Reconditioned systems... The stuff we do.

[Duane Oxley]

I thought I'd post pictures here to show the degree we go to when doing a reconditioned system. Note:

• 
  * New gauges
  * New plumbing
  * New belts
  * New Idler and Idler adjuster
  * Refinished face plates
  * New wiring
  * New exhaust and muffler

...In addition to new paint.

The pictures speak for themselves, I think. (And, "Yes", this is typical of the extent we go to on a refurb.)


This "Hammer" system (designed by me, originally built in 1998) was delivered yesterday. Originally they were built with Briggs Vanguard 18's. This one had a Kohler 18 from a Prochem (I know, the breather cover says it's a 25...) we tore down and parted out.

In the demonstration for the customer, it delivered 250 degrees of constant heat, with the trigger held open continuously, at 600 PSI, through a wand with (2) #3 jets, at the end of 150 feet of hose... measured at the wand.... for a 15 minute period. (Of course, that temperature is fully- adjustable from ambient to maximum.)


It sold for $4,500, plus installation and included a 90- day warranty, as all refurbs do.

 

[bob vawter]

OHH YA!!!
I'll see you that an' raise ya this:

and this:

an' finally this:

 

[Duane Oxley]

Hey, Bawb...

All I kin see is a covering over the real story inside in your pic... 8)

 

[bob vawter]

Hey, Bawb...

All I kin see is a covering over the real story inside in your pic... 8)

Lookie insidetoo:

 

[Duane Oxley]

Okay, Buddy. You asked for it...

One of the first systems I ever designed: A 1996 Hammer, first edition...

A system I built out of old parts onto a FloodMaster frame...

Components from that old 1998 series Hammer shown above, remounted onto a new experimental (at the time) frame, per the original customer's order... (This frame has become the basis for the new versions of the Dominator (oil- fired or propane) and Nemesis (exchange) systems...)

And this was something I just threw together for a cheap system out of spare parts I needed to get out of my way. The frame came from an old Timbuktu machine...

 

[Duane Oxley]

Oh...

And here's the proud original owner of that 1998 Hammer then...

And now, with the new version of it...

What a difference 11 years makes... 8)

 

[bob vawter]

Nice stuff DUane.....have ya built any direct drives yet.....if not...why not?

 

[bob vawter]

No comment on the 650 HP unit........?

 

[Duane Oxley]

Nice stuff DUane.....have ya built any direct drives yet.....if not...why not?

Thanks.

No. I prefer to stay focused on slide- in's.

Next step... Water- cooled exchanger.

 

[joe harper]

bAWb....

Can you "rEBuIlD"..........mArY's......pErSoNalIty...???????????????

Or is it JUST......FuBaR...

 

[hogjowl]

Duane:

I could swear I've met that dude before. Is that possible?

Nice looking machine you rebuilt there. Great heat, too. I just hate seeing so many 36 blowers.

 

[Duane Oxley]

Thanks, Mardy.

You may have met Billy before. And you likely will at the Gathering here Aug. 28-30

Hammers with a 36 on them routinely cleaned at 400 feet from the truck Admiral-ably 8) One owner cleaned at 550 feet routinely. That says a lot for the vacuum ability of a 36.

Of course, you can over- drive them, just like a 33. (You remember about over- driving, don't you...?)

 

[hogjowl]

Yeah ... I remember getting to your shop at 10:00AM (your time) and it taking from then until about 10:30 that night for you to put a smaller pulley on my machine. I thought you would never get through with all the phone calls, lunch, and walk-ins!

 

[frankiechocolate]

nice job dude, but is it my imagination or has that slide in put on a little weight?

visit my blog, "the carpet cleaner's crocodile," It's chock full of great carpet cleaning stories.

best sat. ever!

Frankie chocolate

 

[Carpet Cleaning Fool]

Wowwie

 

[Duane Oxley]

No comment on the 650 HP unit........?

Sorry, Bawb, I haven't heard or read anything about it...

 

[Duane Oxley]

nice job dude, but is it my imagination or has that slide in put on a little weight?

Frankie chocolate

You mean the system... or the owner...?

Actually Billy has gotten a lil' bigger over the years. But I think he's about to lose some. He just retired from his "day job" and is going full- time as a cleaner now. (Full time for him means doing jobs he wants to, for fun. He doesn't need to work for the income.)

The system is a bit more spread out, or rather, "up". That makes it super- easy to work on. I revised that frame design on the next ones to be 2" shorter in height, though. It was a bit taller than it needed to be.

The original Hammer systems were 16.5" wide. These new frames are 21", which allows two mufflers to be in parallel and sit inside the frame nicely, as well as allow the Cat to be located where it is and have room to move back and forth to adjust the belt tension AND be easy to work on.

