Tech-ish... leaf vacuums

Years ago when I lived in the Shitty of W-S, had ridiculous leaves (like would fill an empty vac-truck TWICE), and sack of :poop: wife that spent every dime *I* made, I built one...

Started with a $50 push blower (removed wheels/handle and mounted to), a small lawn-sized dump trailer (extended sides with near free corrugated/galv window wells), built adapters for deck outlet/"blower" intake anf purchased a single (cheapest) length of 6"(?) wire reinforced hose I could find at McMaster.

Worked FANTASTIC picking up leaves (would blow them out from around house/trees/bushes first)... the real issue in my case was NOwhere to dump them afterwards. I'd have to (coal) shovel them out of the back and into another trailer (for transport to a buddies farm) or dump them at the curb for pickup (by city chimps... in 2-3 months = a 10' patch of dead grass along the road)

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*NOW* (sans POS ex and 2 dimes to rub together), no way in hell I'd build one! Would snatch the first "not beat to shit and somewhat maintained" vac I could find on CL/FBMP and get with on with it!
 
So here's the free beast.

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10" suction side and 12" outlet. The impeller looks to be coated steel. Its definitely heavy. The engine is a 5hp Honda that turns 3600 rpm. The fan is designed for 3450 rpms. The fan shaft is 2" but I'm thinking i can choke that down a little with a bushing. I'm thinking pulleys instead of direct drive. I'm thinking carrier bearings for the fan shaft with the pulley in between. Of course, this is all subject to change as I go along. I'm also going to choke down the inlet and outlet.
 
Damn dude, that's a Kice fan. It's meant to pull somewhere in the neighborhood of 3000cfm :lol:

If you have any other fans, pd blowers or rotary airlocks you're scrapping let me know. I'll buy them from you.
 
That fan needs a keyed bushing, I can't remember the style off the top of my head, but it's not really cheap. I'm pretty sure it's a Browning bushing and unless you get lucky and find it on eBay, you have to get it from Motion Industrie$$$. Typically on those fans you have two pillow block bearings about a ft apart with a bushing and shieve on the end going to the shieve on the motor. If your opening on the fan is 2" it will probably need an 1.5” shaft to fit the correct bushing. Save yourself a few hundred and buy a lawnvac on Craigslist.
 
awheelterd said:
That fan needs a keyed bushing, I can't remember the style off the top of my head, but it's not really cheap. I'm pretty sure it's a Browning bushing and unless you get lucky and find it on eBay, you have to get it from Motion Industrie$$$. Typically on those fans you have two pillow block bearings about a ft apart with a bushing and shieve on the end going to the shieve on the motor. If your opening on the fan is 2" it will probably need an 1.5” shaft to fit the correct bushing. Save yourself a few hundred and buy a lawnvac on Craigslist.
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You obviously don't know me well enough :lol: I'll be hillbilly engineering this thing to the nines. Keys are for fancy asses with no welder.
 
McCracken said:
You obviously don't know me well enough :lol: I'll be hillbilly engineering this thing to the nines. Keys are for fancy asses with no welder.
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Keep an eye on that bushing weld. I home brewed a screen cleaner setup a while back and welded a bushing and had a heck of a time keeping it bonded to the mild steel flatbar. It would look good for a while, then start to show cracks. I'm no metallurgist, but I have read about welding on the internet. My best fix was half ass and uneven preheat, weld hot with 7018, half-ass uneven post heat and beat the shit out of the weld with a slag hammer. That's the only way it would hold :lol:
 
awheelterd said:
Keep an eye on that bushing weld. I home brewed a screen cleaner setup a while back and welded a bushing and had a heck of a time keeping it bonded to the mild steel flatbar. It would look good for a while, then start to show cracks. I'm no metallurgist, but I have read about welding on the internet. My best fix was half ass and uneven preheat, weld hot with 7018, half-ass uneven post heat and beat the shit out of the weld with a slag hammer. That's the only way it would hold :lol:
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I remeasured this morning and it looks more like 1 7/8" instead of 2". I also looked up the Browning keyed bushing from Motion. It was around $40.

Tell me how ghetto this sounds....what if I cut out a round disc of say 1/2" steel and used the threaded holes to mount it in place. Find center, then drill a hole, stick my new shaft material through it, burn it in? Basically, jam a stick through a paper plate and mount it to the impeller flange. I know that puts all the stress on those three bolts but I might could fab up a key under the plate that would use the stock key way.
 
I believe in hillbilly engineering as well and doing /making anything I can to save a buck, but I have proven on more than one occasion that some times it results in a lot of time, effort, some money and you step back and say, damn why didn't I just buy one? I thought you were wanting to use it this year :D, was the reason for my recommendation to buy a used one. Some great buys out there.
 
