Tuna Can Blower

Why do they call steam raising blowers when they suck ?. 

On with the mater in hand, I've tired various blowers and I found the best to be the ones made from 24V ex-military radio cooling vans you could get these quite cheep at one time but with scarcity they are getting expensive. And as is my natural curiosity I've stripped a fair number of blowers down. Then when making myself a lunchtime Tuna sandwich I looked at the empty tin and had the idea of making a blower out of it, I took the empty tin with us when we next went to the supper market looking for a suitable tin to make the inner fan out of to me delight I found that the smaller tins of Tuna they sell would just fit the bill. 24V electric motors are easy to obtain of the net.

A few manufacturing shot

Material

Drilling the base of the fan the vanes were put in with a wood chisel whilst the inside was supported by a lump of wood.

The gap for the exhoust vent

The exhaust with its paper pattern

Soldering the exhaust

Machining the top and bottom plates these were made from 100mm dia ally blanks bought of the net.

Completed blower

And yes it does work I recon at that size it would be fine for smaller 5" gauge and 3 1/2, 2 1/2 locos

If you need a bigger blower you'd just have to find some bigger cans.

Stew

Edited By Stewart Hart on 22/01/2020 13:54:23

Great job, well done.

I'm impressed. The only problem I have is that I'm a vegetarian so no tuna cans!!

Brian

Hi Stew

I guess it works just as well with salmon tins, great job !

Bryan

Lidl sometimes sell Dolmades - Greek vine leaves stuffed with rice - in cans of similar size, shape and aspect ratio.

Edited By Mick B1 on 22/01/2020 15:07:02

Smells a bit fishy

Neat job. Well done.

Great design and build Stewart! Well done. I chuckled when I saw your soldering photo with the cotter pins / split pins used as sheetmetal clamps. I've used them the same way.

Usually it's too bad when something you made really sucks, but in this case it CAN be perfect!

" If you need a bigger blower you'd just have to find some bigger cans. "

Watney's Party Seven?

Ed.

Give the tuna to the cat and you have won a can

Mike

Looks like you are into making metal underpants at the same time, see photo number 4 !

Granny knickers

I had the same thought Bryan it does look like a pair of Y fronts

Thanks for your interest gents and comments

Lets see some veggie based blowers

Stew

Just to add a bit more interest to the thread, when drilling thin sheet with a normal drill you can run into trouble with a ragged hole or even worse.

I was shown this little trick when I was an apprentice, grind a drill up with a little teat and a slightly undercut flat, this way the teat acts as a pilot and the under cut means that only the edge of the drill cuts, it cuts out a washer out and you end up with a nice clean hole.

Stew

Might be OK for a veggie, but def not for a vegan? They would only have vegetarian cats, at best (presumably).🙂

Very neat Stuart, and a basic answer to "Why do they call steam raising blowers when they suck ? "

Called blowers because the air is pushed (blown) by the centrifugal action in this case, causing a reduction in air pressure on the inside of the rotor. The atmospheric pressure pushes air into this space to achieve equilibrium.

Paul.

That's a neat dodge, Stew.

Do you know - does anybody know - if it would work with a lip-and-spur drill as commonly used for wood, or are they too soft for metal?

George B

Recycling

More likely because they take the place of a conventional stem blower which pushes steam up the chimbley to create a draught?

Neil

Again, an Engineer showing his ancestry going back to the Greek root for Ingenious.

Definitely a Like!

Howard