After going to 5 number 2 jets on my wand I realized that my 100 gal fresh water tank was just short on half of the commercial jobs now. Most of my commercial accounts have limited or no access to water. To solve this problem I was going to make a removable orifice tube fixed between the wand valve and the hose going down to the jets. After talking to Greenie he had added to my idea with the thought of using a ball valve and drilling the appropriate size hole through the ball part of the valve going through the area that would normally be closed. I checked my flow with the #2 jets and it was 1.8 gpm at 550 psi. I then put the #1.5 jets back on and got 1.5 gpm. I wanted to be around 1.5 gpm when in the "lean" mode (fairly clean areas that did not really need tons of water)and full bore (traffic lanes trouble areas) when I needed it. I wanted to be able to switch this while cleaning and with as little time / effort as possible. Here is what I came up with (thanks to Greenies input):
This is the valve body opened up with the ball removed.
This is how I drilled the .052" (#55 drill bit) hole through the ball.
After I drilled the .052" hole all the way through the ball I drilled just the incoming side of the ball out with a .1285" (#30 bit). I did this so there was only one side restricted down to the smaller .052". Then I used the #30 bit to de-burr the .052" hole, and a #25 bit to de-burr the #30 hole. Then I lightly used a very fine file to make sure the surface was smooth enough to not damage the seals inside the valve body.
This position would be full throttle.
this position would be in conservation or "lean" mode.
This is the installed finished product. At 550 psi and 5 number 2 jets it flows 1.5 GPM in the "lean" position, and in the full throttle position it flows 1.8 GPM.
According to General Pump's reference material the smaller hole should only allow 1.5 to 1.6 GPM at 550 psi regardless of flow from the pump.
When I finish building my new Machine the pump will have almost double the flow and the gpm in full throttle should increase but the GPM through the smaller hole should remain at 1.5 GPM.
There was no distortion to the spray patterns although when going through the smaller side the was little to no atomizing of the spray.
I will re-post when I get my new machine up and going and let everyone know how it reacts with the different pump configuration.
This is the valve body opened up with the ball removed.
This is how I drilled the .052" (#55 drill bit) hole through the ball.
After I drilled the .052" hole all the way through the ball I drilled just the incoming side of the ball out with a .1285" (#30 bit). I did this so there was only one side restricted down to the smaller .052". Then I used the #30 bit to de-burr the .052" hole, and a #25 bit to de-burr the #30 hole. Then I lightly used a very fine file to make sure the surface was smooth enough to not damage the seals inside the valve body.
This position would be full throttle.
this position would be in conservation or "lean" mode.
This is the installed finished product. At 550 psi and 5 number 2 jets it flows 1.5 GPM in the "lean" position, and in the full throttle position it flows 1.8 GPM.
According to General Pump's reference material the smaller hole should only allow 1.5 to 1.6 GPM at 550 psi regardless of flow from the pump.
When I finish building my new Machine the pump will have almost double the flow and the gpm in full throttle should increase but the GPM through the smaller hole should remain at 1.5 GPM.
There was no distortion to the spray patterns although when going through the smaller side the was little to no atomizing of the spray.
I will re-post when I get my new machine up and going and let everyone know how it reacts with the different pump configuration.
