The air compressor in my barn is powered by a little Honda OHV gas engine. That isn't a problem if I leave the big door open. The barn has plenty of volume (25x36)
But it topped out at 23ºF today and standing just inside the open door makes it hard to do precision work, what with all the shivering. The other choice is carbon monoxide poisoning.
It's really slowing me down this winter.
So I need to rig some sort of pipe to get the Honda's exhaust outside without letting all the cold air inside. The muffler is 1" across.
a metal bladed squirrel cage fan by the door or hole in the wall where you want the exhaust to exit from, and then a several feet long exhaust extension to the generator. The fan won't pull much but it helps keep the gases flowing, just a plain long extension to the exhaust pipe could mess things up for the engine in the form of too much restriction. Overheating and such may occur.
I suppose you can't convert the motor to run on natural gas? Like indoor/outdoor forklifts sometimes are rigged for dual fuel.
My house is heated with natural gas. Last fall when I had it serviced, they declared that the exhaust fan needed to be replaced. Apparently it was not pulling enough vacuum.
Anyway, I kept the old fan. It still spins when I apply power to it. I wonder if a workable exhaust could be built around it?
Max
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Think about this....... When engines run on Dynos they scavenge exhaust with blowers.....
I would put a fitting on exhaust pipe of motor (maybe something press fit to seal- ID of tube match OD of muffler) with some sort of flange on it, adapt to something bigger in diameter and flexible and run it out wall near engine (yes even put the blower on it).... Also what ever extension you put on "exhaust pipe" if it has a fairly large diameter its not going to back pressure motor much, if at all....
Motor is so small you could probably use 2 inch PVC pipe and fittings to route exhaust once you got away from HEAT of muffler.....
Simplest solution would be to wheel compressor out side when you need door closes.... In fact why not build lean-to beside barn and put it outside permanently... Cur down on noise in shop at same time....
Dale
"Fear The Government That Wants To Take Your Guns" - Thomas Jefferson
1970 "Kellison Sand Piper Roadster"
When the snow melts this spring, I will move the whole rig outside. There is a good spot available on a 4" cement pad on one side of the barn. But the tank, compressor, engine and the frame it all sits on are probably 3-400 lbs. No wheels or handles. So until the snow melts, it stays where it is.
I like the idea of simply extending the exhaust pipe through a hole on the wall. It will require a 90º angle, but it seems doable. I could use copper plumbing pipe. If I use 1" pipe, that would be the same diameter as the pipe exiting the muffler, though there will be about 4 feet of it to reach the wall.
I've been wrestling with this as well so thanks everyone for the idea. Question about putting the compressor outside: what about moisture when the temp drops below freezing?
At some point I had a second garage with no heat (In Finland) and I heated it with a BN4 gas heater. I ran the exhaust out from under the door using a 5 foot long piece of flexible aluminum accordeon hose, much like the stuff you'd see in a VW aircooled engine bay... maybe a little thicker walled.
Well, I have this hose I use when I need to run my car inside. Not sure what it's actual purpose would be. But I just put one end over the exhaust pipe and run the other end out the door.
I'm wondering if I can position one end near the exhaust of the compressor engine and attach the a squirrelcage fan to the other to provide enough suction to gather up the exhaust.
Max
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I see commercial back-up generators (bigger ones are V6 Vortec) all the time at work, and often they're mounted indoors and the exhaust is simply threaded pipe.
You can get copper plumbing crimping tools, instead of using solder.
Yeah, iron pipe (of sufficient size) should do the trick. Next step seems to be to take the muffler off the engine and come up with a way to connect the pipe to the engine.
