Airfoil Blower

Table of Contents
(click on topic to go there)
A. Caution
B. Foreword
C. Introduction
D. Building Instructions
1. Blower Template
2. Blower Top & Bottom
3. Blower Holes
4. Metal Sizes
5. Bolt Holes
6. Mount Motor
7. Completed Blower
E. Testing
F. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
G. Disclaimer


A. Caution
The purpose of this site is to share what I have learned with other
woodworkers about the hazards of wood dust and what I did to help
protect myself and my family. This particular page steps you through
the process I used to build a blower. A blower is a powerful high-speed
device that if you build wrong could cause serious injury or damage.
Please read the following disclaimer.
B. Foreword
Although I very much like the idea of an almost twice as efficient
impeller, most cannot use an airfoil impeller safely and they are not
readily available. There are two major problems with airfoil
impellers. Unlike a self cleaning material handling impeller, airfoil
impellers have tops making them caged impellers. This means they can
build up wood shavings and stringy material. When they do this they
can become badly out of balance. Worse, typical airfoil impellers have
bad stalling and buffeting problems when the pressure gets over about
6. A one car garage sized shop will have a maximum pressure of
about 7 even with very carefully chosen large ducting. I worked with
Paul Payton of Sheldons engineering and came up with a center vane
in the airfoil that keeps this impeller from stalling up to about 8. With
an average two car garage sized shop running about 10 of static
pressure, we cannot use an airfoil impeller in shops larger than a
one car garage. When the airfoil impeller gets out of balance or
begins buffeting it can quickly ruin motor bearings and even cause
these impellers to explosively fly apart. Even if you meet these needs,
unfortunately Sheldons Engineering, the firm I had making the custom
extra heavy duty airfoil impellers was sold and the new owners have
discontinued selling these units.
C. Introduction
I did considerable homework on cyclones and dust collection that convinced
me the key factors to effective dust collection were good tool hoods, efficient
ducting, a blower that moved ample air able to overcome the resistance of our
system static pressure, venting outside when the weather permits and
otherwise venting inside into certified fine filters, and using a good cyclone. I
strongly recommend that you either build my cyclone design or buy a kit from
us because only the 5 hp small cyclone move ample air and none of the small
shop cyclone provide ample separation to work with good fine filters. Most
actually come with 10-micron filters which the vendors misrepresent as 1-
micron filters. It is the 10-micron and finer dust which not only quickly clogs
and ruins our filters, this same dust is well studied and the peer reviewed
medical studies are clear that this same sized dust is responsible for causing
the most long term damage to our respiratory systems. If this does not make
good sense, then please read my Dust Collection Basics pages. My Dust
Collection Basics page covers much of what a hobbyist woodworker should
know about collecting the dust in their workshop. That Basics page explains
much of how airflow works and gives blower capabilities and tables for air
requirements thanks to some generous support by Chris O'Connor, APC Sales
Manager for AAF, a professional air engineering firm that designs industrial
dust collection systems.

This page furthers my efforts with a very efficient blower design that you can
build yourself quite inexpensively. In fact, the cost of a full cyclone system
using this approach should be about the same as buying a 2-hp dust collector
that will pick up the chips, but not protect your health.
D. Requirements
You are welcome to go to my other pages for detailed explanations, but the
bottom line is we need a blower that will not just move 1000 CFM, but will
move that 1000 CFM against the overhead resistance of our shops. We can get
by with just 450 CFM to our larger tools if we just want to do chip
collection meaning keep our floor clear of the sawdust and chips we would
otherwise sweep up with a broom. If we move 800 CFM to our larger tools
and we upgrade tool ports and hoods we will be able to meet the OSHA air
quality standards. Unfortunately, even our own government says those OSHA
standards are dated and the EPA says we should at least meet the five times
tougher ACGIH standards. The medical community has long pushed for a
standard that is fifty times tougher than the current OSHA standard and this
much tougher standard is already the standard in Europe. I think it is foolish to
build a blower that moves less air than is needed to meet the higher standard.

My testing shows that if you don't start by upgrading your hoods, you are
not going to successfully collect the finest unhealthiest dust as it is made
no matter how big the blower. The issue is our blades, bits and cutters often
launch the fine dust at over 100 miles an hour and even our biggest blowers
rarely provide more than about 40 miles an hour air speed, so step one is
fixing the hoods. Likewise, if you don't use at least 6" or larger ducting, pipes,
and flex hose going right to each of our larger machines you will not move the
needed airflow. Smaller diameters will restrict the maximum cubic feet per
minute (CFM) airflow that your system can support to around 450 CFM with
4" duct and about 650 CFM with 5" duct. I can't believe so many
woodworkers get "tricked" as I was into buying a nice 2 or 3 hp dust collector
then run it through an inefficient 4" flex hose that limits the CFM at their
machines to around 450. Likewise, if you don't exhaust the air outside or use
really good low back pressure filters, you are not going to get rid of that fine
dust. By using a static pressure calculator that computes the overall resistance
my system built with 4 ducting computed out to have over 13 of resistance
and that resistance dropped to 8.5 with 6 ducting. Using my Dwyer 2010
Magnehelic gauge it tested at 7.5 for its longest run. This goes to show that
the calculators only provide an estimate. Checking a material movement fan
table said I could just get the 800 CFM I needed with a 2 HP 3450 RPM motor
turning a 12 diameter impeller. Testing with my new Baldor 2 hp motor and
12" Cincinnati Fan's straight bladed material movement impeller left me upset
because it tried to move too much air and over stressed the motor. My choices
were to buy a bigger motor or choke off the air inlet further killing CFM
performance to make sure I did not burn up my motor.

