Black Box Vac Source

[Brady Watson]

Very strange...I can see the pics just fine from either computer I tried...I uploaded them to the forum 'bucket'...

Let's try this again:



Valve Open


Valve Closed

[Brady Watson]

[Brady Watson]

Sorry...but you'll have to refer back to Page 2 and read the write-up I sent Gary for the pics to make sense. It's too long to re-post here...

-B

[road_king]

I can see the pics now posted. Thanks.... I've been thinking about setting up a vacuum and I think this is what I will end up with. Thanks again!!

Gerald

[Gary Campbell]

Brady...
Even my old eyes can see 'em now!

Kenneth....
The first switch I tried did just that... short cycled. As soon as they came on... they went off. I tested a coule different ones that I had and found one with about 3 inHg differential. That did the trick. My first only had about 1.5" swing.

Differential is the difference between the on and off switch points. An example would be an air compressor. Comes on at 100 psi, goes off at 135 psi. Differential is 35#. Only a high end vac switch has a differential setting. On Joe WW site its advertised as 1-5 inHg.

[cip]

Gary; After reading your post about the noise still not being as quiet as you would like I had a conversation with one of my clients, an acoustics company, about the problem. One of the things that they said was never use round holes unless it's really necessary. Something about the round causes a turbulence and hence noise. Use oval of even better square with a baffle if possible. I looked at the mufflers that I bought for the vac motors and sure enough they were square. They also said the air noise is one the hardest to eliminate unless one can completely seal the unit and we know that this isn't possible due to the heat factor. Maybe this will help for future development.

Mike

[Gary Campbell]

Mike...
Long time no see! How are things in WPB?

Please understand, no piece of equipment that I own is as quiet as I would like. "The Box" is only about as loud as a shopvac. Quieter than my small dust collector or air compressor, MUCH quieter than the big DC, planer etc.

I prefer to enjoy the power and not expend energy trying to quiet things down in a room where I wear hearing protection.

[Gary Campbell]

My vac gauge came in. Now the LV control panel is complete. (for now)

We are going to add solenoid control of the zone valves and zone indicators in the future.

Here is a pic

[ward]

WOW, I have not looked for a long time to see what you are doing with our Lighthouse Brand motors. What a beautiful addition to your Shop Bot table.

Your creativity never seems to end - Great Job!

[Gary Campbell]

Ward...
Thanks for the more than kind words. This project becomes easy when using motors with as much "snot" as these have. Thanks for the advice.

I have just upgraded to SMC digital switches for the motor switching. having a very predictable set point is much better. The good news is that I am getting 8.6 inHg with a covered spoilboard. This is only a little less than I was getting during the closed pipe testing. (a little over 9 on an analog gauge) This is as expected for our altitude and inherent leakage when using a spoilboard.

Thanks again