Sawdust blower Working

[b dukes]

How fast should my blower turn? I checked all over and I can't find any rating. It is a cast iron blower 7 inch inlet and outlet. The largest pulley I had on hand was a 12". I am driving my blower off the saw arbor. ( driven by the PTO ) 575 RPM.  The blower has a 5 inch pulley.  It works but not very good , I am sure it needs to be faster , I just didn't know by how much.

[pineywoods]

Click on the little red toolbox at the bottom of the sponsor list. That will take you to a whole bunch of good stuff, including a section on blowers. Right off hand, I'd say you need to turn a whole bunch faster. Mine (on a bandmill) turns 3450 rpm.

[Joe Lallande]

I have almost the same blower for my Belsaw.  I had to reverse the rotation by unbolting the two castings.  The paddle wheel came off the shaft and I was able to reverse the air flow.  I have old pictures that I can send to you.  I am unable to post pictures on this site.  Capt Crunch has posted a few of my mill in the past. Up date: My wife was able to post a few pictures in my gallery.  Good luck.

[b dukes]

I was able to try my blower out today ,  I wasn't able to find a pulley big enough , so I pulled a flywheel of a junk air compressor and used it, I gave it to a friend of mind and he bored it out and put a key way in.  It was 19 inch. It puts my speed somewhere just over 2000 RPM.  Seems to work a lot better. The only problem now I have is sawdust collecting in the other end of the collector box.  I wish I could have made it out of metal , but all I had was plywood.  I think I will move the pickup to the center of the collector box and put in a angled piece in each corner , kinda funnel it to the pickup unless anybody has a better suggestion.

Thanks!

[bandmiller2]

Brady,shape some sheet metal and put it in your plywood collection box.Frank C.

[apm]

Glad to hear of the progress. Any progress is good progress!

Greg

[b dukes]

Thanks Frank, that idea had slipped my mind. I picked up some roof flashing and used that.  Just finish with it. For what I can tell it should work fine , it will be later before I can try it.  I have to relocate the mounts for the blower since I had to use a larger pulley.  Hope to get it finished with it today.

This has taken longer than I thought.  I didn't think setting this mill up would be this time consuming ,  but I am alsot there. 8)


Amp,
           My progress has been slow ,  it seems work and life in general keep getting in the way of what I would rather be doing.

[bandmiller2]

Sawdust blowers and conveyers usally take a little experimenting to get just right.Best way I've found is have someone else run a log through the saw and you watch what the dust does and where it hits then custom build a "catcher" for it. Frank C.

[Joe Lallande]

Brady, I made my collection box out of metal and located the round inlet in the lower LH inside corner as you face the blade. The box is attached to the mill frame. I made the front panel where I could unbolt it from the box for a good clean out.  I also drilled several 1/2" drain holes in the bottom. The saw dust is thrown back from the blade into this rear area. I have a straight pipe from the collection box to the blower.  I had to install a deflector ramp inside the front RH corner of the box to keep the wet sawdust from packing in the bottom of the box.  I keep a long metal rod to clean out the box.  Several large bark pieces are often collected in the box.  My wife was able to post a few pictures in my gallery.  Good luck.

[apm]

I just found the "blower calculator" in the forum toolbox. Might be of interest to you.

https://forestryforum.com/members/donp/Blowercalc.htm

Greg

[snowshoveler]

I am just a little sawdust blower stupid.
Does the calculator take into account the sawdust going through.
I have a 24 inch blower for my planer and was thinking about it and it seems it only requires a few horsepower. I was surprised at this.
Chris