I've been using a traditional Kirby vacuum cleaner body which provides enough air and was very easy to fit up, but it's loud. It runs inside the barn and is piped through the wall with 2" PVC. My oil, compressor, and 120V are also inside and run through the wall. I'm going to be widening my work area by 48" with additional limestone perpendicular to the barn in the next few weeks and intend to bury 3 conduits to carry blower air, compressor line/fuel line, and 120V line for blower control. Ill have to devise a terminal of some sort. I'll drill weep holes in the conduit and lay them at a slight grade with gravel in the trench as freezing is a concern here. This will bring me a more comfortable distance away from my 90 year old barn. At the end of my iron melt a few weeks ago my blower quit. Fortunately it was at the end of the melt so I still got a good pour, but it was a close call. The brushes were shot. They were worn evenly so there's nothing wrong with the vacuum, the brushes were just used up. I've replaced them before about 6 years ago so now I know that they are a regular maintenance item. The concern though is that when the blower quit I had fuel entering the furnace at 20 psi (hago) plus compressed air at around 20psi as well, and it resulted in a very large orange and black fireball from the sudden loss of pressure from the blower. The flames went back through the burner tube and into the air pipe as well as 3ft out the exhauset hole and all around the lid. Quite a show. Fortunately I have a 36" section of galvanized duct between the burner tube and plastic flex hose. I have shut-offs for all of the utilities in the white steel box on the barn wall. (See the video in my iron melt thread ). http://forums.thehomefoundry.org/index.php?threads/first-iron-melt-real-time.1101/page-2. The lessons learned for me is to have a backup blower at the ready and to have quick shut offs for all utilities at a location away from the furnace. I'm having a pole barn built in the spring so I'm having the site work done in the next few weeks. It will be a good opportunity to get my outside work areas the way I want them as long as the dozers and dump trucks will be here anyway. Pete
