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| Resurrection of a CFEI 100 KVA Induction Furnace |
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| awemawson:
Looking at my roll of 'lead free' it is 'alloy 23' which seems to be tin with a trace of copper I've ordered some Zinc Chloride flux from CUP alloys - apparently can't be posted so incurs a courier charge. My temperature gauges arrived for monitoring the ins and outs of the heat exchanger - I need four so I ordered five to have a spare - I left three of them hooked up over night to see how consistent they are - not hugely is the answer but probably OK for this application. Today I drew up and cut the mounting arrangement for the heat exchanger having first balanced it on a plank and tied it on with baler twine to prevent it leaping to it's doom. Again I cut the bits out of 6 mm plate as it was already on the machine - cocked up and failed to re-set zero on one part and overcut a previous one, but no great issue just cut another ! I intended to clamp the H E with 8 mm studs as I was sure that I had quite a few lengths of it. Where it's gone is a mystery so I had to use 12 mm which is definitely overkill - (this thing will never escape!) and it had the disadvantage that there was no longer room for nuts to retain the studs when not in tension, but never mind that's only ever an issue when installing and removing the unit, which hopefully will not be too often. So all in place - plumbing bits due to arrive from BES this afternoon so I can hopefully complete the dry fit but meanwhile as all the components for the bore hole pump and control have now arrived I'll try and assemble that while waiting. |
| awemawson:
So this afternoon I unboxed the Bore Hole Pump and its controller and wired them together. The pump is cast iron with 1" BSP female ports, but the controller, although male 1" BSP is the dreaded PLASTIC threads - horrible things and so easy to cross thread when you have a wrap of PTFE tape over them - give me metal threads any day! They obviously intend that the suction side is on the left whereas mine of necessity is on the right - this means that I've had to orientate the controller at 45 degrees as two faces of the controller need to be visible from the front - the indicators and buttons on one, and the pressure gauge on the other. As a consequence the priming plug (hey this is supposed to be SELF PRIMING!) is even more difficult to access than were the controller set in its intended position. I may extend the controller upwards with a bit of stainless pipe, and may even dress the suction hose round to the right so it all sits as the makers envisioned as an extra metre of pipe probably is of no consequence. Having assembled it - time to do a test - so once primed with the fussy plug it went splendidly - I fitted a stop cock to the output to test the auto on / off function and also make measuring its delivery rate easier. A 3 gallon bucket filled in 16.09 seconds so I make that 51 litres / minute which is above my estimated 45 litres / minutes for adequate cooling. Mind you that was though a relatively short length of pipe. Now to give serious consideration to building something to house it next to the bore hole. |
| nrml:
If you have the heat exchanger almost submerged in a vat of hot (almost boiling) water, it might be easier to keep the heat in the joint while soldering. |
| hermetic:
Does it suggest using a foot valve with this pump, or is it truly "self priming"? I have a foot valve on mine, even though it is only about a metre at most from pump to water surface. I use the foot valve with a large stainless ball that drops into a rubber seat. Good valves, but the can stick if the water gets a bit sticky, like mine does with the aforementioned neighbours apple problem! Phil |
| awemawson:
It has a foot valve incorporating a filter screen. Been measuring up for a slab to build a kiosk for the pump. Size determined by a 900 x 600 mm flag stone that will form the roof. Need to hunt around for some timber for form work. A friend is coming tomorrow after work to use his diamond saw to cut across a concrete path to feed power to the kiosk, and a 25 mm pipe to connect to the horticultural taps. Path is about 9 foot wide and laid in panels, each panel joined to the next with cast in situ rebar. Plan is to cut across at a join leaving the rebar intact, breaking the concrete away underneath and threading the pipes & cable under the re-bar before making good. This way hopefully the slabs will move together. This is the slab before laying in March 2009 - you can see the re-bar and the bore hole manhole cover is just visible behind the concrete mixer! |
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