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Post by rhinokeegan on Nov 18, 2017 12:58:21 GMT -8
I made a draft inducer to help "jump start" my burns when the heater is dead cold. So far it's working really well and it's significantly easier to start a fire. Plenty of air moving through the firebox to really get things moving! This shows the "control box" It's got a temperature contoler with a thermocouple in the exhaust right where it exits the bench. Then it's got a dial timer so that I don't forget to turn it off. Mounted below the box is a solenoid valve connected to my shop air supply. The copper tubing (1/4") is plumbed into the exhaust and points up-stream leading out of the building. The air flow is controlled by the small valve that the tubing is connected to. I've got it barely cracked open. Because of the venturi effect this provides a lot of airflow at a small PSI. Here's the thermocouple and air line connected to the exhaust. I've got the controller set to energize the solenoid if it reads below 30c/86f. However it will only work if you set the dial timer. That way it isn't wasting all of my shop air supply when I'm not heating the building. I've got about $35 (USA) into this and I couldn't be happier in it's performance so far. If I experience any problems, I'll do an update. Thanks, Keegan
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Post by ericaus on Nov 18, 2017 13:56:26 GMT -8
That's a great idea keegan. I love the temperature readouts as well. I might make these provisions in mine before sandblasting and painting. What's the fittings on the thermocouples?
I might just weld in some half inch BSP sockets. Eric
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Post by rhinokeegan on Nov 18, 2017 17:57:27 GMT -8
That's a great idea keegan. I love the temperature readouts as well. I might make these provisions in mine before sandblasting and painting. What's the fittings on the thermocouples? I might just weld in some half inch BSP sockets. Eric Thanks Ericaus, The only fitting that I had to weld is on the drum. The themocouple had a threaded fitting (I think it was a M5 or something similar) so I just drilled a hole and tig welded on a stainless nut. All of the others are just a hole and some high-temp silicone to seal it up. The silicone is good to something like 600-650f so it's more than enough for the bricks and exhaust. I didn't bother with sandblasting and paint for my drum. I just used my big propane weed burner (think flame thrower ) and burnt off all of the drum paint and put it into service. It's just a garage heater so aesthetics aren't the first priority. I did briefly see 520c/968f on the drum interior earlier today! It was really throwing off the heat. Easily over 21c/70f in my 1200sf garage. Outside temperature in Minnesota today was about 0c/32f at the height of the day. Still not getting any work done in the garage... too busy watching the heater!
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