*UPDATE* Wall mount HFDC motor/blower - suggestion? (pics)

[Jeremy Gibson]

I've been running some PVC duct in my garage for about a year (yes, I'm very slow) to connect to a HF dust collector. I'm trying to avoid the 90 degree (or 2-45's) turn from a vertical drop in the ducting to the blower inlet by mounting the motor / blower to my garage wall. Here is what I'm thinking of doing:

• Screw 2/4's vertically into the wall studs (walls are covered with drywall) in the 18" space next to the overhead door opening
• Screw 3/4" plywood to the 2/4's
• Bolt the motor / blower to the plywood using the stock HF supports
• Support the now horizontal fan housing with heavy duty shelf brackets from the hardware store

The brackets are my main concern. Would they be strong enough with most of the weight supported by the bolts through the plywood? I was thinking of bolting the brackets to the ply but just resting the fan housing on the top of the bracket with some rubber or gasket material. I suppose I could also cut and bolt angle iron to make my own bracket, but would rather use something pre-made for convenience.

If anyone else has done this, pics are always appreciated.

[Matt Meiser]

What about building a sturdy shelf from 2x4's and plywood with diagonal bracing. I did that to mount a dehumidifier up on the wall in my storage area so that it could drain through a pipe I ran out the wall.

[Jeremy Gibson]

Well, I went ahead and did it. It seemed I just kept taking the original configuration appart more and more, but the results look pretty good to me.

The motor/blower is mounted to a piece of 3/4" ply with bolts and locking nuts and lag bolts. The ply is screwed to 2/4's that are screwed to the wall studs. The brackets are lagged through the ply and into the 2/4, but not attached to the blower in any way. I applied a strip of weather stripping to the top of the brackets to reduce the vibration.

I also replaced the metal base that came with the unit with 3/4" ply, but reused the same castors. I also rotated the bag supports to "aim" the inlet toward the discharge outlet on the blower. Finally, I cut down the 5" flex hose that came with the unit to the shorter length needed. It is not a straight shot, but not as bad as I had feared.

I turned it on briefly and let a handful of sawdust go into the fan. No vibration from the new mounting and it sucked real good. Now to finish my duct work and make a new 6" inlet and blast gates.

Thanks for looking!

[glenn bradley]

I'd say it looks great.

[Bart Leetch]

Check this out. It may be of some help to those needing more CFM.

http://www.phoenixwood.ca/forum/inde...topic=481&st=0

[Keith Beck]

Jeremy,

Interesting modification. Shortening and straightening your exhaust port should give you some boost in performance and the straight shot into your intake should help too. Would like to hear if you notice any improvement. If you don't mind, I may steal your idea since I have the same DC. I'd also like to see pics of the final product when you get all your piping up.

BTW, is that a Wynn filter you've installed? How do you like it? I've heard pros and cons to adding a filter over a bag, what are your thoughts?

Keith

[Terry Hatfield]

Jeremy,

I'd say your mods will definitely help the performance. Nice job. I can't remember if the blower inlet on the HF is 5" or 6". If it's 5" increasing to 6" would boost performance greatly but you need to monitor the amp draw of the motor so you don't let the smoke out of it. I assume you are plumbing the ducts with 6" PVC?

Terry

[Mike Cutler]

I hate it when someone is smarter than me.

I'm stealing you're idea bro'. I've been struggling with my Jet DC1100 for a awhile now, and here is the solution.

Nice work Jeremy. I would have never thought about mounting the blower independent of the bags.

[Allan Johanson]

Hi Jeremy,

As Terry said, you really need to measure the amp draw to make sure you aren't going to overload the motor. Your blower outlet mod will help a little bit (shorter length of flex hose, no 90* turn with flex hose), but the inlet increase will make much more of a difference and I suspect will make your motor sad over time. Please check it. The reason the similar blower relocation mod we did as shown in Bart's link flowed much more air was because we made a much larger blower outlet.

FYI, I know that most folks say having a 90* elbow at the inlet to a DC is a very bad thing, but I haven't found that yet. I tried a very controlled test with a generic 2HP DC where I had two duct runs using identical pieces, a bunch of straight pipe and one 90* elbow.

I measured the airflow with the elbow at the inlet and again with the elbow farther away from the inlet. According to the folks out there, the elbow at the inlet should have flowed less air. Not so. It flowed more air when placed at the inlet compared to being farther away.

I'm going to test this with different fan styles to see if I can find a correlation between fan style and performance. Why bother? Don't ask.