I choked off the airflow just enough that my largest shortest run put the motor
right at maximum amperage, then kept digging for other possible efficiency
improvements. I slowly straightened out my ducting, replaced the rougher
hoses, and got filters with more surface area, but my new cyclone with all that
effort still did not work as well at just basically collecting the dust as my prior
setup before all that expense and work. I then found a site that had efficiency
spreadsheets on the different types of blower impellers. That site showed that
the 12" material movement impeller I purchased was only going to give me an
efficiency rating of about 40% versus the high-end backward inclined (BI)
blowers and backward curved at closer to 60% and airfoil (AF) impellers at
near 80%. With either the backward inclined, backward curved, or airfoil
impeller, my 2-hp motor would do the job. Unfortunately, airfoil impellers
need a constant supply of air and can stall if the pressure goes over 7 creating
destructive buffeting when they run out of air.

I then learned that there are some other good sources for impellers. Jet Tool's
Customer Service (800) 274-6848 sells replacement 11", 12", and 14" very
good quality, heavy duty backward curved impellers for very reasonable
prices (each under $75 plus about $15 in shipping). You can go to Jet Tools
and look up the DC-1100, DC-1200, or DC-1900 for part numbers. All of
these need custom made arbors because the standard Jet bolt on motor arbors
that attach the impeller to the motor shaft are setup for the Jet tapered metric
motor shafts versus our standard motors with straight keyed shafts generally
with 7/8 diameter shafts. Please don't mess this up for the rest of us by failing
to have your information already all figured out! I bought a 12" DC-1200
impeller and it did not quite move the same as my larger and taller Cincinnati
Fan 12 impeller. With my cyclone adding extra resistance that 12 impeller
left me short of the 800 CFM I needed at my larger tools. I then bought a Jet
DC-1600 14 impeller and that worked like a champ, but needed a real 3 hp
(or so called 5 hp compressor motor to turn it). That was a real problem for me
because my shop and home electrical service were already at maximum. I
could either power my larger tools or my dust collection motor, but not both.
We need an impeller sized to overcome the extra resistance of a cyclone, plus
is made from cast aluminum so it won't spark. Unfortunately they quit selling
these as separate items. Regardless of which of these ways you chose, you end
up with serious bragging rights and a unit that you need to keep pets, small
children and wives away from! For this cyclone article/building plan I thought
I'd try to find a good airfoil then use either the Cincinnati Fan or Jet impeller
as a fallback if it was not successful.

Frankly, my airfoil experiment was a dismal failure. I purchased a total of five
different airfoil impellers all sized just right to move the 800 to 1000 CFM I
wanted through my cyclone. All moved a ton of air until I hooked them up to
my cyclone and ducting. Then I had serious problems. All had severe stalling
and chattering problems beginning at just over 5 of backpressure and by the
time I reached the 7.5 of pressure for my longest run, I was seriously in fear
my blower would self destruct from the terrible noise and vibration. I thought
there should be some way to get an airfoil that did not stall quite so early.

Paul Paton, P.Eng., with Sheldon's Engineering spent quite a bit of his time
listening to my concerns then helping me come up with a solution. We agreed
an airfoil impeller is NOT appropriate for dust collection systems that
have a high static pressure, ducting smaller than 6", or where at least one
blast gate is not always open, but felt a system could be built that would
work well with one. An airfoil needs a steady supply of air without too much
resistance or it stalls. It also requires regular cleaning or can get out of
balance. Either stalling or an out of balance condition can cause destructive
buffeting. That can ruin motor bearings and cause an impeller to explode.
Based on the numbers of hits on my web sites, over eighty five thousand in the
six months before I contacted him, Mr. Paton felt this was a viable market for
his firm and agreed to work with me. He came up with a way to modify his
firm's standard airfoil impeller with extra vanes to minimize the buffeting
problems. By making it a 25-pound monster with special center vanes, he
thought it would be less inclined to stall and the mass from this all steel unit
with thick base and huge steel arbor would minimize the buffeting. For my
shop with its new larger ducting, dual minimal resistance filters, and efficient
cyclone this looked right for me. It promised to be an excellent solution for
other hobbyists as well. I agreed to buy one for testing. He said his firm would
offer that specially modified impeller to those who built my cyclone design at
a very attractive price. He agreed to sell at their quantity 100 price which is
about half of what other airfoil impellers of the same size cost without
modifications. I bought one, tested it with my 7.5 of resistance and it worked
well without the stalling and buffeting problems until the resistance went over
8. That means this is a poor solution for larger shops and for shops
where you are not willing to regularly inspect and clean the impeller to
make sure it does not get out of balance.

