Shopsmith Forums

I had to add one more hack...
Here is my second cooling fan for my SS. The first one was using a shop-vac to cool the headstock. It worked fine, cheap, filtered air and plenty of air flow. But it sure was noisy and added a little heat to the air flow. I've used the the shop-vac version for several hours straight with no heat buildup.
But... I did not like the noise. So..
I purchased a centrifugal blower from Amazon and a shop-vac filter from Home Depot that works better. No extra heat to the air flow, a lot less noise and compact.
The blower is rated @ 135cfm and very quite. Probably don't need that much air flow but I wanted to ensure it would pull air thru the filter. I used the adapter I had made for the shop-vac version, just a simple hose to hole adapter that uses the top flange on the inspection hole on the backside of the headstock and the weight of the hose/ blower to hold it in place. There are no modifications made to the headstock. There is plenty of room between the blower and the quill feed handle. The blower is from Amazon 3.3 Inch Diameter Shaded Pole Blower by P-Tech USA | TTB-1899 and the filer was from Home Depot a RIDIG VF4000 shop-vac filter.
It looks bigger in the pictures than in real life.

I like this. If I had a PowerPro headstock I would definitely try something similar. So the squirrel cage blower is blowing air into the headstock, correct? This gives a positive air pressure inside of the headstock compared to outside of it. Just curious if you ever find any sawdust inside of the headstock with this blower + filter setup? In theory, with a positive air pressure inside of the headstock AND with a HEPA filter on the blower inlet, you should never find any sawdust make its way into the headstock. This should certainly help keep the PowerPro cool and minimize errors caused by dust getting into the sensors inside the PowerPro.

Yea boy, that oughta do the job! I’d be real curious to know what kind of headstock temperatures you get when routing at 10,000 rpm for an extended period. I suspect that continuous duty would no longer be a problem. But if it still overheats, adding an exhaust vent would probably get you more airflow, and better cooling.

I'm guessing that creates significant air flow through the louver in the bottom of the motor pan.

I think I would prefer the hose with the new blower in a box on the floor.

Did you make the bracket for the filter? The one that bolts it to the fan?

I have ran through several iterations with my spare Mark VII headstock. I think it may have found its final destination as long as I'm around. A picture of the first and second one is necessary. The third one may only be in my mind because I didn't find the picture I thought I took. The third one was a reverse version of a shorty drill press. The headstock was on backwards with a spare jointer on the other end for counter balance. And then hopefully last.

geneilten wrote: ↑Mon Oct 05, 2020 6:34 pm Did you make the bracket for the filter? The one that bolts it to the fan?

Yes made it out of scrap wood.

RFGuy wrote: ↑Mon Aug 24, 2020 5:54 pm I like this. If I had a PowerPro headstock I would definitely try something similar. So the squirrel cage blower is blowing air into the headstock, correct? This gives a positive air pressure inside of the headstock compared to outside of it. Just curious if you ever find any sawdust inside of the headstock with this blower + filter setup? In theory, with a positive air pressure inside of the headstock AND with a HEPA filter on the blower inlet, you should never find any sawdust make its way into the headstock. This should certainly help keep the PowerPro cool and minimize errors caused by dust getting into the sensors inside the PowerPro.

I never had a saw dust issue but this would ensure it will not happen. I still have not had any heat issues since I started using this. Still working the headstock hard for several hrs at a time.

geneilten wrote: ↑Mon Oct 05, 2020 6:34 pm Did you make the bracket for the filter? The one that bolts it to the fan?

Yes