Compressor alternative for a Siphon Burner
Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2011 10:35 pm
I ended up buying this Gast rotary vane pump on eBay the other day. I thought it was a pretty good deal and have been playing with the idea of building something like this for awhile.
It is 0.6 CFM at a maximum of 15 psi so it sounds ideal for a siphon burner. My thought is to run more air through the atomizer which will mean the load on the little blower will be lighter. Also the more air you run through the siphon nozzle the better it will burn because of better mixing and atomization but the trade off is the compressor running more. With the current setup air to the nozzle is run at about 4 psi in the interest of conserving compressed air with the balance supplied by the blower.
I also picked up a speed control and a 12v motor from surplus center (Got few other things from surplus center at the same time to dilute the shipping including a 12v transfer pump for moving oil). Shipping is like $11.20 for one item and for the 10 or so items I got it was only $18. So in the cart went a few other little motors that looked cool and were really cheap along with some fan blades and a old style rotary dial phone ($12) for the shop (loud ringer in those old phones)... gotta love spending money to save money, I sound like my wife :/
I will be trying that power supply on peristaltic pump motor that meters the fuel and the bilge blower also. If it works well I will get a couple more. I tried the current lab PS I use to run the oil pump on the bilge blower and it wanted to kick over to constant amps over about 10v so I could not even run that motor up to the 18v the PS can provide. I think it might have something to do with little resistance on the motor because it is just spinning a fan but then I know nothing about electronics, I just buy stuff and plug it in and if it doesnt smoke I win Anyhow these are quite a bit cheaper than the PS I am using now so if they work it will be great. Will buy them from Amazon though because I found them there for the same price and free shipping.
All together the pump, controller and motor came to about $100 which is what I got the 3 hp HF compressor for while it was on sale. I thought about running it straight off my 12v battery bank but then I couldnt adjust it, also considered using the $12 dc speed controller like on the bilge blower but wasnt sure if it might not be too much power on this larger motor for that little circuit. This should run silent though and even though it will run continuous while running the burner I would think be more economical to run. It should also last much longer than the compressor and since it will be taking the load of making air for the burner off it make the compressor last longer.
Should be getting all these pieces in next week and will be able to see if it will work or not. Will post pictures and results soon.
It is 0.6 CFM at a maximum of 15 psi so it sounds ideal for a siphon burner. My thought is to run more air through the atomizer which will mean the load on the little blower will be lighter. Also the more air you run through the siphon nozzle the better it will burn because of better mixing and atomization but the trade off is the compressor running more. With the current setup air to the nozzle is run at about 4 psi in the interest of conserving compressed air with the balance supplied by the blower.
I also picked up a speed control and a 12v motor from surplus center (Got few other things from surplus center at the same time to dilute the shipping including a 12v transfer pump for moving oil). Shipping is like $11.20 for one item and for the 10 or so items I got it was only $18. So in the cart went a few other little motors that looked cool and were really cheap along with some fan blades and a old style rotary dial phone ($12) for the shop (loud ringer in those old phones)... gotta love spending money to save money, I sound like my wife :/
I will be trying that power supply on peristaltic pump motor that meters the fuel and the bilge blower also. If it works well I will get a couple more. I tried the current lab PS I use to run the oil pump on the bilge blower and it wanted to kick over to constant amps over about 10v so I could not even run that motor up to the 18v the PS can provide. I think it might have something to do with little resistance on the motor because it is just spinning a fan but then I know nothing about electronics, I just buy stuff and plug it in and if it doesnt smoke I win Anyhow these are quite a bit cheaper than the PS I am using now so if they work it will be great. Will buy them from Amazon though because I found them there for the same price and free shipping.
All together the pump, controller and motor came to about $100 which is what I got the 3 hp HF compressor for while it was on sale. I thought about running it straight off my 12v battery bank but then I couldnt adjust it, also considered using the $12 dc speed controller like on the bilge blower but wasnt sure if it might not be too much power on this larger motor for that little circuit. This should run silent though and even though it will run continuous while running the burner I would think be more economical to run. It should also last much longer than the compressor and since it will be taking the load of making air for the burner off it make the compressor last longer.
Should be getting all these pieces in next week and will be able to see if it will work or not. Will post pictures and results soon.