My reason for wanting an airfoil impeller is of course that their performance is
phenomenal. A 12" airfoil driven by only a 2 hp motor is rated at 1200 CFM at
7"sp. It produces 1700 CFM at 4", 2000 CFM at 2", and 2250 CFM at 0". The
DC vendors would wrongly advertise these units as 2 hp and 2250 CFM at 7"
static pressure. The problem with an airfoil is when they hit their peak
pressure that is all you get. It will not go higher if you restrict the flow like a
normal fan will. This means that keeping the total system resistance as low as
possible is vital. Once you exceed that static pressure maximum the airfoil
begins to stall because the air begins to bounce from center to outside of the
wheel causing potentially damaging buffeting. That means one blast gate must
stay open at all times. This is one of the tradeoffs we have to make in order to
get much better performance than other impeller types that are stable across
their whole range of static pressures. Another trade off is these impellers will
not tolerate large material hits, only very fine dust so they MUST be used on
the clean side of a cyclone. And the final tradeoff is you have to periodically
clean your impeller so it does not build up a cake of dust and get out of
balance. With my cyclone only generating a few ounces of dust out of the
filters for each full trashcan of sawdust and my doing limited hobbyist
woodworking, I put a note on my calendar to check it once a quarter. After
using it for a while I'll share what seems to be a more reasonable frequency.


The solution to ensuring that there is always enough airflow so the
airfoil will not stall is to either built a trap that will open if the static
pressure gets too high or use what is known as a barometric dampener
as pictured here. This store bought unit is a touch pricey at about $55
but well worth it with the airfoils. I'm using a hinged trap door that lifts
and then settles onto foam weather stripping. I added weight until it
also barely lifted with one gate open, but opened wide with all gates
closed. Glen S. Miranker shared that he purchased his unit made by:

Residential Control Systems Inc.
11460 Sunrise Gold Circle Suite A
Rancho Cordova, CA 95742
(916) 635-6784


While looking for my impeller I made up my mind to buy the
inexpensive Harbor Freight motor that was on sale. To check their
sales click on Harbor Freight then select the on sale link followed by
motors. Their heavy duty 1.15 service factor 3450 RPM compressor
motor is the best choice available from them, but unless it is on sale it
is better to buy from Electric Motor Warehouse. My motor choice
changed when I stumbled across a huge closeout of new 2 hp Delta
motors and bought one off eBay. Unlike the big material handling
impellers the airfoil is nearly twice as efficient so I could use a 2 hp
instead of needing at least a 3.5 hp motor to turn a 14" diameter
material handling impeller. Just make sure whatever motor you get,
that you accurately match the direction of rotation, shaft size, and
keyway size to your impeller order. Regardless, once I had the Delta
motor I ordered the impeller to fit on a 7/8" motor shaft with a 3/16"
keyway. My Delta motor turns counter clockwise when looking at the
end of the shaft with the motor behind and cannot be reversed as the
needed leads are buried under the coils, so I had to make sure I ordered
an impeller from Sheldon's Engineering in Canada that turned in the
correct direction. Both arrived in great shape and I went to work
building a blower housing (shroud) to test this new impeller and new
motor combination.

I made this blower so the entire blower housing can slip off leaving the
impeller and motor still attached and hanging from vibration dampers
from my ceiling. The motor and impeller are way too heavy for me to
try to lift up and down, so I want them to get mounted and stay right
there. With this configuration, a wooden sheet or metal plate supports
the motor and impeller weight. I will attach my supports to that plate
and my ceiling beams. The plate will actually hold the cyclone as well.
MDF should be plenty strong for the blower top and bottom. The MDF
can also serve for the top of the cyclone, as it only has to carry the
weight of the cyclone. I actually used some thick Melamine left over
from another project instead of MDF.

E. Building Instructions
1. Blower Template
Start by making a blower template to route the grooves in
the blower top (motor) and bottom (cyclone) for the sheet
metal.
a. Calculate the size outlet wanted. Most 1.5 to 3 hp
blowers use 5" circular outlets. If the outlet was a 5"
pipe the outlet area would be 2.5*2.5*pi = 19.63 sq. in.
and the square root of that is 4.43" to make a square
outlet with the same area. Knowing my impeller with
clearances makes the blower shroud 6" tall, any outlet
width bigger than 4.5" would do for me. Yours might be
different. Dividing 4.5" by pi sent me off looking for a
cylinder that was 1.43" in diameter. I had a new
pressure regulator sitting on my workbench that
measured out at 1.5". With that plus the roughly 3/8"
more from using a router with collar to cut things out, I
would have a plenty big enough outlet width.
b. I laid out the impeller width on my pattern on a piece of
6mm Baltic birch plywood. It was left over from
making one of my portable massage tables, but I like to
use this material for templates because it is flat, strong,
smooth, and does not have any voids.

c. I then used double sided tape to stick down that gauge
to provide a cylinder to wind around and get the
changing radius needed to make a spiral. For that radius
I used glass reinforced strapping tape sticky side away
from the gauge. On the other end I taped a pencil that
was held flat and upright by on an old tape roll. That
tape roll provided a nice flat base that kept the pencil
vertical, so all I had to do was keep tension on as I went
around to draw the spiral. I pre-wound the tape after
finding I got a much smoother circle when unwinding.
With a little pressure on the gauge and pencil one time
around left a nice perfect spiral.

d. A little work with my scroll saw got it cut out slightly
oversized except for the sharp angle that I took pains to
get right on. Some sanding and I ended up with a near
perfect spiral template to use for cutting my grooves!

