Nick Owen Posted May 16, 2018 Share Posted May 16, 2018 Hi, I have a Leister blower for my solid fuel forge. It just about gets the job done but sometimes when I want to shut the air down a little bit closing the air valve off just makes the blower obnoxiously loud. Does anyone know if I would be able to tell if I could use a plug in rheostat to adjust the power going to the blower? Thanks in advance! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted May 16, 2018 Share Posted May 16, 2018 Depends entirely on the kind of motor you have running the blower. I have a variac (variable transformer) controlling the speed on my own blower, but that only works on universal motors (the kind with brushes). Take a look at some of the other threads on controlling the speed of your blower; those will give you an idea of some of the issues and possibilities. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted May 17, 2018 Share Posted May 17, 2018 Are you cutting off the output air---making the back pressure go up and making the blower work harder. Or are you cutting off the input air making the back pressure lower? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Owen Posted May 17, 2018 Author Share Posted May 17, 2018 Cutting off the output, not input. I know that it would be better to cover the input but I was hoping that I would just be able to lower the voltage and reduce the noise anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted May 17, 2018 Share Posted May 17, 2018 Once again, that depends very much on the type of motor in question. Universal motors run loud, so a variac will definitely quiet one down substantially. What kind of motor is on the Leister? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted May 17, 2018 Share Posted May 17, 2018 Does it have brushes? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Owen Posted May 17, 2018 Author Share Posted May 17, 2018 How can I tell? (sorry electrics are really not my thing!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc1 Posted May 17, 2018 Share Posted May 17, 2018 Post a picture Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arkie Posted May 17, 2018 Share Posted May 17, 2018 Just to complicate things a bit...some blower motors rely on the input air to cool the motor, so if it's a unit, restricting the input might make the motor overheat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irondragon Forge ClayWorks Posted May 17, 2018 Share Posted May 17, 2018 3 hours ago, Nick Owen said: How can I tell? I would contact Leister, you never know they may have a setup. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwi07eOL-I3bAhVL4IMKHSj8DqoQFgh3MAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.leister.com%2Fen%2Fplastic-welding%2Fproducts%2Fblowers&usg=AOvVaw0TUgQOiuwkJKr6jsncrnrT Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Owen Posted May 18, 2018 Author Share Posted May 18, 2018 12 hours ago, arkie said: Just to complicate things a bit...some blower motors rely on the input air to cool the motor, so if it's a unit, restricting the input might make the motor overheat. I took it apart a few days ago and from my crude understanding of it I would guess that it does use the input to cool it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted May 18, 2018 Share Posted May 18, 2018 One option would be a valve that dumps the extra air rather than simply choking off the blast. I made one out of scrap lumber for my old JABOD, and it worked really well. Take a look: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Egor Brednev Posted July 4, 2018 Share Posted July 4, 2018 "DID YOU KNOW???? The best way to shorten the life of any blower is to overheat it. Common causes of overheating comes from low voltage and not allowing blower to use its own mechanisms to cool itself. This is why we do not recommend rheostats - variable speed controls; they slow the speed and lower the voltage." Is it true? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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