question about motors?

[Dave Tesch]

i have seen quite a number of folks that have changed the configuration of their dust collectors i.e. mounting the motor and impeller housing 90 degrees off axis and higher than stock. i was talking to someone yesterday about doing this and this person raised the point that these motors were not intended to be run in this orientation and it may wreck the bearings.

its a valid point, maybe the motors are not meant to be run mounted with the rotor in the vertical plane - but my drill press motor is vertical and i see a number of other tools with this setup too. are these motors designed different so that they can run vertically or are all motors capable of this?

i have the HF DC (20A model) and a thein separator, raising/rotating the motor would save shop space but not at the expense of motor life. any thoughts?

[Josiah Bartlett]

Most dust collectors are built using ball bearing Nema Frame 56C motors, and can be run in any orientation you want. The bearings are designed for light thrust loads. Just don't plug the vents on the motor.

[greg leftwich]

my main dust collection system is set up like this. i took the blower from a 2 hp. grizzly and mounted it on the wall approximately 7 ft. high. it blows directly into the stock (grizzly) seperator which is also mounted high on the wall using the stock filter bag. directly underneath is a 50 gal. steel drum which is connected using the collection bag with the bottom cut out and attatched to the drum. i have run this setup everday for 5-6 years and have not had a problem. there are a lot of units designed with the motor vertical. i know grizzly makes a 1 hp. model as well as some others i have seen and all of the newer cyclone collectors have the motor mounted this way.

[Pete Bradley]

I don't think you're going to find a lot of 2 HP DCs with with anything other than standard radial ball bearings in the motors. Unless the impeller's obscenely heavy the orientation isn't going to matter much. Even if the bearings were the first thing to wear out, they're cheap to replace.

Pete

[Dave Tesch]

i'll go ahead and not worry about this then. thanks!