2. Blower Top & Bottom
Now route the grooves in the top and bottom for the sheet
metal.
a. Start by centering the template on the top and bottom
with all oriented just as they will be when assembled. If
you look real close you will see that under the router I
extended the template right to the edge of my board.
Remember to double check that the template outlet is
pointed in the right direction for your impeller.
Backward inclined (BI) and airfoil (AF) impellers don't
work so well unless turning in the right direction. I
drilled a hole through the center and one at 6" inches
away using a 1/4" bit through the template and both the
top and bottom. Those holes ensure the template sits in
the right place on both pieces to make perfect mirror
images and will hold things stable for the carriage bolts
that whole the whole thing together later. I slipped a
couple of threaded knobs through these holes and drew
them tight to hold the template firmly in place for
routing.


b. With the template firmly bolted in place, carefully start
routing beginning with the blower outlet edge off the
side of the board. I used a 1/8" bit set to a depth of
about 3/16". With a small bit you have to go real slow
and let the bit do the work. Trust me, my first one let
the smoke out and put me a day behind on this project
waiting for a store to open to go buy a replacement. (For
what it is worth, letting the smoke out is an electrical
term that was used by early digital engineers. We all
knew that all that fine wiring and stuff was really a ruse.
Those chips worked on highly compressed smoke.
When you let the smoke out they never worked again!)
c. Before taking it all apart I marked the ends of the pieces
and labeled each so they will not get turned around
during the machining. I also wrote bottom and top on
both faces of the template and matching top and bottom
on my Melamine. Now route the other side making sure
the template is correctly placed to make a perfect mirror
image.

3. Blower Holes
Now make some holes for your blower impeller and your
blower inlet.
1. Now center the impeller on where it will go double
checking its orientation.. I used a 1/8" clearance off the
side of my impeller to the sheet metal groove, but
because the impeller has a raised base the picture makes
it looks more like a 1/2" spacing!

2. Getting the air inlet hole exactly over the impeller posed
a little challenge, even with a centering hole going
through the top and bottom. The problem is the inlet
into the impeller needs to sit at exactly 1/8" inside the
impeller with only 1/8" clearance. With my impeller
and motor mounted separately and not built onto the
blower shroud. My solution was to first cut a shaft hole
in the top board that would let me lower the impeller
down flush. That allowed tracing around the impeller
itself to make the cutout. Once the top cutout was done,
bolting the top and bottom boards together let me lay
the impeller down well centered then trace the inlet
exactly.

3. The inlet hole for an airfoil impeller needs to hold a
flaring that puts the air 1/8" deep into the impeller for
optimum performance. It also needs to stay within 1/8"
of the sides of the impeller inlet so almost all the
incoming air goes right to the airfoils. Had I not
carefully drawn the blower inlet and positioning on my
piece in advance, it would have been near impossible to
center this just right.


For a blower that would go on a cyclone the inlet would
neck from a 9" diameter smoothly down into the
impeller. For testing this blower, I wanted to limit the
airflow with the same 6" diameter ducting that will be
used in my system and with quite a few people waiting
for some results, I made a simple inlet by flaring a piece
of 6" S&D PVC pipe that I worked over with my heat
gun to open it up to be 1/4" less than the diameter of my
inlet. Ideally this inlet should take on a hyperbolic shape
for optimum airflow with least resistance. For a normal
backward inclined or backward curved dust collector
impeller, 1/2" clearance is ample by itself without
having to build a special inlet.

Initially I recommended that this would be a piece that I
would buy with the impeller, but have since found that
these special inlets are very costly. I have made similar
parts easily enough without too much trouble.
Truthfully, making a wooden mandrel with the right
shape on my lathe, then inserting about three inches of a
PVC pipe segment into hot oil would soften it enough
to slip that mandrel in and squeeze all down to make a
perfect form. Alternatively, making that mandrel with
my router would be more difficult as I would have to
build it up from layers, but in my bit collection are a
couple of nice curves that would work just fine. I also
have access to a PVC plastic vacuum forming service
that could make these up once I had a mandrel to use as
a mold. The professional PVC formers use hot
antifreeze to warm the larger sections of pipe, but I
would use hot oil because my heat gun is just not
enough unless you do a very little at a time. I was in a
hurry to get those results posted so did not spend the
kind of time on mine I should have. The advantage of
the PVC is by cutting just the right hole in the blower it
fits nicely and locked in place with a little hot melt glue.


Metal Sides
Next form the metal and put into the grooves.
. To size the thickness of my metal I used a micrometer
on my two existing industrial blowers and found they
both were made from stamped 18 gauge steel so I
decided to use the same. The metal height had to be tall
enough for the blower plus the depth of the grooves and
enough clearance to keep the motor bolts from hitting
the impeller arbor bolts. For my airfoil impeller, I used
1/2" clearance. I did have to go with multiple pieces
because I did not feel like paying for a 4' x 10' sheet. I
cheated and had them cut right on at my metal shop on
their big plate cutter. In hindsight, having three pieces
actually worked in my favor as they were far easier to
work with and bend. I did roll them lightly over a large
cylinder by hand to start setting their shape. To make
the sharp outlet bend I skipped the one-hour round trip
to the campus shop and instead used just a little applied
force (read hammer).

a. It took me a while to realize that I needed to carefully
roll the metal over a cylinder to get it to have just the
right curve. With lots of fooling and adjustment, I
finally got it so that it would lay in the groove without
much tension. I then flipped it over and double-checked
to make sure that was also true on the other side. When
both fit just right without having to force anything, I
installed the pieces.


