The Craftmans Shop > New from Old
Resurrection of a CFEI 100 KVA Induction Furnace
awemawson:
I put the BOC Transtig 350 on Facebook Marketplace for £1 and not surprisingly had about 20 replies in the first 10 minutes and it was collected within an hour of listing by a very genuine local lad setting up his workshop.
Result :thumbup:
I can now get at the front of the Flowcool chiller to investigate it AND welder chappie is a happy bunny so a win / win situation all round.
(That trailer went on eBay this morning so fingers crossed - Bridgeport chip tray still waiting for a new home)
awemawson:
So having disposed of the BOC Transtig - all 200 kg of it - I could now get at the Flowcool chiller to try and evaluate how much it has suffered in storage.
Answer - there is quite a bit of rusting from condensation on the lower - perhaps 12 inches - of it, and quite an infestation of spiders evidenced by some impressive webs. So long as the actual motors / pumps / etc have survived it 'should' be OK but I want to do quite a bit of clean up before I introduce it to electrons at 415 volt three phase !
As I recall, (and I need to refresh myself on this) there is an internal water tank open to atmosphere (with a loose cover) that is cooled by an enormous 'fridge type sealed compressor. There is (I think) a heat exchanger immersed in the tank that holds the fluid that is externally circulated by a large multi-stage pump in the base of the unit. Air is drawn through large filters on the sides, passes over the refrigerator radiator and out to atmosphere through the top of the unit.
So on the rear there are four water ports:
A/ Flow and return for the chilled water that keeps the bits of the Induction Furnace cool
B/ Top Up mains water to allow for evaporation of the tank, controlled by a simple float valve (Like a Loo cistern)
C/ Overflow from tank in case float valve misbehaves.
The whole lot is controlled by a temperature controller and a bunch of relays, transformers and over load cut outs housed in a cabinet on the front.
I can't get too involved in going much further today due to other commitments, but I want to give it a good blow out with an airline, then set up an air blower into the electrics to try and reduce the moisture before feeding it power :bugeye:
awemawson:
This morning I rigged a long airline extension to blow off the majority of the cobwebs and rust flakes from the Chiller.
To my horror I found that I was spraying significant amounts of water with the air - the vertical drop of my air line system that I was using to connect the air hose extension hadn't been used since I installed my total air drying kit, and must have previously accumulated water. Blasting air to waste quickly disposed of it, reverting to delivering dry air letting me carry on.
I'm pleased to report that a basic electrical safety test passed. Good earth bonding to the chassis from the plug & lead, and no measurable leakage to ground for the connections to the compressor, pump, fan or system transformer. NB I was measuring to earth from the outputs of their respective contactors, so effectively directly to their windings.
Next hurdle to overcome is aquatic. The reservoir tank that holds the main heat exchanger needs filling for the beast to work. I have no mains water yet plumbed to this room, and the tank top is too close to the base of the control cabinet to pour in from a container - perhaps 2 inches - it could be done with a hose, funnel and bucket but the other issue is that I need to be able to drain the tank to move the chiller as working is done on it and around it, but as yet I've not identified a drain plug. I must have done in before moving it here, but for the life of me cannot remember how - maybe an external pump?.
The the flow and return pipes that come from the main pump need filling with water and making into a circulatory loop system. If I don't do this there is a probability of destroying the pump ceramic seals if run dry.
. . . still it's progress of a sort :thumbup:
awemawson:
So next I rigged up a loop for the flow and return and primed it with water, and then pumped several buckets full of water into the main tank - all good so far.
I then connected up to 415V, crossed my fingers and switched on. No dramas and an indication on the temperature control of current tank temperature. Still all good until the compressor - that BIG blue compressor lump switched on, and the MCB for the 415v tripped. OK it's only a 16A 'B' rated one. I upped it to 32 amp, again a 'B' rating as that's all I had - still trips. Without the compressor running the load is only 5.7 amps per phase.
Pushing my luck I installed (as a temporary measure) a 50 amp 'C' rated breaker being the only spare 'C' that I had to hand. Works fine - running current is about 15 amps per phase AND the temperature is dropping. It got down to 7.1 degrees when I heard the dripping of a significant leak :bugeye:
Main pump seal is FUBAR so I started siphoning out the tank, but a fair amount is going to end up on the floor to evaporate :bang:
Will_D:
Hi Andrew,
You make my "little problems" seem totally insignificant!!
Keep up the great work, "Nil Illegitimum, Nil Carborundum"
Regards to the pigs!!
Cheers
Will, Malahide.ie
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