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  • Results 1 to 15 of 15

    Thread: Blue Retro Filter

    1. #1
      webted is offline Senior Member
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      Blue Retro Filter

      Hi:

      I got a care package in the mail from my brother. I sent him gears, and he sent me back tools.

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      Hopefully, they'll play nicely with the rest of the gang.

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      Some assembly required...

      -t

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    2. #2
      webted is offline Senior Member
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      There is basically no step in this process where I didn't rely heavily on the information posted by others. Thanks goes firstly to Steve, the godfather of Blue Retrofit line (icu2). But, there are a lot of other folks in the line: Alan (pondfishguy), Steve (avorancher), Ben (mplskoi), kby103, ccna101, kevin32 and more than I can remember. THANK YOU, ALL OF YOU!

      -t

    3. #3
      mplskoi is offline Supporting Member
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    4. #4
      webted is offline Senior Member
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      First off, I fiddled around with a couple of options for removing the central drive shaft. As Steve already figured out, it was easiest to just pull the three screws securing the shaft flange to the drum.

      Because I didn't want to remove the UV unit, I slid a short (~10" long) pair of 2 x 6 offcuts underneath the drum. These were just about the right size to to keep the drum off the bottom of the filter. You can kind of make them out in this picture:

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      With the drum supported from underneath, the drive shaft was easily removed.

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      My brother bore the gear out for a 20mm shaft. It fit like a glove.

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      Unfortunately, the existing drive shaft isn't keyed or flattened. Eventually I'll need to either dimple the shaft to catch the set screws (my brother tapped the gear twice at a 90deg offset) or drill the shaft flange and tap the gear shaft in order to screw them together. But for today, it'll do.

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      -t

    5. #5
      webted is offline Senior Member
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      With the drive shaft gear in place, I double checked the measurements for the motor drive gear. Fortunately, I ended up needing an almost exact 3/4" of shim on between the motor face and the outside of the drum. Because I'm an 3rd (that I know of) generation hoarder, I had the perfect solution: a sheet of 1/2" PVC and a 1/4" sheet of nalgene.

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      I marked out the flange diameter onto the nalgene sheet and drilled it for the motor flange. With that sized tightly, I marked out and drilled for the mounting bolts.

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      These holes were transferred to the PVC sheet. Without a nicer option, I bore the through shaft (3/4" diameter) and marked out for the seal ring diameter (1.25"). I set a router for the appropriate depth (0.25") and manually routed out a shelf for the seal ring. Note, routing PVC is messy, and requires a slow speed to avoid shrink wrapping your bit...

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      Everything stacked together nicely.

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      -t

    6. #6
      icu2's Avatar
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      Looking terrific Ted! Nice to have helpful brothers.
      --Steve



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    7. #7
      webted is offline Senior Member
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      With the mounting pieces configured, it was time to move back to the main unit. I liked how Alan mounted the motor near the back edge of the unit, so I chose a similar placement.

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      Ready, fire, aim!

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      Following that, I used the motor drive shaft to locate the shims and finalize the position of the bolt holes.

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      -t

    8. #8
      webted is offline Senior Member
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      One of the things I learned building a polycarbonate and steel greenhouse was to not build a polycarbonate and steel greenhouse (at least, not from one of those AWFUL Farmtek kits...). One of the other things I learned was that you could buy these:

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      I cut a few pieces of PVC tank liner, smeared them out with some silicone sealant, dabbed some sealant on the seal washers and pulled it all together. Because the motor assembly is almost all above waterline, it's probably overkill.

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      -t

    9. #9
      webted is offline Senior Member
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      Hi all:

      The solenoid was a relatively easy install, I just plumbed it downstream of the pressure regulator. Our incoming water is untreated (community well), so we don't really have to worry about chlorine removal. I may swap it for an inline pump down the road, but only if I'm really hurting for new projects...

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      The completed assembly, circa this morning, looks okay.

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      -t

    10. #10
      webted is offline Senior Member
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      Hi:

      Now, truth be told, it really didn't go all that smoothly. While I had most everything in hand and ready to go, I had to do this while the system was running. Our greenhouse keeps things toasty warm (the daytime work was done in the upper 90s to low 100s), and my gears didn't arrive until 2pm. By the time I got the chain installed, the solenoid in place and the things operational, it was about 11pm. I fired it up and the solenoid didn't work?

      It took a bit of head scratching before I realized the problem - I hadn't removed the old inlet valve! A quick koiphen search, a headlamp and a nut driver solved the problem.

      Get this out of here!

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      I picked some random timings, opened the inlet valves back up and started shooting some video. Success!



      -t

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    11. #11
      webted is offline Senior Member
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      We've been operational for about 6 days now. The initial video had a 3 sec "on" time, which I've since adjusted to about 6 seconds. That gives me an ~120deg rotation on the drum, which seems about ideal. The "off" time will obviously need adjustment based on the flow and seasons, but right now I'm at about a 10 minute cycle time.

      After the last three weeks of disassembling and reassembling the old piston/gear assembly (sometimes 3x a day) I feel sane again. The water looks great, and my only real pressing need is to increase the outflow from my moving bed filter. The 'original' unit was never able to deliver anything near its rated flow, so I didn't need to deal with that before. I wonder if part of the problem was right out of the box:

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      I'll post my own parts list here when I get stuff assembled, but it's really lifted from all of the other great folks on Koiphen that showed me the way.

      A few other thoughts:

      One disadvantage to placing the motor near the back wall is that the lid support chain needs to be moved to the other side, and there isn't as much clearance.

      One advantage to having the motor mounted near the back side of the drum is that I can line up the gear/chain assembly with the old piston mount and add an idler sprocket. In fact, the mounting flange on the drive shaft was welded to place the gears in line with that mount. You can see it in a few of the pictures - it's a piece of open square stock with a pair of holes in it that is attached to the back wall. My plan is to aquire another small gear, possibly even a plastic gear, and mounting it on the end of a short bar that fits into the square stock. The bar will have a slot so that the position can be adjusted a few inches either way. Sized appropriately, it can function as a chain tensioner, and take some of the 'belly' out of the chain.

      -t
      Last edited by webted; 08-26-2020 at 05:29 PM.

    12. #12
      webted is offline Senior Member
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      Quote Originally Posted by mplskoi View Post
      Cant wait to see your progress. Nice looking set of gears. SS chain?
      Hi Ben:

      Yes, the chain was surprisingly inexpensive, although it's only 304 steel. It's cheap enough to where I'd be fine just replacing it every year or so.

      -t

    13. #13
      icu2's Avatar
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      Looks terrific Ted! Well done.
      --Steve



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    14. #14
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      Well done, nice work!
      ....."Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.".....Mark Twain

    15. #15
      ccokeman is offline Junior Member
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      Now to find a used Blue Eco somewhere that is affordable!

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