In any case since you have completely removed the elbow your performance will go up a bit. And every little bit helps.

Cheers,

Allan

[Jeremy Gibson]

Check this out. It may be of some help to those needing more CFM.

http://www.phoenixwood.ca/forum/inde...topic=481&st=0

Bart, that's a much better solution than the one I cobbled together. I'm not much of a metal worker but I may get some help from a neighbor if I decide to move to this solution.

Thanks for the link!

[Jeremy Gibson]

Jeremy,

Interesting modification. Shortening and straightening your exhaust port should give you some boost in performance and the straight shot into your intake should help too. Would like to hear if you notice any improvement. If you don't mind, I may steal your idea since I have the same DC. I'd also like to see pics of the final product when you get all your piping up.

BTW, is that a Wynn filter you've installed? How do you like it? I've heard pros and cons to adding a filter over a bag, what are your thoughts?

Keith

Keith,

Yes, the wynn filter went on right after I bought the DC. I may still have the HF bags around...but then again they may be in the land fill. From what I read hear and on other sites I knew I didn't want to run with the standard bags at all. I was really pleased with the Wynn kit and it went on without a hitch.

I should be doing more duct work today. Yesterday I cut an MDF donut (mmmm, donuts) and glued some 6" PVC to it. Today I made a trip to the hardware store for 12 7mm bolts, 25mm long. That will be the new inlet replacing the 5" stock piece.

[Jeremy Gibson]

Jeremy,

I'd say your mods will definitely help the performance. Nice job. I can't remember if the blower inlet on the HF is 5" or 6". If it's 5" increasing to 6" would boost performance greatly but you need to monitor the amp draw of the motor so you don't let the smoke out of it. I assume you are plumbing the ducts with 6" PVC?

Terry

Thanks Terry. Yes, the stock inlet was 5" with a removable splitter for 2-4" ports. I've made an MDF donut and will be plumbing with 6" S/D PVC.

It may seem illogical to ask after making these mods, but what tool is used to monitor the amp draw? I've got it running on a dedicated 20 amp circuit now, but I realize the issue isn't with the breaker but with burning out the motor.

[Jeremy Gibson]

I hate it when someone is smarter than me.

I'm stealing you're idea bro'. I've been struggling with my Jet DC1100 for a awhile now, and here is the solution.

Nice work Jeremy. I would have never thought about mounting the blower independent of the bags.

Thanks Mike. I can't take too much credit since I saw other pics and descriptions of the same thing. In face, the link Bart provided was another good example.

I also am space constrained and didn't want the DC sticking out from the wall which would be required with a 90 degree turn. So I think I've saved some space and increased the air flow a bit.

[Bart Leetch]

Jeremy,

Interesting modification. Shortening and straightening your exhaust port should give you some boost in performance and the straight shot into your intake should help too. Would like to hear if you notice any improvement. If you don't mind, I may steal your idea since I have the same DC. I'd also like to see pics of the final product when you get all your piping up.

BTW, is that a Wynn filter you've installed? How do you like it? I've heard pros and cons to adding a filter over a bag, what are your thoughts?

Keith

Not my idea but I'll be converting my DC to the configuration one day. This picture shows the current configuration of my DC. I am waiting on the fellow that wrote the article because he is going to rebuild a Grizzly G1029 to this configuration. I have the filter from Grizzly on top of my DC.

[Terry Hatfield]

Thanks Terry. Yes, the stock inlet was 5" with a removable splitter for 2-4" ports. I've made an MDF donut and will be plumbing with 6" S/D PVC.

It may seem illogical to ask after making these mods, but what tool is used to monitor the amp draw? I've got it running on a dedicated 20 amp circuit now, but I realize the issue isn't with the breaker but with burning out the motor.

Jeremy,

Ahhh,...very good. The 6" inlet will make a significant difference but does mean you need to make sure about the amp load. The required tool is an ammeter. Available for cheap at Harbor Freight etc... I got mine at Lowes. It was around $25 IIRC. You simply open the box on the side of the motor and clamp the ammeter around one of the leads and turn on the DC. You will need the system to be complete or at least some of the runs complete as the amount of ductwork and it's effeciencey will have a significant impact on the amp load at the motor. I would test with one gate open at a time as that will most likely be the way you will operate the system. My cyclone with 5 hp. Leeson compressor motor will actually pull more than the 20.8 amps it's rated for with all the gates open but is safely under with around 18 amps with only 2 gates open. As long as you are under the motor's rating with one or two gates open you'll be fine as long as you operate the system that way. Here's a couple pics that hopefully will help.


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