Resurrection of a CFEI 100 KVA Induction Furnace

The Craftmans Shop > New from Old

<< < (32/171) > >>

awemawson:
Well according to those records I found, this bore hole was able to produce 150,000 gallons a day in 1947 :bugeye:

But IS it the same bore hole - I strongly suspect so, as if I put the grid reference on the bore hole survey (TQ 7782 1741 ) into a 'grid reference locator' on the web that uses Google Maps it shows me a point about 15 yards away from where it actually is, which I suspect is within the margin you'd expect a reference to be accurate to in the circumstances.

So: Still need to gain safe access to the bore - possibilities:

A/ Smash the cover and replace - probably not too easy it's pretty solid - sledge hammers bounce off !

B/ Chip away flaunching cement round manhole surround - pull the lot off - leave in citric acid for a few months and re-cement with modifications

C/ Lift off entire upper works as previously partially done and re-build with new incorporating control chamber above ground

B/ Is probably favourite, and C/ is potentially dangerous so when the rain stops I'll tentatively attack the flaunching and see how tough it is.

(Typically as these things go, as I was typing this I got a phone call response to my plea for a water chiller from a fellow who has an 8.5 kW unit - I assume that is 8.5 kW electrical consumption - 30 kW chilling - so right order of magnitude but sadly the price isn't the right order of magnitude!)

awemawson:
The rain has stopped so I ventured out to have a poke at the cement flaunching round the man hole.

The good news is that it is not impossibly hard - actually it looks suspiciously as though there's quite a bit of soft sand in the mix (should be sharp sand) so perhaps with the Kango and a newly sharpened point I may make a bit of progress.

Need to clear all the turf and earth back first - I may well get started tomorrow, as I have half a foundry floor to paint and when that's done I can't work in there anyway until it's dried for the next coat !

philf:

--- Quote from: awemawson on April 17, 2020, 09:52:29 AM ---
But IS it the same bore hole - I strongly suspect so, as if I put the grid reference on the bore hole survey (TQ 7782 1741 ) into a 'grid reference locator' on the web that uses Google Maps it shows me a point about 15 yards away from where it actually is, which I suspect is within the margin you'd expect a reference to be accurate to in the circumstances.

--- End quote ---

Andrew,

A 4 figure grid reference specifies the position to 10 metres. (10km, 1km, 100m, 10m).

15 yards I would have thought is close enough.

Phil.

Pete.:
I've been thinking about this and comparing it to the kit we use at work, a lot of which is water cooled.

Our most powerful concrete saw uses a 27kw motor, and the drive electronics and motor are both cooled by the (same) water feed, which is usually just fed from a 1/2" hose up to 25metres long off a domestic water supply. The motor is just a cooling jacket. Very often the supply is quite marginal and you can get away with surprisingly little flow without tripping the thermal protection.

Last year I ran three of these at full load for hour after hour some days. The coolant was by a single 110v submersible dropped in the Thames feeding a 3-branch manifold. I think that if your bore hole is deep enough you could simply drop a decent sized submersible in the top and set up a return hose with a weighted end to return the water back into the bore after doing a lap of the heat exchanger. The thermal store of the bore hole will be immense.

awemawson:
Yes Pete, I've been thinking along similar lines :thumbup:

I've just worked out that a 1000 litre IBC starting at 15 deg C will take an estimated 27 minutes to get to my (self imposed) upper limit of 30 degrees C - so for a 90 minute 'session' I could even get away with 3 IBC's that have filled up gradually over the preceding days. And that time can be extended a bit if I had a tap filling them at the same time.

This is ASSUMING the heat put into the water IS about 40 kW - I have no ideas if that figure is correct - 39/40 kW was the cooling ability of the dead chiller which I thought at time was marginal, but looking at some of my notes from back in 2005 I was working on 17 kW - I can only suppose that lower figure came from the firm I bought the furnace from !

I've been trying to find other examples of similar sized induction furnaces to compare their water cooling, as I'm sure that they must all be much of a muchness, but so far I've drawn a blank.

Today I've cut all the turf and earth back from the manhole, as the builder who rents one of my containers has volunteered to chip the man hole cover surround out of the flaunching this coming Monday - I'd intended to do it myself but he's far better equipped to do it than I.

Navigation

 Message Index

Go to full version