One of the big projects for the month was a new impeller/fan for the Ryobi leaf shredder/blower. The back story on this is I went to dump some metal in the local recycling bin and found this leaf blower that seemed to be in operating condition- I pulled it over it had compression- so I figured I'd take it home and maybe bring it back to life- well it fired right up but vibrated like a CR500 motorcycle- no problem I thought- just buy a impeller from the company and I have a $40 leaf blower. That didn't work out - forced obsolescence is the key word here. Well nothing else to do but make it myself and I did. This is a picture of it being built layer by layer- all 17 hours worth. Installing it was a bit tight- with the support material it takes some finessing to get the thing to fit just right- I got it all put together and made sure to wear some safety gear- leather boots, gloves and goggles- never know if that ABS could tear through the two layers of plastic covering when spinning at 8000RPM- It held together and I think created its own security by being to high flow for the engine and overpowering the engine when speeds get too high- It does the job though and is working great- have maybe an hour on it but leaf blowers aren't normally used that much- I figure it should do the job for awhile- next time I'll print it with Nylon and that should be even stronger.
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AuthorBen Hanks- Engineer with background in Engines and new technology. Archives
September 2014
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