Clearvue CV 1800 wiring question

[PHILIP MACHIN]

For those of you all that have and installed your own CV1800 Dust Collector. (I apologize for posting here, but the Clearvue forums aren't as responsive)

I bought the pre-wired electrical box and the supplied whip is copper conductor, and the wires inside the motor terminal box are aluminum. Did you guys use any special kind of AL-CU butt connections or did you just lug it up and go? I don't think the wire lugs are even listed for the Al-Al connections inside the terminal box either. I have a feeling i'm overthinking this, but just wanted to make sure.

Thanks,

Phil

[Malcolm McLeod]

Are you sure the motor leads are aluminum? (I'd be very surprised!)
Could they be tinned copper? (copper coated in VERY thin layer of solder)

If the latter, just slap a wire nut on 'em.

[PHILIP MACHIN]

I think you're right. I looked up the wire designation on the jacket and it's 14 gauge AWM 1 A wire for appliances. It looks like the standard is copper and I'd think a 5HP motor would have thicker than 14 gauge if it was aluminium, so it's probably just tinned. I feel like a dummy now.

[John K Jordan]

Yikes, you had me worried there! Everything that came with mine is copper.

Did you buy the bin sensor? I ended up moving the remote receiver and bin sensor electronics out of my sound-insulating closet and rewiring to simplify the circuit and repackaging everything for a more compact installation without wires going everywhere. This required a bit of hand waving to get things to fit in the box I chose! I also put electrical enable/disable switches with pilot lights both inside and outside so I could disable the contactor from either location - simply wired switches in series so both had to be "on" before the remote could turn the thing on.

DC_control_box.jpg DC_electrical_shop_s.jpg

JKJ

[PHILIP MACHIN]

Yikes, you had me worried there! Everything that came with mine is copper.

Did you buy the bin sensor? I ended up moving the remote receiver and bin sensor electronics out of my sound-insulating closet and rewiring to simplify the circuit and repackaging everything for a more compact installation without wires going everywhere. This required a bit of hand waving to get things to fit in the box I chose! I also put electrical enable/disable switches with pilot lights both inside and outside so I could disable the contactor from either location - simply wired switches in series so both had to be "on" before the remote could turn the thing on.

DC_control_box.jpg DC_electrical_shop_s.jpg

JKJ

I thought about adding a disconnect switch in series, but my power box is going to be like 10 feet or less away from the sub panel it gets power from. Nobody else in the house is going to touch the breaker box, and I'm anal enough that I put sticky notes on the breaker saying 'Do not touch!' when I'm doing work on a circuit.

Right now I'm having issues finding crimped wire lugs (closed end crimp connectors) at the big box stores that are big enough to handle 3 wires. I might just go old school Navy and lug some ring connectors on and use nuts and bolts to connect them. Then the three layers of tape, but then I'd have to look up the torque requirements and make sure I had the right type of bolts. I think I have a tendency of overthinking this kind of stuff.

Also John, my motor didn't ship with key stock. So I had to go to tractor supply and buy some 3/16 square key material. I couldn't get it to fit yesterday, but it WAS like 35 degrees in my garage. So I brought the motor in the house overnight to warm up, hopefully it'll expand a little bit at room temperature and i'll be able to slide it in.

Phil

[John K Jordan]

...
Right now I'm having issues finding crimped wire lugs (closed end crimp connectors) at the big box stores that are big enough to handle 3 wires. I might just go old school Navy and lug some ring connectors on and use nuts and bolts to connect them. Then the three layers of tape, but then I'd have to look up the torque requirements and make sure I had the right type of bolts. I think I have a tendency of overthinking this kind of stuff.

Also John, my motor didn't ship with key stock. ...

Yikes, wasn't the key taped to the motor somewhere? Or maybe with the impeller?

You may be able to find the connectors you need at an auto parts store. The local electrical supply houses carry a variety of connectors for bigger wires. But if I understand correctly, I'm not sure I'd connect three wires to any kind of a lug - I'd probably connect the wires together along with an extra short wire to run to the crimped lug.

