aschutsky
04-20-2014, 10:37 AM
After a month or so of build time (sadly) my vac setup is mostly complete. Free time has been limited with a busy work schedule (the bot is a hobby for me) and a 7 month old in the house. :p
Details: 4 X lighthouse 7123 motors in 240V configuration in Gary Campbell's 'blackbox' design. DIY filter box housing a Rigid shopvac filter on the end of a 4" pipe. Enclosures made from 23/32" "cabinet grade" ply from home depot. I used an electrical sub panel with 4 X 10A 240V breakers to control and protect each motor. I'm using a 4 zone setup with ultralite MDF bleeder board. The bleeder board has foil tape around it to seal the edges (as per Brady - thanks!).
Testing: I haven't run them for more than 5-6 minutes but they seem to pull a lot of air! With all zones closed and without the filter box in line I pull about ~8" hg. Adding the filter box in the mix adds a bit of restriction and it will pull about ~6.5"hg with the zones closed. I tested using a board (roughly 24x18) and 1 zone open with the filter box in the mix and it seems to hold very well! I'll probably experiment with making a larger/more efficient filter enclosure to try to make things more efficient, but this is more than enough to get my cutting sheet goods for now. Also per some recommendations I've seen on here I ordered an indoor/outdoor thermometer to keep an eye on temps. Once that arrives I'll put the cover on the top of the motors on.
Lessons learned: Some of you may have seen my other thread where I had trouble getting the motors running. I had not realized I had tightened the motors down too much and all 4 of them were rubbing and 2 of them were completely stuck! With just a few seconds of test time I had lost one of the motor to heat. It is very important that you run the gaskets with the motors and check them freewheel to ensure there is no restrictions!!! Fortunately Ward took care of me and I was up and running in no time. I believe he is going to require the gaskets be included with the motors now.
Pics - note many of these were taken before the gaskets were in place!
http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u12/aschutsky/shopbot%20vac%20table/9D63146A-3570-415A-AADA-09974390AC77_zpsfqm4d5nf.jpg
http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u12/aschutsky/shopbot%20vac%20table/6BA9F8A0-4DCF-43C4-9000-24B34E7E5BC2_zpsddllro84.jpg
http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u12/aschutsky/shopbot%20vac%20table/B7D1F2A8-60DF-4F45-A150-903C66DB2C43_zpsqfeoyi6x.jpg
Details: 4 X lighthouse 7123 motors in 240V configuration in Gary Campbell's 'blackbox' design. DIY filter box housing a Rigid shopvac filter on the end of a 4" pipe. Enclosures made from 23/32" "cabinet grade" ply from home depot. I used an electrical sub panel with 4 X 10A 240V breakers to control and protect each motor. I'm using a 4 zone setup with ultralite MDF bleeder board. The bleeder board has foil tape around it to seal the edges (as per Brady - thanks!).
Testing: I haven't run them for more than 5-6 minutes but they seem to pull a lot of air! With all zones closed and without the filter box in line I pull about ~8" hg. Adding the filter box in the mix adds a bit of restriction and it will pull about ~6.5"hg with the zones closed. I tested using a board (roughly 24x18) and 1 zone open with the filter box in the mix and it seems to hold very well! I'll probably experiment with making a larger/more efficient filter enclosure to try to make things more efficient, but this is more than enough to get my cutting sheet goods for now. Also per some recommendations I've seen on here I ordered an indoor/outdoor thermometer to keep an eye on temps. Once that arrives I'll put the cover on the top of the motors on.
Lessons learned: Some of you may have seen my other thread where I had trouble getting the motors running. I had not realized I had tightened the motors down too much and all 4 of them were rubbing and 2 of them were completely stuck! With just a few seconds of test time I had lost one of the motor to heat. It is very important that you run the gaskets with the motors and check them freewheel to ensure there is no restrictions!!! Fortunately Ward took care of me and I was up and running in no time. I believe he is going to require the gaskets be included with the motors now.
Pics - note many of these were taken before the gaskets were in place!
http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u12/aschutsky/shopbot%20vac%20table/9D63146A-3570-415A-AADA-09974390AC77_zpsfqm4d5nf.jpg
http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u12/aschutsky/shopbot%20vac%20table/6BA9F8A0-4DCF-43C4-9000-24B34E7E5BC2_zpsddllro84.jpg
http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u12/aschutsky/shopbot%20vac%20table/B7D1F2A8-60DF-4F45-A150-903C66DB2C43_zpsqfeoyi6x.jpg