Bolt Holes
Now make holes for the carriage bolts that hold the blower
halves together.
I used my compass and with some messing around laid out 6
equally spaced holes around the outside of the groove. I then
bolted the pieces together and drilled matching holes for the
carriage bolts.

Mount Motor
Now mount the motor.
. I made the motor holes by making a "rubbing" template
of the face of the motor using graph paper with a
carefully cut center. The center slipped over the motor
shaft and made it easy to align that paper template to the
top piece. The template was taped to the top piece then
holes were drilled.

a. Because I am going to use this blower for some testing
and will be taking it apart repeatedly until I get the hole
sizes just right, I made the motor and impeller to be able
to mount independent of the cyclone. Note you can see
the inlet sticking up in this picture so it will fit right
into the impeller.

b. I needed an oversized hole in the blower housing that
will let me easily slip the housing on and off. This hole
is big enough to let the motor and impeller hang from
their support while removing the cyclone without
having to lift the blower up and down. Allowing the
motor and blower to hang independently also makes it
much easier to install and to take off the cyclone for
repairs or cleaning.

c. The motor mounting board screws tightly to the motor
face so there will be no air leak. It also bolts tightly to
the top of the blower. In my final configuration I'll put
some insulation between it and the top of the blower to
ensure no leak there as well.
Completed Blower
Here is the completed blower with motor.

Testing
. There were two concerns that I was testing with this
setup. The first was that we had appropriately sized the
impeller so it would not over stress the 2 hp Delta
motors. The second was to make sure that the
modifications minimized any potential of stalling at
higher static pressure loads that could damage the
impeller or motor.
a. I've secured it in place and added a test pipe.

b. By slowly blocking the inlet I was finally able to
generate a little bit of stalling at about a 2" circular
opening. As I restricted the airflow the motor current
did decrease like the standard impellers do, but I limited
the inlet tube to 6" to make sure my 2 hp did not try to
move so much air it burned itself up. Regardless, the
buffeting was minimal and did not seem appreciable
even with the inlet totally blocked. I do not think it will
be a problem provided those who use this unit minimize
their static pressure and do not block the airflow totally.
They should go with 6" ducting and none less than 4",
plus open large cartridge filters and always keeping one
blast gate open to avoid the buffeting.
c. I did call for help as my cousin Phillip who is also an
engineer joined us for Thanksgiving and we put him to
work. My original measures on amperage were wrong
because my amp meter had a tired battery and had been
dropped. What we found was that wide open using all
6" diameter ducting the most we could draw with this
impeller was 8.5 amps. That amp reading says that I can
safely open the blower inlet as long as the cyclone stays
connected to the 6" ducting without concern about
burning up the motor.


d. Hooking up the Dwyer Magnehelic gauge showed 3.2"
of water which translates to 7160.34 feet per minute
(FPM) air velocity. Dividing 28.313 square inches (the
surface area of my 6" duct) by 144 square inches (the
area in one square foot of a duct in inches) times that
7160 gave a 1407 CFM!

e. The bottom line is this impeller is nothing short of
incredible. It provided more airflow by quite a bit over
my similar sized radial vaned impeller driven by an
identical motor. And it does so with less amperage!
Frequently Asked Questions
I'm a hobbyist with an insane job. I enjoy making things in wood as
a form of stress relief. I just want a system that I can turn on when I
need it, empty the collection barrel when it gets full and enjoy using
the system while knowing I am protecting my family's and my lungs.
Is this the right blower for me? Although I like the airfoil because it
moves far more air with minimum power making it ideal in my shop,
these are no longer available, so I would recommend you use a little
larger motor like the Leeson I recommend and buying a material
handling impeller.