JKJ

[PHILIP MACHIN]

Yikes, wasn't the key taped to the motor somewhere? Or maybe with the impeller?

You may be able to find the connectors you need at an auto parts store. The local electrical supply houses carry a variety of connectors for bigger wires. But if I understand correctly, I'm not sure I'd connect three wires to any kind of a lug - I'd probably connect the wires together along with an extra short wire to run to the crimped lug.

JKJ

My motor came wired for the wrong direction of rotation. There are three motor wires that need to be connected together inside the box, and I don't see any way of getting around that. I do agree, that for the whip wire coming in that is a heavier gauge, I can use small pigtail to avoid mushing more than 2 wires together. I ended up cutting off the end of the wire, re-stripping it to make it "clean" again and I was able to twist the three motor wires and easily fit it into a 10 gauge lug.

lugs.jpg

As for the motor key, my motor box was pretty smashed up when I got it. I saw the tape where it used to be, but I couldn't find it anywhere in the packaging.

[Malcolm McLeod]

Looks like this may be too late, but BORGs generally carry split bolts - purpose built for wire junctions like this.
https://www.lowes.com/pl/Split-bolts...are/4294625951

In various sizes; still have to tape them.

[PHILIP MACHIN]

Looks like this may be too late, but BORGs generally carry split bolts - purpose built for wire junctions like this.
https://www.lowes.com/pl/Split-bolts...are/4294625951

In various sizes; still have to tape them.

I appreciate the info. I looked at them, but I didn't see any at the local store for wires this small. There were a ton of them for large gauge wire. I tend to play it very safe, and I feel pretty comfortable with the connections I've made. They were freshly stripped, twisted and crimped with a hydraulic crimper. I have wired up 300 HP motors with much more questionable connections while I was in the navy, so I still feel pretty good about it. (due to necessity and availability of parts while underwater in a submarine).

[John K Jordan]

...I ended up cutting off the end of the wire, re-stripping it to make it "clean" again and I was able to twist the three motor wires and easily fit it into a 10 gauge lug.

lugs.jpg

That makes sense. Sorry, I got confused by the term "lug".

The motor rotation confused me at first when I set up my cyclone. Until I read some more I didn't know that rotation needed to be so the bends on the impeller blades are trailing (swept back). I think I also had to reverse the motor direction. I wonder if the default Leeson factory direction is opposite of what these cyclones need. I read of some who ran them backwards and had poor performance.

[PHILIP MACHIN]

Well, I'm most of the way done. It would have been an easy day project if I didn't have to still meet my family obligations. I guess it's better to take a break and come back with a fresh set of eyes anyway.

The difficult parts for me:

1) Not having the key for the motor. I ended up finding a machine shop that had extra stock and they cut one for me.

2) I forgot to poke the end of the caulk tube so it exploded when I tried to pump it. Back to Lowes I went.

3) I'm a man-ogre, and while lifting the assembly to the hanger was easy for me, I ogre-sheared one of the sheet metal screws when I was attaching the blower housing to the cyclone. Luckily, I had more.

4) Installing the 4 pan head screws to hold the intake on, due to having abnormally large hands in that tiny area. It seriously took me over 30 minutes to put in 4 screws, and one of them isn't even all the way in.

5) One of my wall mount legs sags a bit. I'm not sure what the issue is, but I cut about 3/8 of an inch from the bottom of a 2 x 4 and wedged it behind the little arm that goes against the wall to hold it up. Seems to be effective, and made leveling a breeze.

The frame/enclosure is like 60% done. It passed the "hang my 250lb fat booty from it" test, so I went ahead and started putting the machine together while it was open and easier to get to. Have to go back and add more supports and a plywood shell. Not until I get the thing all leak tested though.

Thanks for everyone's support so far!

60392820055--C1A91DFB-E546-439E-BBB0-CB84ACB00B01.jpg


Phil