Blower mod-- How bad an idea is this?

[David Fairfield]

My blower has a circular grille at the intake directly in front of the fan blades. That grille sometimes catches a piece of paper which then cuts efficiency considerably, even though its a small piece of paper. Then the paper scraps add up and I get almost no flow, and I have to disassemble the vent pipe and the connector to clean it out.

So I'm thinking of removing the grille, and let the umm, stuff, hit the fan. I figure the worst that can happen is it gets gummed up on the blades, but thats a 1x a year fix, not a once a month. Obviously the grille is there for a reason so... bad idea?

Dave

[James Stokes]

It depends on the exhaust. If it is one like what is used foe sawdust you should not have any problems.If it is strictly designed to simply move air it might be a problem.

[Mike Christen]

Take it off, its there to prevent some idiot from sticking there hand in it while its running.

[Dan Hintz]

So I'm thinking of removing the grille, and let the umm, stuff, hit the fan. I figure the worst that can happen is it gets gummed up on the blades
If there's nothing gumming up the grill, there will be nothing on the blades. A potential problem, however, will be the larger stuff. Imagine a piece of cardboard (or worse, thin wood) that gets sucked in. If you're lucky, it will fly through the blades and out of the other end. If you're not lucky, it will stick to the blades while spinning, and then fall into the bottom of the impeller housing when it's turned off. When this happens enough times, you'll have a mass of crap that will eventually jam the impeller up one day... and you're not getting it out once that happens, so you'll be purchasing a new blower.

Just a thought...

[Mike Christen]

I should have mentioned the larger objects as Dan mentioned, larger items could cause problems. I would think that most items that may get sucked into the blower from a laser would be small and just get blown through. There most likely is a grill on the exhaust also so any item that gets blown through would also block the exhaust. If you remove that be sure no one would be in the area.

[Jim Beachler]

I can't see what large pieces you would have from your laser. But then where does the paper come from?

If you have large pieces like that coming through of something harder, it could dent or ding the impeller blades. This would have the effect of throwing off the balance causing it to vibrate and eventually shake so bad it could become a hazard in its own right.

Again, I want to repeat that I can't see that you would have pieces that large from your laser.

Jim

[Marc Myer]

What about replacing the grill with a new one--one that has larger openings to allow the small stuff through, while catching any large debris?

[David Fairfield]

great replies as always, thanks!

Yeah the paper scraps are from cutting nonsense stuff for family members. Somebody needs a cute birthday card, I cut a name in paper, the middle of the O flies out and blocks my blower... no good deed goes unpunished. :rolleyes:

Marc pretty good idea, I can laser cut a new grill with a big opening!

Or I can just let the gunk accumulate. Its cheapo Chinese blower from Harbor Freight. I figure its gonna have a short lifespan anyway.

Dave

[James Jaragosky]

great replies as always, thanks!

Yeah the paper scraps are from cutting nonsense stuff for family members. Somebody needs a cute birthday card, I cut a name in paper, the middle of the O flies out and blocks my blower... no good deed goes unpunished. :rolleyes:

Marc pretty good idea, I can laser cut a new grill with a big opening!

Or I can just let the gunk accumulate. Its cheapo Chinese blower from Harbor Freight. I figure its gonna have a short lifespan anyway.

Dave
just add a grill at the intake source. this will prevent anything from getting on the blower grill further down stream..

[Doug Griffith]

If it's the cheapo HF dust collector that's red, I removed the grill on mine probably a thousand hours of running ago. It's still fine. My problem from day one is that the poorly built impeller is not balanced and the whole unit vibrates. If I ever get a wild hair...

[Scott Shepherd]

Could you put a piece of mesh over the intake inside the laser, so it stops those scraps in the laser instead of sucking them through the system?

[Dan Hintz]

Make the mesh an inverted cone (pointing towards the blower). This way anything that's sucked in will end up at the point of the cone and the majority of the airflow will remain unblocked.

[Lee DeRaud]

If it's the cheapo HF dust collector that's red, I removed the grill on mine probably a thousand hours of running ago. It's still fine.+1.

But I get the feeling this blower isn't a dust collector. If nothing else, I've never seen a dust collector with a grill that would catch anything small enough to get out of the laser in the first place.

[David Fairfield]

Its the green one from Harbor Freight. The cheapest :D Came with a big ol dust collector bag.

[Lee DeRaud]

Its the green one from Harbor Freight. The cheapest :D Came with a big ol dust collector bag.Then take the grill off already. Dust collectors are designed to deal with planer chips: if you've got chunks heavier than that shooting out of your laser, the longevity of the blower is the least of your worries.

[Paul Brinkmeyer]

OK I follow this topic, and I have the same blower.
so I have only had a few small scraps of paper sucked out one time only and block the air flow, nothing big but I had to take things apart to clear it.
So now I take of the grill in front of the blower and on the exhaust side, mine is setup so I never have to worry about fingers anyway.

Made a big differance in air flow, So I am a happy camper.

Today I am checking the lens, and as usual I put a sheet of paper down to hold the screws. And the blower pulls the whole sheet of paper into it.
Now I know I have better airflow, and I am really a happy camper.

So if you take off the grills on the blower, Be prepared for better suction.
Why is it called a blower when what we want is suction?

[Bill Cunningham]

My blower is something like the harbor freight one I guess, it's distributed in Canada by Busy Bee tools.. Just out of curiosity and because I thought the airflow was not as 'robust' as it used to be, I decided to pull the vent pipes at both ends, and see what the crap collections looked like.. I pulled the discharge pipe off, and there was a grill with nothing stuck to it, a bit of a scum buildup, so i cut the grill out just to be safe.. Then, I pulled the intake pipe off, and WOW I was amazed that anything at all was getting through the grill.. It looked completely covered with paper/card/crud/and scum the layer of crud was a buildup of crud that created it's own layer (see pic).. I cut the grill off without a second thought. There was just enough air going through to remove smoke, and barely cool the machine..

BEWARE: I think anyone that uses a wood shop blower should obviously pull the bag off..ha:D.. THEN cut both those damn grills out before hooking up your 'metal' intake and discharge pipes.. The machine you save, may be your own...:eek:

By the way... Thanks for starting this thread Dave..Without it, my curiosity may have not got the better of me, and could have caused a lot of grief..

[David Fairfield]

Hey Bill

Glad I could help. YOu know what I'm thinking now, those grilles are really just there to avoid a law suit over missing fingers. So, needless to say, after the grille is off, don't stick your fingers into the hole with the fan running. Not that anyone would do that, I'm just saying for legal reasons. ;):D

Dave

[Bill Cunningham]

Hey Bill

Glad I could help. YOu know what I'm thinking now, those grilles are really just there to avoid a law suit over missing fingers. So, needless to say, after the grille is off, don't stick your fingers into the hole with the fan running. Not that anyone would do that, I'm just saying for legal reasons. ;):D

Dave

Ya.. Ok Dave.. Ha.. I would never do this at home anyway;)