These frames can handle 33, 36, 45 and 47 blowers. The 47 version has 2 "B" belts as the drive system between blower and engine.

 

[Duane Oxley]

Yeah ... I remember getting to your shop at 10:00AM (your time) and it taking from then until about 10:30 that night for you to put a smaller pulley on my machine.

Uh. Huh.

If I've told you once, I've told you a million times...

Don't exaggerate...!

 

[GeneMiller]

Built by God.

Gene

 

[Dolly Llama]

Damn, Gene...you're a good looking woman..... :shock:






:mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:


..L.T.A.

 

[GeneMiller]

:wink:

 

[Ron Werner]

The blower exhaust. Does it do a U turn? Why not straight down and then T into the mufflers?



Bob, your blower elbow looks a little restrictive. Nice weld, but too sharp.


Question:
Can a Roots 59 be fit with an electric clutch?

 

[Duane Oxley]

The blower exhaust. Does it do a U turn? Why not straight down and then T into the mufflers?

Ron:

Yes, it does. It does so, to allow more length for longer mufflers. The system in the picture used two "Thrush" mufflers. I did that in order to see how well they would do, compared to the ones I normally use. The Thrush ones are considerably shorter, but I had the system ready to change over to the longer ones, "just in case". In truth, that particular system was louder than I wanted. But it wasn't outrageous. But setting it up the way I did, I had the option of swapping them out easily, if desired.

The blower exhaust tube, by the way, is 3" square tube. Except for the inlet itself (which uses a 45- degree deflector plate internally) it has no hard 90- degree turns, but uses (2) 45's instead, making it more like a "sweep", where it turns, except where it spits into the "Tee" and both sides of the Tee are also 3" square, with 2.5" tubes for the mufflers (which are ported at 2.5" each, in and out) to attach to.

 

[The Magician]

Duane, the mufflers look awful close to the vans floor and could cause heat damage.


Bawb that 454 650 hp is overkill for dat SteamGenie. See ya in Vegas

 

[rick imby]

You do beautiful work Duane.

Rick

 

[Duane Oxley]

Duane, the mufflers look awful close to the vans floor and could cause heat damage.

You have good attention to detail there... They look closer than they are there. They weren't all the way "on" and didn't have clamps on yet in the picture.

Also, keep in mind that because there are two of them, they actually run cooler than if there was only one. There's a lot more surface area with two to dissipate the heat.

But they were closer than I wanted. On the next frames, they were raised up an inch.

 

[Duane Oxley]

You do beautiful work Duane.

Rick

Thankyewvurymuch... 8)

 

[bob vawter]

Ron sez:
"Bob, your blower elbow looks a little restrictive. Nice weld, but too sharp."

you'll havta blame Steam Genie R & D....that's EXACTLY how they built them....and no it poses NO restriction at all......it's Stainless and required a TIG weld!

may we see some of YOUR projects.......

 

[Ron Werner]

If I put one together from scratch, I'd be using all the latest tweaks we've learned, copying the good things I've seen on the Big Red and the CanAm, and other machines.
No 90's unless 3" min and sweeping, keep the air moving with minimum restrictions.

Every machine will have something that could have been tweaked, in hindsight.

 

[Duane Oxley]

More stuff...

We bought several systems from a local multi- truck company recently. They're all of the same basic design- direct- coupled ("DC"), Sutorbilt 3M's, with the pump on top of the blower- very simple systems. There are some design ideas I don't particularly care for in them, for instance the fact that the exhaust from the blower is hard- plumbed to the mufflers via muffler pipe, so that to get the blowers off, you have to saw through the blower exhaust. (It also makes lining up the systems a pain to do.) But we'll be changing that in them as we go through them.

(I see doing projects like this as worthwhile, because it forces me to look at things differently than normal and remain open to new ideas. For instance, we recently re-did a Timbuktu system. There were some interesting design philosophies present in their systems, but I learned about a kind of flex- pipe I wasn't previously familiar with, that remains flexible even after hundreds of hours of service at engine exhaust temperatures. It's basically, "permanent" and can be welded easily. So I tracked it down and we now use it on our systems.)

One of the things I did on these systems was install a way to level the blower in relation to the motor more easily... something that is a carry- over from the DC systems we build new.

At any rate, here are some "before" and "during" pictures for you. These systems start out pretty rough, all in all. And we strip them of all rust, then seal and prime them, then paint them, before continuing onward. They'll have new Kohler 18's when we're done with them and will sell for $4,500, plus installation, with a Little Giant #3 and accessories (reels, wand, hoses, etc.), when completed.