sawdust blower?? pic

[twobears]

 heres a pic of a blower my dad had kicking around.it,s 24 inchs acrossed and 9 inchs wide.it has a motor mount bracket on the back and the pulley (six inch or close single belt? if i build a steel case around it do you guys thing it would blow my sawdust?



i,am building a chain convoyer to catch my sawdust.i have it 7 inches wide and as long as my mill.i plan on catching the saw dust in that convoyer then run it into a blower and getting it away from my building.
what do ya think??

outdoorsman for life
delbert

[MattWatson]

Yes for sure. You just need to get a big enough motor to move the fan.

Take a look at this website for some plans. It is for building a custom dust collector, but to make just a blower, just build the cowl around your impeller and have it blow straight out instead of using a collector after it The site has some plans and you will just have to scale them up for your big impeller. It uses a 13" one I think....

Website is: http://billpentz.com/woodworking/cyclone/BudBlower.cfm

As for blowing the sawdust... if you put the right size motor on it, that thing will toss the dust a ways away.

Good luck!

Matt Watson


Matt Watson

[Don P]

Most material handlers I've seen had radial blades, oriented like spokes. It doesn't look like it would clog though. What did this fan do?

[twobears]

i believe it was a vent fan in a underground mine.i really can,t see it plugging up on just sawdust.
i looked at that other link and he has a blower made like this one only smaller...thanks for the replys.

outdoorsman for life
delbert

[MattWatson]

Most material handlers I've seen had radial blades, oriented like spokes. It doesn't look like it would clog though. What did this fan do?

You are right. There is whats called an areofoil impeller which that one looks like. It looks fairly substantial, so it may last or not... The sawdust that a bandmill puts out shouldn't hurt it.

It seems like the blocks and larger chips are the huge problem associated with them.

Everyone that is interested in building their own sawdust blower can buy impellers for a couple 100$ from several suppliers. These are the radial ones that are almost bomb proof. The site above has suppliers and such.

[mike_van]

Delbert, it's a lot of work for something that may not work at all.  If you want to move "dirty" air [sawdust, chips, whatever] you need a radial fan blower.  The "blades" on this one will slowly coat on the back edges with sticky sawdust until it barley moves air.  Even a simple blower off a Trac Vac lawn vacumn will do a better job than this giant.  The ammount of hp to run this old one, the shape of the housing, size of the pipe, etc. are all in question, you could work on it for weeks and have lousy performance when it's all done.  I'd vote NO, leave it where it sits.

[Don P]

Well, if you do try it and it doesn't work, for my blower, I took one that was similar but had closer blades from an industrial AC unit. cut the blades off and kept the heavy circular plate and then welded on 8 radial blades from 1/8" plate. The bearings were good in the motor so I kept hand spinning it to check balance, not perfect but it has worked fine. It has taken some pretty good hits from knots/branch stubs. I used Dave Gingery's book on shop fans from Lindsay publications as a guide.

[JimBuis]

I would use it, but I'd spend a bit of time with paper and pencil to plan it first.  The shape and tolerances of the shroud will be a huge determining factor in its efficiency.

IMHO,
Jim

[Dana]

If you live near farm country it would seem like an old sileage blower would work great. Anyone done that?

[RichlandSawyer]

hey delbert, goodmorning to you.

  I would have to agree with Jim, do plenty of research. A fan that size is gonna need a blast gate to reduce air flow. Two reasons for that, one you'll have so much vacuum you'll be sucking up kids and small farm animals and two if running wide open you'll need a 40 horse motor to turn that thing over.

[Corley5]

I've seen old sileage blowers sell for as little 15 bucks with pipe. 

[Ron Wenrich]

Some of the biggest problems we have had with blowers is the abrasive nature of sawdust.  I have blown holes in pipes and shrouds and have washed out blower blades. 

Dust drags work equally as well.  I have made them out of old cornpicker chain and taken them to a pole with a sprocket on top.  Very low power requirements and blocks, knots and slabs won't phase it. 

[karl]

I've made a bunch of stuff with scrap parts before- and creating a blower is do-able, but I'm gonna go with Ron on this one. Think you'd be better off with a conveyer - take less power than that monster, and yer dust can be contained in a pile/trailer/truck/whatever without blowing all over the surrounding acreage especially if you have any wind in your area. Quieter too.

karl

[Jason_WI]

That type of blower that you have is made for moving air and only air. It will eventually plug up and quit blowing.


