These last two days have seen more work on the new Vacuum System for the workshop. Yesterday saw the electrical wiring, switches and sockets being fitted to the machine module (housing the two motor units). The idea is to have a high current 32Amp lead coming from the utility rail to enter into the box, split into two 13Amps lines. One for the vacuum motors and the other line, via a socket on the back of the unit, going onto to the work table, next to the vacuum pipe.
A rotating switch (taken from an old fan heater) provides the means to switch one or both motors into action, to provide two levels of vacuum power. This is not exactly correct way to describe this as the level of the vacuum doesn’t change when both motors are running, but what actually happens is, there is a great increase in air flow and this feels as if it has a higher vacuum power. It is more true to say that it is a case of how fast the air moves up through the pipes and the faster the air gets “sucked” up the pipe, the broader the effect of materials being caught and dragged along with the air and disappearing up the pipe!
One result of all the unit being connected together (the vortex separator chamber and motor unit), is the noise! The motor noise is not so bad and we could reduce the noise with some wadding inside the motor unit, but the loudest noise was coming from the Vortex Separator chamber! It was very loud, like a tornado .. which is what it is!! We probably will build a box around the vortex unit and put more wadding inside to keep some of the noise in – We Hope!
The last job of the day was to electrically connect the new “second” line to the work table so we can immediately continue to make use of the equipment in and around the table. The final task left to do, is the vacuum 50mm hard plastic pipe that comes across the floor from the box, and redesigning the existing pipework (this providing the connections to various equipment for collecting the saw dust and the like) so everything is joined up and ready to Go Go Go!