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July 20, 2006
Air Compressor and shop fan are now installed!
I picked up this used American IMC (Belaire) 338V air compressor a few months ago, and it's been sitting since. The motor needed to be swapped out, since it was 3 phase, and we only have single phase here, so Ebay to the rescue (Williamson Electric Co.), and a Baldor L1430T was on its was, along with a Siemens 5hp single phase magnetic starter and overload relay. The superflex hose covering wasn't quite long enough the way we mounted the panels, so a quick surf to www.mcmaster.com, and 4 feet of 1/2" and 3 feet of 3/4" non metallic B conduit arrived a day later. I wired everything yesterday, and when I threw the disconnect switch - nothing. It turns out the little metal heater strip needed to be bolted on over the overload relay terminals. Who knew! Note - there were no instructions, as they probably figure out if you're installing motors & starters, you've done it before. Once the heater strip was bolted on, the motor starter right up, but rotating the wrong way. A quick change to the start capacitor wiring, and everything was now perfect. It's got 3/4" copper pipe out of the side, after a globe valve, so the next project will be laying out the shop air system. There is a nice automatic drain as well, and a Speed Air 3 stage dessicant system which would be handy when painting.
For the really hot 95 degree 100% humidity days, a ceiling fan would be nice to have. At Home Depot, they had a 60" diameter industrial fan for $60, that came with a 4 stage control. The settings range from 3000 cfm/18 watts to 9630/107 watts, and right in the middle, 4860/36 is very comfortable. The 3 blades have a very distinct airfoil shape, which boosts efficiency compared to flat blades. I've got to find the time, and insulate/drywall before winter, and then it'll be perfect.
Posted by Z28tt at July 20, 2006 8:14 PM