My sawdust blower is made from the blower out of a silo unloader. My uncle made it and must have thought it needed to be built to withstand a nuke blast cause it weighs a ton!!! It handles bark chunks no problem.

See pictures here:






And Here:




My setup:




Jason

[Corley5]

Jason,  What size, rpm motor is that and what speed is the blower turning ???   

[highpockets]

Delbert,  I think that you have a blower that is going to be too big for what you want plus drawing a lot of h.p.  My ballpark guess is 15-20 h.p..  My thinking is that you'd be money ahead to buy a blade from the folks mentioned and build the case.  Just my idea. 

[Larry]

Corley5, I built one quite similar to Jason's using a blower off old farm equipment.  To figure HP and RPM I got our very own Don P to put together a calculator.

Don P blower calculator

It is also in the tool box on the left.

Play with it a little and you will soon see big fans are better and can be turned at a slower speeds.  And a word of advice...don't let your cat wander to close to the intake when testing. ;D :D ;D :D ;D 

[Fla._Deadheader]

Got a cat missing there, Larry.  : : :D :D

[Larry]

Neah, he landed on his feet...way out in Kansas but managed to find his way back home. ;D ;D ;D

[twobears]

guys thanks for the replys.i did find that blower calculator and i checked out that other blower site.
after looking that stuff over i think i,am going to try it.on that bower  site he has one post about building a blower jst like i want but smaller.i think it was a 12 blower mines a 24 inch.i,ll just read that over very close and then build mine.
a drag chain wouldn,t work in my mill theres no room for it with the way i had to lay things out.but,i think a big blower would.this one is so big i think i can cleanup all of the equipment i,ll one day have.
it,s fairly heavy built but,i plan on putting screens in place to catch the big stuff.
after reading thur the info,i think i can turn a big blower slow and still move alot of air/sawdut and the way the blower calculator figures out a smaller motor will run it .i plan on running my mill with about 99% electric power so it,s no biggy.

delbert

[RichlandSawyer]

Delbert, one more thing.
  I havent had a chance to check out the blower site so i'm not sure if they covered it but as you noticed from the calculator  fans work in a curve. they have a drop off point. you can slow a fan only so much then there is nothing and its different for different types of fans. The calculator will not show you were that drop off point is. Dont get me wrong i'm not trying to discourage you. I think people give up on old stuff too easy. I just want to make sure you get all the facts so you dont give up on a low budget project.

Goodluck and keep us posted!!

RichlandSawyer

[pigman]

Slabs, yes I tried to use a 4in flex auger to move my sawdust.  The auger moved the dust alright but I could not find a way to get the sawdust to drop in the auger. It would move the sawdust directly above it but I had to constantly push the dust over to it. I now use a 2hp dust collector and a plastic flex pipe hooked directly to my bandmill.

[Corley5]

This is the Dayton blower I want to rig up to get the sawdust away from the firewood processor when it's set up in the barnyard or in a building.  I paid 10 bucks for it at the auction in Harrison where I bought my 372 and some white pine cookies for Jeff.  My original plan was to use it for planer shavings.  All it needs is motor.  The bearings seem fine.  I was lucky this winter in that we were able to get to the woods most of the winter with tractor to dispose of the sawdust.  That doesn't happen very often up here.  I want to be able to blow it into a big pile to be hauled away in the spring or into someone's trailer for animal bedding.  I've also thought of blowing it into a building to keep it dry until it could be loaded out.  Here's the pile of sawdust and other debris from the past winter.




Here's my dump operator.  He pushed the button for every load 8)  Loading and hauling 7 loads in the Gator wasn't as efficient as the tractor and loader bucket but we had a good time ;) ;D.  I always said I'd be glad when the day came that I could tell him to get his stuff and get in the truck and now it's here.  The last four years has flown by  :

[Furby]

PTO powered! ;) ;D

[Jason_WI]

Corley5,

I think I have a 1.5 HP 1725 RPM motor on it. I am going to put a 2 hp motor on it and maybe speed it up a little. Not sure what the blower is turning at.

Jason