When I first built my cyclone I was out of circuit capacity. I either had
to use an airfoil or go with an impeller and motor too small to move
the air we know is needed for good fine dust collection. It was not
practical for me to make a huge investment in upgrading the power to
my home. If you have power problems similar to mine or just want the
most efficient solution in terms of operating cost, the airfoil is the way
to go. It comes with a price. You not only have to find one of these
expensive impellers, but also have to make an air trap that opens so the
impeller will not stall, must do regular inspections, and must do regular
cleaning. If those do not suit your style of woodworking, then I
seriously recommend that you instead build my budget blower and use
a larger motor.
What is the impeller part number and how do I order? I was not the
supplier, just another customer of Sheldons Engineering and they no
longer carry these special units. When they did the original impeller
was their model 1225 ULF. That is the impeller to go with a 2 hp
motor. They had a larger size to go with a 3 hp motor. You also need to
ensure that either your motor is reversible or you get an impeller
designed to match the rotation of your motor. Additionally, you need
to make sure they include a compression arbor that matches your
motor shaft size.
I'm confused because from your picture I can see that this is a
clockwise turning impeller, but the motor you chose says it is clearly a
counter clockwise motor that the vendor says cannot be reversed in
direction? You are correct. You cannot reverse that motor's direction
easily. Unfortunately, there is plenty of room for confusion on the
direction of rotation. Impeller makers determine rotation direction the
same way that machinists do. They consider drill bits as right handed
or clockwise turning. Conversely, some motor makers use two
opposite standards for determining the direction of rotation. Some look
at the shaft from the motor side and some from the end of the shaft
with the motor behind. The Delta 2 hp motor when looking at the shaft
with the motor behind turns counter clockwise. Because many newer
motors, including that Delta, CANNOT be reversed, you need to be
careful in letting Sheldon's Engineering know which way your motor
turns. Telling them that it is for one of my setups with the Delta is
important.
How long to get your impeller? It took about three weeks to get the
impeller made, balanced, and delivered. I do know they have quite a
few of these now in progress, so you need to ask what the schedule is
when you order.
Any other impeller ordering concerns? Other than they are no
longer available?
Hey! I called about buying one of those specially shaped inlets and
they charge a fortune for them! How did you make yours? I used a heat
gun, some thick gloves and built mine outside with a fan blowing the
dangerous vapors away. It took a lot of fussing and was a pain, but it
did come out pretty well. I had no idea they were all that expensive.
Sorry! If I was to go into production on these, I would turn a mandrel
on my lathe just the right size and use a couple of heat guns at once to
make it a lot easier.
What did the motor cost, from which firm, why did you pick that
motor? I wanted a good heavy duty motor that could run all day
without a problem. In motor terms this meant I wanted one that had a
1.0 or better service factor (meaning can run 100% of the time at rated
power). I also wanted quality without paying too much. I've had many
years of good service from Delta motors made by Marathon. When I
saw a vendor had purchased many new surplus 2 hp Delta motors and
was selling them on EBAY with shipping prepaid, I did a little more
homework, then bought one. I bought from eBay from Eric
(TheGoodMember). When he sold out of these motors, I did not look
for a new supplier because by then I had upgraded my electrical
service and wanted a real 5 hp turning a 15 or larger material handling
impeller. This is in my opinion represents the minimum to move
enough air to meet the medical air quality recommendations which are
now the European Union standard. them.
How did you test this blower? When? My cousin and I finished our
testing of the airfoil on Friday, November 29th, 2002. We followed the
Dwyer Magnehelic gauge recommendations to setup our test bench,
mount the pitot in the right place, and set the proper length of
restrictive ducting. We double checked our gauges and work. We used
a Dwyer Instruments 4015 model Magnehelic gauge with a Dwyer
166-6 pitot tube for measuring the pressure and computing the air
flows.
What were your test results? With an extended 6" pipe in place to
limit airflow sized in length to meet the test parameters, this
impeller/blower measured at 3.2" of water static pressure. After going
through the Dwyer formulas and cross checking this comes out to a
whopping 7160.34 feet per minute (FPM) airflow. Multiplying by the
duct size in square inches divided by 144 square inches gave a real
1407 cubic feet per minute (CFM) at whatever we connect this to.
Because I used a centerline single point of measure, the result needs
stepped down by 10%.
What amperage did the motor draw? My original amperage
measurement was just over 10 amps, but my cousin found a problem
with my meter from being dropped that we fixed and checked with a
second meter. The actual amperage came in at 8.4 amps.
Why did you check the motor amperage? Pressure blowers do the
most work when moving the most air. When a blower gets too much
air, you can easily over-stress the motor and cause it to overheat and
die. Frankly, in helping to review some recent magazine testing I
discovered that a well known cyclone vendor had their units tested
with a gravely oversized cyclone and blower inlet. This will move lots
more air, but caused at least three of their motors to burn up during that
magazine testing. That is what we tested with the amp meter and using
standard 6 test duct. We wanted to ensure the actual current it drew
did not exceed the motor's designed runtime rating located on the
motor plate. We also wanted a real number that others could expect to
get rather than some pie in the sky advertising hype that only leads to
disappointment. The results of that test showed we can run this motor
all day long moving lots of air while driving this big impeller without a
problem of drawing too much current or overheating. Because the
impeller is so heavy and starts fully loaded, it does draw a lot of
amperage on startup, but now that I've run this for almost a year, it has
not been a problem.
Why did you make a big deal out of the airflow you got which is
not much better than the 2 horsepower inexpensive dust collector I just
bought? This is not a hill to die on! Hobbyist suppliers can claim
anything they want as long as they can devise a test that will "prove"
their ability to perform at their claimed rate for a few microseconds.
My testing found most cyclone and blower vendors sell systems that
get about half their advertised maximum airflows. Even a few of the
vendor sites say to figure you are going to only get about half of the
claimed airflow. The advantage of this unit is it produces a real flow
under real working conditions, and does so through increased
efficiency.
What were the limits again and why can't I use an airfoil with my
existing all 4" ducting setup? Using 4" ducting limits the airflow at the
pressures we get from airfoil or dust collector blowers to around 450
CFM and makes for a much higher resistance. Typically, a shop
plumbed with 4" ducting needs 12" or more of static pressure to move
enough air to pull in the fine dust at the source before it gets launched
into your shop. All airfoil impellers have a very narrow range of static
pressure that they work well within before they begin to stall. This
particular airfoil impeller with its special design can handle up to about
8". Although far better than most that stall around 6 of pressure that is
still way too little if your system needs 12" or more. As soon as the
resistance of your ducting, cyclone, filters, etc. goes too high, the
airfoil stalls and begins to chatter as the air bounces around the center.
Too much of that can ruin the impeller and the motor bearings. To
avoid this problem we need to only use the airfoils with shops that
generated 7" or less total static pressure measured in water column
inches.
What are the rules to maintain this kind of impeller? Although I
provided a ducting resistance calculator, the bottom line here is you
need to follow a few rules to ensure the safety and longevity of your
impeller and motor:
. Use an efficient cyclone placed before the impeller. Placing the
impeller before will let the sawdust go through the impeller and
these were never designed to handle hits nor are they self
cleaning;
a. Use all large 6 ducting and ducting runs with minimal
resistance;
b. Use at least one five foot long run before the cyclone. This will
add enough resistance so the blower does not try to move too
much air;
c. Keep the equivalent of at least one 6" duct open at all times;
d. Use large minimal resistance filters;
e. Keep your filters clean enough that they don't create too much
back pressure;
f. Keep an eye on the overall pressure/amperage of your system
to make sure it is working efficiently.
Will this blower support multiple blast gates open at once? I only
built it for one, but depending upon the size of your ducting, what you
want to do, on and on, you might be able to get enough airflow to run
two blast gates at once. In fact, if you only have a small one open, you
really should open a larger one at the same time to make sure you keep
up ample airflow.
From my perspective, your blower looks good, but will it work
with a real system in my larger three-car garage sized shop? No. Even
the larger airfoil will not be able to overcome the static pressure in
such a large shop. Also, there is a lot more to a system than just the
blower. For this blower to work, it needs a very efficient cyclone,
minimal resistance air filters, good hoods, and a sound ducting design.
I think my system using my cyclone, all large 6" ducts, only 6" flex
hoses, and a set of Torit filters keeps my personal system well under
the 7" to 8" of static pressure that will cause problems with this blower.
This gives me the ability to take care of the dust collection at the
machine sources in a pretty good sized shop (large 3 car garage). It
gives me the 800+ CFM at each of my large machines and 4000+ FPM
airspeed needed to get rid of that dust.
Which filters did you use in your setup? The filters I purchased
were from directly from the Donaldson-Torit retail outlet on line. My
set of four 0.2 Donaldson-Torit filters have the advantage of being all
polyester, but cost me double what the poly paper blended filters cost.
Two came with metal caps and two with plastic caps. The plastic was
easier to work with. All had both ends open. The cost on these filters
was high and because I did was not a commercial firm buying multiple
filters, there were some shipping damage and high shipping costs.
Donaldson-Torit has since worked through those issues.

