Category: Workshop

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!

Today, while half the work force is away at a meeting, the vacuum system was continued to be created and assembled. The various holes and boxing were created, the motor units mounted and electrically tested, and each module having rubber draught excluder stuck down around all the edges to seal the various chambers.

The two boxes are now connected together, the vortex and “big” stuff collection box and the motor units and the “small” stuff collection box as you can see in the photo.
We have hooked one motor up for a real test run and oh wow, what a suck! Grin! We went around the workshop and vacuumed lots of surfaces, large pieces, dust and wood bits and pieces and all was sucked up. Opening up the final “small” stuff collection box to inspect the filters and what was in there, and it revealed very little stuff! Just a few particles blown into the corners and a little bit on the paper filters themselves and that it! Very good indeed!! Excellent Stuff!
So to finish off this little project, we just need to put in dampening material inside the motor unit chamber to reduce the bouncing noise and put on a lid with switches to control one or both motors, and maybe need to put a box around the vortex module as well to keep the noise down too. We will see!

While the rain came down, we went back and continued with the construction of our new workshop Vacuum system. We started building up the boxing and chambers it will need for the two separate filters and non-return flappy valves. We now have the filter box made with two attachments to hold the two paper cylinder filters, a sharing layer so that if one motor is only running, then both filters are always being used to reduce the airflow through each filter and hence reduce the speed which the filters will block up. The next layer is where the non-return valves will be situated but sofar we have just made the boxing and glued it together.
Tomorrow, holes will be made to let the air through, both up and down, and the motors then can be fitted on top.

This afternoon, while we waited for the glue to dry on the rafters, we carried on with the construction of a new vacuum system. It is a non-mobile system, using a vortex separator and twin motors to provide the suction power.
The first larger chamber has been made using the vortex column and this will collect all the bigger and heavier rubbish being sucked up and then a second chamber to collect everything else down to fine dust size. Today, we were building the second chamber that will have two cylindrical paper filters, two suction motors and a box to collect the smaller particles of rubbish.

We will carry on when we have another loose moment in our work schedule to finish it off later in the week and install it into our saw table. We will also buy new quality extension pipes so we can clean the rest of the workshop too.