Some Blaster Improvements

My friend Kevin was up today and we got a lot done.  The fan blade is done minus balancing, and the new center pipe is done.  The new pipe is 1/4" vs the old 1/16".  It didn't need to be that heavy but no one around here had 6" pipe at all, so Kevin picked it up at a fab shop that does a lot of pipeline stuff near his town.  All they had was heavy pipe that he picked up but it will work well.  Kevin cut the old pipe off and left about 1" to slide the new pipe over while I worked on the new fan blade extensions.  After cutting the pipe the plate warped really bad in a few directions.  I think it was caused by all the patches welded on over time that created a pull and once they were gone it showed up in what was left.  We put a little pressure on it with the press to straighten it, so the thinner base plate wouldn't warp while welding it, and hoping it would be straight when done.  It worked like a charm.  One thing's for sure, it will never wear through or have to be patched.     

We also found out why the pipe was damaged in the first place.  The deflector that comes in to the pipe inside that starts the vortex wasn't straight causing the media to hit the pipe first.  We straightened it out and that should also make a big difference in the suction which is nice.  It was a manufacturing defect for sure of which there were quite a few found since this project began.  They are all getting fixed as things are getting redone and there are several more I've known about for a long time.  When this thing is redone it will be literally much better than when it was new.    

We also did a little rearranging after he dug out a C-160 auto for me that was under the rack shelf that someone is coming to pick up this Wed, and went out for our Pizza buffet of course as usual.    

 

Didn't work on the blaster much today but did manage to get the blade balanced.  It turned into a 2 hour job...  It was really heavy on one side and it didn't make any sense with all the planning that went into the fix.  I started with taking the welds down a little on the heavy side but it wasn't doing much good.  I finally chucked a few bearings in the vise and a piece of 5/8 rod that matched the motor shaft to start doing a lot of measuring and marking.  That's when I found the problem.  The hole in the pipe for the motor shaft was slightly off center, and the original blade spacing was off at the factory welds as well...  

After that the best way to fix it was to add a lot of weight to the outside of 2 blades then work from there, you can see which 2 in the pic.  It's finally balanced and ready to double check on the motor before it all goes together.  If I knew this in the beginning it would have been easier to just remake entire blades.  I really expected a lot more from the premier blaster company out there...