Meanwhile, when it came time to replace my filters I shifted over to
another supplier. I've had great service and support with excellent
prices on both filters and flex hose from Wynn Environmental that
Jack Diemer found and referred me to. Also, make sure you check out
your local suppliers. Many are now using a single 300 square Farr
compatible filter from Wynn Environmental instead of the two Torit
compatible units. I think that if you can afford it, you should do like
me and buy a pair of the Farr compatibles filters would give far more
life, better filtering, and be an overall better value.

I've also recently heard of good service and pricing from Filter Mart on
the all poly Torit compatible filters like I first used. You name your
own price.

Money is tight and I would like to use just one Farr filter as some
of the guys have been doing instead of the two Torit units you used.
Would that work equally well, and do you know which Farr filter to
buy? Do you have any other suggestions?
. My friend Alan used a single pleated Farr cartridge
filter and it works well for him. He bought the Farr
model 125154-005 from MPW Filtration (pictured
above) which has since been sold to CLARCOR Inc.
Similar filters are available from a variety of sources.
The dimensions are: 12.75 in. O.D.; 8.375 in. I.D.; 34
in. long; 284 sq. ft. area; 80/20 blend filter, and 0.5
micron filtering. You can order Farr compatible filters
from Wynn Environmental for less cost.
a. Another option is MSC Direct carries the Donalson
Torit dust collector cartridge filters for similar pricing
and reasonable shipping.

The filters MSC sells are made by Filtration Group of
Joliet, Illinois, model number is 80002.
b. Finally, a few have written me that they have gotten
nice sub 1 micron filters for free or almost no cost from
large truck depots and professional woodworking shops.
By getting the all spun bond polyester filters, they can
wash them up and end up with a pretty nice unit at
minimal or no cost.
Do you have a simple drawing giving a cross section through the
center of the assembled blower? Maybe, this picture might help. It
shows how I mounted the blower on a separate board that then mounts
on top of the top of the blower shroud. I did this to get the
sizing/spacing right and to let me make the blower-housing mount
separately from the motor and impeller.

