I am building Bill's "Budget Blower" using the 5hp Leeson motor and the 14" Sheldon impeller and have a question about the spacing between the impeller and the motor.
I mounted the impeller on the motor shaft by sliding the tapered fitting on until its top end aligns to the top end of the key in the motor shaft. (This assumes that the orientation of the motor/impeller assembly is the same as it would be in operation.)
After I tighten the three small bolts of the tapered fitting, I find that I have 1 5/8" between the top of the impeller and the bottom of the metal motor plate. Bill's drawings show this dimension to be 7/8". Therefore, the spacing between the top MDF and the impeller will be 1 1/4" rather than 1/2" shown in Bill's drawing. (The MDF is 3/8" thick under the metal motor plate.)
I contacted the Electric Motor Warehouse since I thought they may have sent me the wrong motor. They responded as follows: "This motor has a standard 145TC frame size, which has a standard shaft size of 7/8" diameter and 2 1/4" length. We have not had any problems with this motor and Bill's design, so you should be ok."
Of course, I can adjust the width of the sheet metal spiral to accomodate the extra spacing.
My questions are:
1) Have other people seen this spacing in their systems? That is, 1 1/4" between the top of the impeller and the bottom of the MDF.
2) Does the extra 3/4" of spacing affect blower operation? (My guess is that it won't but I am not sure of this.)
Thanks,
Dale Critchlow