89wrangler said:
I believe in hillbilly engineering as well and doing /making anything I can to save a buck, but I have proven on more than one occasion that some times it results in a lot of time, effort, some money and you step back and say, damn why didn't I just buy one? I thought you were wanting to use it this year :D, was the reason for my recommendation to buy a used one. Some great buys out there.
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I told my wife this. From what I can remember in recent days, my wife has never shamed me into working on something...until now. I said it would be cheaper and simpler and more than likely I would end up spending just as much money but she then said something along the lines of, "well my dad built his, surely you could do it".... :rolleyes:

So it looks like the gauntlet has been thrown down and I must proceed.
 
McCracken said:
I told my wife this. From what I can remember in recent days, my wife has never shamed me into working on something...until now. I said it would be cheaper and simpler and more than likely I would end up spending just as much money but she then said something along the lines of, "well my dad built his, surely you could do it".... :rolleyes:

So it looks like the gauntlet has been thrown down and I must proceed.
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When you are done, you can say I told you so and all the guys on NC4x4 did too!:lol:
 
McCracken said:
I remeasured this morning and it looks more like 1 7/8" instead of 2". I also looked up the Browning keyed bushing from Motion. It was around $40.

Tell me how ghetto this sounds....what if I cut out a round disc of say 1/2" steel and used the threaded holes to mount it in place. Find center, then drill a hole, stick my new shaft material through it, burn it in? Basically, jam a stick through a paper plate and mount it to the impeller flange. I know that puts all the stress on those three bolts but I might could fab up a key under the plate that would use the stock key way.
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Very ghetto :lol:

The bolts aren't meant to hold the load. The friction from the bushing being pulled into the housing and the keyway are meant to hold it. I don't think you can get it centered or perpendicular enough in the yard for the fan not to wobble like crazy and self destruct at 3600 rpm. Best case scenario is you only destroy bearings every few uses. Id go hunt around at work and find that bushing and the shaft, or poney up for the right bushing. Is there anything stamped around the edge of the collar or whatever it is called? A lot of the time they will give stamp the bushing series on the outside. It's not going to be a 1-7/8 shaft. That's the OD of the widest taper of the bushing, I would think it would be 1-1/2 or a little smaller shaft. Any numbers anywhere on the fan?
 
awheelterd said:
Very ghetto :lol:

The bolts aren't meant to hold the load. The friction from the bushing being pulled into the housing and the keyway are meant to hold it. I don't think you can get it centered or perpendicular enough in the yard for the fan not to wobble like crazy and self destruct at 3600 rpm. Best case scenario is you only destroy bearings every few uses. Id go hunt around at work and find that bushing and the shaft, or poney up for the right bushing. Is there anything stamped around the edge of the collar or whatever it is called? A lot of the time they will give stamp the bushing series on the outside. It's not going to be a 1-7/8 shaft. That's the OD of the widest taper of the bushing, I would think it would be 1-1/2 or a little smaller shaft. Any numbers anywhere on the fan?
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Looks like CMHP (space) 10 then 64877-1
 
awheelterd said:
Best thing to do. You gotta have that bushing ha
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So I'm here and I got the bushing along with the pillow blocks. Now I just need a pulley and a shaft. That ought to be simple....at least I hope so.
 
awheelterd said:
Might as well get it all in one stop
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He acted like they didn't have it. I think TSC has 1" in stock. I'll go check there. I can always cut a key way into it.
 
So I'm back at it. Here is the latest. I got the shaft mounted along with the carrier bearings and fan. I built two supports for the bearings and mounted the bearings to them. All of this can be moved. I have two options that I'd like the masses to comment on. #1... I can put the pulley in the middle of the carrier bearings and mount the engine as you see it. #2....I can slide one of the bearing support arches towards the fan and have the engine to the left of the arch. #2 would be easier putting belts on. I also need to put an idler in there, which I think would package better.

The only question I have is how short is too short when placing the arches in regards to the shaft? How much space needs to be between the carrier bearings or does it even matter?

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RatLabGuy said:
or, skip the alternative power, and just light a fire in the little trailer that behind the mower, so you just burn them as you go along
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A hot agrifab flipped on a hill full of leaves does this very well.
I know a thing or two cause I saw a thing or two.....
Total loss.
 
McCracken said:
So I'm back at it. Here is the latest. I got the shaft mounted along with the carrier bearings and fan. I built two supports for the bearings and mounted the bearings to them. All of this can be moved. I have two options that I'd like the masses to comment on. #1... I can put the pulley in the middle of the carrier bearings and mount the engine as you see it. #2....I can slide one of the bearing support arches towards the fan and have the engine to the left of the arch. #2 would be easier putting belts on. I also need to put an idler in there, which I think would package better.

The only question I have is how short is too short when placing the arches in regards to the shaft? How much space needs to be between the carrier bearings or does it even matter?

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I'll measure one at work today. Typically the pulley is mounted like in picture A. The distance between the bearings is normally 16"/18" or so.
 
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