Ok now you have confused me good. First, you said the bottom of
your blower is going to mount on the cyclone outlet. The cyclone
outlet from your plan is D/2 or 9" for an 18" cyclone. Why did you
make it only 6" large? In terms of the bottom of my blower, meaning
the part opposite the motor that mounts on the cyclone, you need to
remember that my goal was to quickly get something ready for testing.
I wanted to be able to mate to a 6" ID piece of S&D PVC. To use my
Dwyer magnehelic gauge I needed a piece that was at least 60" long
with a hole 9" from the face of the blower. From my measurements, I
concluded that as long as you have at least a 60" long piece of pipe
holding the airflow from getting out of control, you can make that
opening as large or small as you would like. Mine ended up being the
size of 6" ID S&D PVC that I let hang out about 4" to mate with my
test pipe. I will change that sizing if I decide to actually mount that
blower on a cyclone. I may make a little smaller metal based case,
simply because I have a room problem where that big blower will be in
the way of my garage door.
Assuming there is some good reason for your having only a 6"
blower inlet, what size blower inlet should I make for my blower? My
6" inlet was to fit on a test pipe to check out the blower to make sure it
worked before recommending it for others to try. I think the easiest and
best thing to do would be to make the blower inlet a nicely flared entry
that reduces down from the 9" (or 10" if you build a 20" diameter
cyclone). Working over a $5 tapered HVAC reducer that goes from
10" to 8" to make it a 9" to 8" would work and not be too difficult to
do. I might use my roller to create the flare.
You say you made the steel for the blower sides from metal that
was 6" tall. I bought an airfoil impeller from that same firm for my 3
hp motor and 6" is too short. Why? My impeller is not a full height and
with each of these units being custom made, there are bound to be
some small differences in sizing. Plus, if you told them you were using
a 3 hp motor, they probably made you a full height impeller. Since I
can't tell the exact sizes for your impeller, you need to take the time to
figure out what will work best for yourself. Wish I could help more,
but that is just not possible from here.
I am confused by one of your photos. You clearly show one of the
sandwich pieces with a 3" hole yet later I see one with a big hole and
the other with about a 6" hole for PVC. Why did you make the 3"
hole? I did that so the impeller would sit down flush instead of being
held up on its tall arbor. I wanted to use the actual impeller to draw the
sized hole I needed to make the blower shroud removable. That saved
having to measure and guess and let me set my 1/8" clearance right on.
Also, I wanted my actual result to be dead on for both the top and
bottom so I could hold the 1/8" clearance on the inlet.
I like the idea of mounting the motor and impeller, then being able
to remove the blower housing and cyclone without having to lift up
that heavy motor. What kind of vibration dampeners are you using to
support that weight? I found some nice rubber dampeners at a surplus
store, four for $3. I'm going to try and make them do. If not, on my
previous cyclone I used four I got from Granger's sized to hold about
1/3 of the weight of the motor, blower, and cyclone combined.
I've been banging my head into the wall for an hour. How did you
ever come up with the calculation to get your inlet to sit exactly 1/8"
inside your airfoil impeller? *Laughing* I had that same problem and
was not able to figure that out by measuring as I had too many
variables including a little dampness that had swelled portions of my
Melamine. So what I did was cheat by making the inlet hole a very
tight fit on the PVC and putting the flared piece of PVC through before
I bolted the sandwich together. Once it was bolted together I gently
worked the PVC down and by feeling through the hole was able to get
it positioned just right, then locked it in place with hot melt glue to
hold it still and seal the joint. Had I not made that sacrifice 3" hole you
asked about earlier, I would never had gotten the inlet centered to
within 1/8".
I see your Cyclone Plan page lets you use an Excel spreadsheet to
build the size cyclone you want. What size would be best with this
sized impeller? Although you could use an 18" diameter cyclone, you
would be better off to use either a 20" or 22" diameter unit and end up
with just a tiny bit worse separation but with even less resistance. I
built an 18" because that is all the room I have with enough clearance
for my garage door.
I have planed on using 8" diameter pipe connected to the cartridge
filters and the blower outlet. Is there any problem with this? Nope, but
you would have less noise if you followed Larry Adcock's
(WoodSucker designer) suggestion and used insulated HVAC ducting
instead. Plus that would be much easier to install.
I see that you used regular steel for your blower instead of the
galvanized stuff you recommend on the cyclone. Does it matter? Yes. I
also have to watch my pennies, so buy my metal from Blue Collar
Supply, a great surplus shop in Sacramento. They did not have
anything galvanized in the size and thickness I wanted, so I got metal
that was not plated and plan on doing some serious painting with
epoxy appliance finish because the wood coming in hits hard enough
that it releases water and generates heat. Instant rust!
Hope this covers your questions.

bill
Disclaimer
The drawings, procedures and words shared on these pages are for information
only. Your actions are your responsibility - VERIFY and CHECK
information out before proceeding, and don't attempt anything without the
required skills. Although I've taken every care to ensure what I have done and
presented is safe, dust collection equipment uses electrical components and
blowers that when improperly built, used, or maintained may cause serious
injury or even death, so USE THIS INFORMATION AT YOUR OWN
RISK! At the same time, unless you as a woodworker provide appropriate
protections for the fine wood dust you make, you put your health, the health of
those close to you, and even the health of your pets at risk. Long term
exposure to fine wood dust eventually harms most woodworkers. Please take
the time to protect yourself and those close to you. HIRE A
PROFESSIONAL ENGINEER to design, specify, test, and certify
performance of any dust collection system if you have a commercial or an
industrial application, allergies, other medical problems, people working for
you, a large shop, work with hazardous materials, or are subject to regulatory
oversight. Neither I (Bill Pentz) nor any other references or links on these
pages will accept any liability for any damages or injury caused to people or
property from the using of this information or from any associated links. No
claims are expressed or implied as to the safety, usefulness, or accuracy of this
information.