I have read a little about a circulation fan that a few people have installed in their BS. Is there an accessory for this, or is this strictly home-brew?
follow this link... look around at all the info here... impressive...
about half way down is the fan info...
http://susan.rminor.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=180
you gotta eat...
owrstrich
Quote...this strictly home-brew?
Yepper it is.
Does anyone have pictures of what you have to do to reverse the fan? Like what parts you have to take apart?
Some easy steps?
Thanks
you don't reverse the fan, you reverse the motor direction. Selection of a reversible motor is of course paramount.
mld
I meant the motor is there any pics that show how to reverse this motor? Not sure where to try and pry it apart ?
I will try to explain how I did it. I used this motor http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/wwg/itemDetailsRender.shtml?ItemId=1611772183
If you look at the picture of the motor in the link you will see the shaft is facing you. around the shaft is the bearing cap which is attached by long screws coming through the rear bearing cap. If you look and compare the two bearing caps the front one is thicker and it is threaded to accept the two screws and hold it all together. If the motor is being mounted from the back like it is on Old's site here; http://susan.rminor.com/forums/showthread.php?t=186 you want to remove both bearing caps, pull out the shaft which has the armature (I think that's what it's called) on it and reverse it. Now, if you are looking at the picture in my first link the shaft will now be sticking out the rear of the motor. When you reinstall the bearing caps make sure you put the deeper one (which used to be on the front) onto the back (opposite the shaft). I found the easiest way to remove the rear bearing cap was to gently tap the shaft at the rear of the motor with a small punch. This, of course after you have removed the two screws that hold it on. Now you should have the shaft with the armature and the front bearing cap still on it. To remove this I opened my vise and hung the armature by the bearing cap and gently tapped the bearing race. The race is the portion of the bearing right next to the shaft. This gently knocked the remaining bearing cap off. My motor was exactly as the photo in the first link. When I was done the mounting screws and bearing caps where still in the same position as in this picture. The only difference is the shaft is now sticking out the back (opposite side of the label facing you in the photo) and the motor runs counter clockwise.
I hope you can follow this... I guess I should have taken photos when I did mine.
Mike
Mike with your directions that was very easy I now have it ccw.
Thanks much,
Scott
Excellent!
Sometimes it's hard to explain things like this in writing vs showing it in person. I really should have taken a few photos when I did it.
Glad it worked for you.
Mike
Quote from: owrstrich on December 10, 2006, 11:35:43 AM
follow this link... look around at all the info here... impressive...
about half way down is the fan info...
http://susan.rminor.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=180
you gotta eat...
owrstrich
Hi when I try to follow link, both by clicking and copy and paste it is dead end. Is there an updated link? Thanks.
Hi Migo
Here is a link that works. I think Olds changed the server since this post but here is the thread that is refered to.
http://www.susanminor.org/forums/showthread.php?t=186
Have a look around the rest of the site, there are some great recipes there.
Mike
I need to find the time to get my fan installed.
nepas
I also posted this on the recipe site also. I'm getting ready to install my fan; hopefully this weekend. Since most of the heat transfer problems are at the rear of the smoker, I prefer installing the fan to blow in a CW direction (moving air towards the door). I understand the concept of placing a collar on the fan to prevent the air from blowing directly on the food, but is it a full collar, or half collar. If it is not a full collar would I mount the collar on the top, side (if so which side), or the bottom. My convection oven has a covering that pulls air from the front and expels it through several openings in the side of the covering, but if I set it up that way, I would have to set the fan to run CCW, which defeats what I wan to accomplish. At the fan's rated speed, would it make that much of a difference to have a small draft that will move across the food?
There may be pictures on the recipe site that shows the collar, but my browser is not downloading all the pictures, and some pictures will only partially download.
Habs
I just went through the posts on Olds site and there aren't any photos of a collar. My first thought would be to just have the shield constructed in such a way to protect any food on the lowest shelf from direct exposure to the air current from the fan. I'm not sure if the fan blowing at the door will affect the pucks on the burner. The air comes off the fan at roughly a 45 degree angle which may also push air through the front portion of the V-pan vents. I'm not sure... just thinking out loud.
Mike
Mike;
Thanks.
I know you installed your fan CCW, are you finding more temperature variation towards the back of the unit, or does the fan move the air enough that the air is moving more uniformly throughout the cabinet, and not more up the back wall?
Habs
I do find there is a little more heat at the rear of the cabinet. On a long smoke I will rotate racks front to back only once. When I'm doing jerky, because I usually do a big load, it takes a little while to get the cabinet temp back up when I first load it. So the heating element doesn't shut off till about the same time my smoke is completed (1 hr 20 min). I then do 1 rotation, front to back, top to bottom. Once I've done this I never have to rotate the rest of the time.
I would think if you are going to have the fan blowing towards the door you would want the collar to be a complete circle in order to do 2 things, not blow on the product on the lowest tray and not provide any air movement below the V-pan. The other thing is you will want to space the collar away from the back of the cabinet to allow intake air for the fan.
If you do it this way I would be very interested in your results.
Mike
Thanks for the ideas. I'm going to install it CW, for now, I only use all for trays when I'm cooking chicken part, sausage and salmon, Most of the time I don't use the bottom rack.
Later on, I'm going to purchase a small piece of sheet metal and see what I can come up with.