G'day Guy's,
Where the double boiler idea was a good I did jump in with both barrels but it did seem no bullets were there as I should of read the fine print where 2 different sized boilers were used. :angry-banghead: . Anyway I came across a commercial toaster for free from Recreate where I used the elements out of it to make a heating ring where a 3/4" copper pipe can flow the product thru. So I ventured into the AC world using a 2400 watt Varaic I got off my Dad and never used. I did a youtube video and here it is below
Now after the success of the trial I got onto fleabay to find a PID and found one for $20. :happy-partydance: Where the PID, 40 amp SSR and K type thermocouple on a M6 thread was found in the package.
Well sort of jumping the gun here and before one can even use the PID setup one needs to be able to pump the product through the 3/4" pipe or everything will heat up and burn :law-policered: well a 50 amp breaker will trip and no bunnies will be fried, well maybe a magpie as they are so inquisitive :laughing-rolling:
I do have several gear pumps here where I have used them for pumping water and found the input seal leaked not too badly just a drip but we can't have hot fluid leaking out and rotting the wood base unit can we. I found an old Bronze pump so duly stripped it to find some wear on the sealing surfacing so cleaned off the surface plate anf got to lapping until all the wear and had some flat surfaces for the gears to run. I put the gears in my toolroom lathe gave them a shiver of a cut to true them up. On closing up the pump I found I needed a 20 thou shim and I did have some brass plate so I made one from that. Now as the input seal used a fiber based seal which had hardened over time I retro fitted to use a O-ring seal and machined up some spacer rings so the o-ring seats nicely and hopefully will seal.
Now as my other gear pump used a 1/3 hp 240 volt AC motor that became a donor for powering the pump and if the flow is too great on 240 volts I'll make a circuit where I can use a 5K pot to control the input voltage. A coupling was on the old pump and it did fit the overhauled pump so a new pump base was needed and thats what I made this morning. As I found the height of the pump to motor within a fraction of error was 50mm I daid have a length of 50mm RHS so got to cutting and welded it up using my new Lincoln Caddy welder. I did need to switch it over from tig and set the current to 55 amps for the TC16 2.5 mm welding rods. I did find it was welding hot so turned it down to 40 amps. Now welding 2.5mm TC16's @ 40 amps :scared-eek: :scared-eek: :scared-eek: never done that low on a caddy welder before. So this new Lincoln caddy seem like the bees knees for as it will arc off the inverter. :happy-partydance: :happy-partydance: :happy-partydance: .
I did find after using the 4" angle grinder to cut up the RHS and using the welder to fabricate the pump/motor base frame when I turned on the drill to drill the hole for the mounting pads for the base unit the inverter beeped and did every time I turned on the motor. I seem to think I should change it over to a 3 phase motor and use a vfd so I don't have the inrush current that the inverter hates. Then I can program the vfd to come over the sudden increase of pressure when a drill starts. :happy-partydance:
Anyway I got the pump/motor base mount fabricated and it's now sitting on some twisting wire ready to accept the rest of a black cold gal can of paint. That can has been sitting in my shed for years and I was surprised it had some gas left but now I have enough to do a second coat. :happy-partydance: :happy-partydance: :happy-partydance:
Well one more Lash to drink then the second coat can go on and thats where I'm at at the close of todays work.
Cheers Bryan