hold up long term in my enclosure. The seem to be working just fine for the time being.

They certainly pull upwards of 10.0-10.5" HG with all my table zones closed, and I get a max of about 9.25 HG when cutting. This is at about 900' above sea level. That kind of performance for about half the cost of a FIEN is crazy. I have held parts as small as 4"x4", and when cutting through a couple of larger parts in a sheet, the vacuum doesn't even drop.

I planned on using a muffler, but I didn't want to restrict airflow any further. Keep in mind the exhaust will be hot, and the intake for the cooling fan will need a plentiful supply of fresh, cool, air. These are vacuum cleaner motors, on steroids. They make my Fesool CT33 seem like a toy.

[michael_schwartz]

I have two of these under my machine and they outperform a friends 20hp blower. Ametek 116765-13

I was really surprised with the performance of two motors. I will upgrade to 4 some day.

I was rather discouraged with idea of trying this at first because there are no shortage of guys who will tell you that you simply can't get away with anything less than 15-20 HP on a 4x8 table. They will warn you that they still have trouble with holding small parts using a 30HP blower. I suppose there is some truth to this if you run big iron, but It is amazing what you can do with the equivalent of 1-2 HP, on a shoestring budget.

[knight_toolworks]

I was really surprised with the performance of two motors. I will upgrade to 4 some day.

I got discouraged at first because there are no shortage of guys who will tell you that you simply can't get away with anything less than 15-20 HP on a 4x8 table. They will warn you that they still have trouble with holding small parts using a 30HP blower. I suppose there is some ruth to this if you run big iron, but It is amazing what you can do with the equivalent of 1-2 HP, on a shoestring budget.

it's because they are cutting at 14 ips or more. I cut a lot of small parts and just use a downcut bit.

[michael_schwartz]

it's because they are cutting at 14 ips or more. I cut a lot of small parts and just use a downcut bit.

And the irony is my jog speeds are set at roughly half of that (8IPS)