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Crafting / Fursuit
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More from Ialdabaoth
Here's something a bit different than my usual fare: a thing I made! This is a rather powerful fursuit head dryer cobbled together out of re-purposed components, which will be put through its paces in my room at FC next week (we've got four suiters in the room). If anyone else wants to build something similar (or already has), knock yourself out!
Component List:
* Triac-based speed controller with fuse
* Dual centrifugal blower unit scavenged from an over-the-range microwave
* Motor run capacitor for the blower
* Wires and insulated crimp-on connectors
* 10x4 to 6" right angle register boot
* 6" drain pipe end cap
* Small funnel
* Fiberglass drywall joint tape
* Duct tape
The funnel is inside the drain cap to direct the airflow 360 degrees. The joint tape and duct tape cover the blower motor and intakes to keep fur and fingers out. The components are all press-fit together and can be taken apart for storage/travel. And before anyone lectures me about it, the blower motor is mounted in a plastic chassis and does not require a ground lead.
Component List:
* Triac-based speed controller with fuse
* Dual centrifugal blower unit scavenged from an over-the-range microwave
* Motor run capacitor for the blower
* Wires and insulated crimp-on connectors
* 10x4 to 6" right angle register boot
* 6" drain pipe end cap
* Small funnel
* Fiberglass drywall joint tape
* Duct tape
The funnel is inside the drain cap to direct the airflow 360 degrees. The joint tape and duct tape cover the blower motor and intakes to keep fur and fingers out. The components are all press-fit together and can be taken apart for storage/travel. And before anyone lectures me about it, the blower motor is mounted in a plastic chassis and does not require a ground lead.
Category Crafting / Fursuit
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 1280 x 1024px
File Size 587 kB
Well, let's see... The speed controller's about $20 on Amazon, ducting and hardware probably comes to another $15 or so, electrical brick-a-brack another $10, and the blower motor would range from $20-$50 with shipping on eBay. So, parts alone would be around $75, plus labor. If we really wanted to make them, we could probably get the cost down a bit with Chinese parts, though there's also the problem of finding a blower that happens to wedge perfectly into a register boot.
You'll get to try this one out at FC. I wouldn't be surprised if we find it to be much more powerful than is really needed, in which case we could design something smaller, quieter, and cheaper, probably using a vaneaxial server fan instead of the big exhaust blower. Thanks for the interest; looking forward to demoing it for you next week.
You'll get to try this one out at FC. I wouldn't be surprised if we find it to be much more powerful than is really needed, in which case we could design something smaller, quieter, and cheaper, probably using a vaneaxial server fan instead of the big exhaust blower. Thanks for the interest; looking forward to demoing it for you next week.
It's the capacitor that it calls for on its label. AC motors of this type need a capacitor to phase-shift the AC waveform on one of the windings, so as to create a rotating magnetic field that spins the rotor. It wouldn't work without it, and it shouldn't have any effect on current draw, I don't think, but IANAEE. *shrugs*
*thinks about it* You're probably thinking of capacitive power factor correction of an inductive load, aren't you? PFC is not the purpose of the run cap, and it is only in series with one of the motor's windings. I'm not really sure what effect it has on the motor's overall load profile (again, IANAEE).
So it's actually a capacitor-start motor? Interesting, I didn't know they were made that small! What I usually see in that size range is the shaded-pole type. That's why I mentioned PFC, though I didn't remember what exactly was a run capacitor's job.
Capacitor-start motors are PF-corrected in nature. As you said, without the cap, they may start but then they run quite roughly. Otherwise since the rotor doesn't spin they would draw their peak start current continuously. In theory at least. I should check back my old school notes to be sure xD
Capacitor-start motors are PF-corrected in nature. As you said, without the cap, they may start but then they run quite roughly. Otherwise since the rotor doesn't spin they would draw their peak start current continuously. In theory at least. I should check back my old school notes to be sure xD
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