Tickled Pink, 2nd hand store score

JTknives

JTknives

Joined
Jun 11, 2006
Messages
8,651
So I busted my harbour fright angle grinder and been needing a new one. I told the wife last night that I wanted to stop in at the local 2nd hand store down the street and see if I can find one. Well I found more then I went there for and I'm tickled pink. After some haggling I paid $130 and loaded the car. What I ended up with for the $130 was a nice old black and decker angle grinder (no plastic), I kick ass super high pressure blower (old texture spray gun) and a ridged 400 pipe threader. I waited till I was back home befor I started jumping around. It's funny because all 3 of these things have been on my list of things I need. The pipe threader aka Damascus twister was just a dream. I have had problems wit my verticle forge blower not putting out the air/pressure I need to reach welding temps. Well this new blower puts out so much pressure that putting you hand over it and sealing it is quite difacult. Below is a few pictures of my treasures and a video of using the blower on the forge to check welding temp.
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After a little reworking of the burner we are rather set I think.

 
Holy crap. Thy still make this same blower and it's rather pricy. But what shocked me is the output stats. Can that really be 40" water, that's close to 1.5psi? I mean I does feal abnormally powerful, not in volume but in pressure.
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That blower looks awesome but how do you get close enough to the forge to use it?
 
If you really want to do the happy dance, check out what people are asking for those pipe threaders on EvilBay nowadays!!!!! :eek: That blower looks like the turbocharger from a tugboat engine. LOL
 
Some fine picking you found there, I live in a picking/finding desert!
 
Impressive haul.

The blower looks to be a brushed "universal" motor. I assume that's a cover over the brush holder on the top (Left side in your pic) and that there's another on the bottom? For a conventional centrifugal fan with a 2-pole induction motor to develop 40” WC at 3600 RPM, it would need an impeller 20” or more in diameter, so the motor on yours seems sure to run faster than mains frequency and that suggests a universal motor.

It is certainly giving more than you need at present. It should be easy to control its output with a cheap router speed controller and there are unlikely to be any problems with cooling when running at reduced speed. With fans, the flow varies as the speed, the pressure rise varies as the square of the speed and the absorbed power varies as the cube of the speed. Halve the speed, you'll halve the flow and use one-eighth the power. It gives the motor a much easier life than a constant-torque application (grinder?) at low speed: easy enough that the router speed control works well. It's worth dropping the speed for the noise reduction alone and the reduced gas consumption will pay for the speed controller within hours.

The old B & D industrial kit does tend to last well and it feels really solid. I love it for occasional use, but you'll really notice how much better the modern stuff is for both weight and vibration if you need to spend a few hours using it. It seems to be a sander, rather than a grinder. What speed does it run? If it is a grinder, find or make a guard for it.

There's not much to say about the pipe threader beyond "serious envy".
 
yeah its a brushed motor and it sounds like a vacume or other very high speed tool. I have two ways i could slow it. I have a PWM speed controller i was using on my other blower. Its small and so i will have to check to see if it can handle the amps. I also have a large Varac that would handle the amps.
 
Ok I tryied the PWM and it works like a charm. It has a small pot to adjust the lowest it will go. If you go to far the motor stops. But it gives me plenty of range now and I can run with the pressure regulator all the way backed off and the ball valve 1/2 shut. Still have to have the air damper all the way shut but at least I can hear my self think.
 
WOW, just tryied the varac and so much better. I can go down to a crawl and the speed is smooth. The PWM is kinda rough. You could hear the speed going up and down, like it was not stable. I'm sure I need to replace the bearings in this blower as thy sound alittle gritty but man. Unless some one yells stop don't use the varac this is what I'm going with. It's 10amps and the blower says it's 4amps on the data plate. Also I can have the air dampener all the way open.
 
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