You can weld can't you? Here - fix this!

Coldman · Sun Mar 15, 2015 8:30 pm

Oh man, that's ugly. Why don't you junk it and buy a new one?
"they're expensive and rot out in 18 months"
Why don't you let me 2-pack a new one so it don't rot out?
"Oh yer that's a good idea. Sooo are you going to fix this or not???"

OK. :roll

: Fan1.jpg (45.99 KiB) Viewed 2123 times

Sun Mar 15, 2015 9:10 pm

It's only welding, says the bean counter.

motox · Mon Mar 16, 2015 5:53 am

when my customers ask me a ridiculous repair question
that i know is unrepairable i say let me try one more
thing,i wave my hands and say "ABRA CADABRA"
well guess that didn't fix it either.
you need to replace it.....
craig

TRACKRANGER · Mon Mar 16, 2015 6:44 am

Impossibilities we do immediately

Miracles take a little longer

Don't know why its not made of Gal or Zincalume in the first place

C'mon, "Weak as" you guys - that'd be fixed in a jiffy, surely - A very long jiffy that is

Coldman · Mon Mar 16, 2015 8:10 am

The motor mounting plate and suppot legs were mild steel painted with 1 coat enamel. The "pyramid" top was mounted on a gal baffle with nutserts now almost completely gone. Fan was used to exhaust a food production room during wash down with chlorine based foaming sanitizer. The aluminium wheel although dirty is not bad. The colorbond casing is also reasonable. Stainless steel might suffer as well given the fan is never rinsed. I think a good 2pack over mild steel would be best. I started pulling it apart. More pics in a day or so I have another job on tomorrow.

Mon Mar 16, 2015 1:45 pm

That would eat ss? Crikey.

Mon Mar 16, 2015 1:54 pm

http://www.mcnallyinstitute.com/04-html/4-1.html this explains why. I now know lots more than I did 5 minutes ago.

noddybrian · Mon Mar 16, 2015 6:51 pm

Well at least the small fans only eat themselves - the larger ones eat anything that gets near them.

: beware of large fan.jpg (50.29 KiB) Viewed 2034 times

Coldman · Tue Mar 17, 2015 2:01 am

Oh man! My rods and cones just got violated and will never get their cheerful innocence back.

That's an awful tragedy!!!

Tue Mar 17, 2015 2:04 am

I saw that post at lunch. Glad I didn't see the picture. Last time he'll forget his keys and try to get in through the air conditioner...

Coldman · Tue Mar 17, 2015 2:25 am

Ok, back to the job. This is where I ended up yesterday.

First job, remove the wheel.

: Fan2.jpg (97.01 KiB) Viewed 892 times

Looks like crap, but I got the allan key to hold and with WD40 got the screws out.
Wheel is stuck fast onto shaft so I made a quick tool to push the shaft out.

: Fan3.jpg (121.48 KiB) Viewed 892 times

Wheel off. Yay!
Next job, remove mounting plate. You think those nuts are going to come off?

: Fan4.jpg (91.19 KiB) Viewed 892 times

Of course they will - with the angle grinder spanner.

: Fan5.jpg (89.68 KiB) Viewed 892 times

Next job in the next couple of days (fitting this between other jobs) clean up reusable parts and profile out a new mounting plate with the new plasma cutter hopefully arriving tomorrow. ( I got fed up with my el-cheapo Cut50)

Coldman · Wed Mar 25, 2015 3:08 am

A little more progress.

Everything disassembled now.
Re-usable parts chemical cleaned:

: fan6.jpg (38.81 KiB) Viewed 852 times

And materials for new motor support cut ready for welding.

: fan7.jpg (47.61 KiB) Viewed 852 times

going to be fully seal welded this time so it can't rust from inside out like original manufacture.

motox · Wed Mar 25, 2015 3:45 pm

resurrecting the dead
awesome job
craig

Rick_H · Tue Mar 31, 2015 8:08 am

Chemical cleaning...I'm jealous that's cheating... Lol

Nice job!

Coldman · Mon Jun 22, 2015 1:04 am

OK Guys, finally finished the job and documented it.

So the next job was fabricate the motor mount and fully seal weld it to prevent future internal corrosion:

: fr2.jpg (79.34 KiB) Viewed 749 times

: fr3.jpg (50.56 KiB) Viewed 749 times

Next I pulled the motor apart and changed the bearings. They were shot and they came from PRC. Bought some SKF bearings, got em out of the packet and they are stamped made in Malaysia. Oh well. Didn't take a photo of the motor, my hands must have been greasy.

: fr4.jpg (92.09 KiB) Viewed 749 times

Time to assemble the motor mount and motor and a bit of 2-pack. The wheel taperlock was not assembled correctly from the factory, the key had an interference fit in the vertical dimension and was bashed in. I had to fix all that up and re-fit with clearance. Then adjust position so wheel runs free:

: fr5.jpg (71.23 KiB) Viewed 749 times

Next came a stainless steel baffle that went over the motor onto the motor mount frame to attach the top cover. All fixed down with nutserts. I ordered it from a sheet shop.

: fr6.jpg (53.17 KiB) Viewed 749 times

Final 2-pack of remaining parts and assemble.

: fr7.jpg (57.41 KiB) Viewed 749 times

All done, ready to ship out. It will last longer than me. All fasteners replaced with stainless steel. Everything assembled with anti-seize so the next guy can take it apart easy when the bearings need doing again in the future.

Beer O'clock.

Drifta-X · Thu Jun 25, 2015 6:13 am

Dont be a shit kent, gafa and zip ties!!