my diy needle wheel dart pump

[spazz]

Originally posted by jnarowe
I was going to go with 3/4" pipe and valve. You think it should be 1/2"??

NO! NO! the 3/4" would be better. less restriction, better flow. i just figured you would use 1/2".

[spazz]

Originally posted by yourfishman
What happens when you mount your Dart NW pump high enough to pull its own air, and then you just plumb/direct the discharge to the bottom where you want it? You no, though a 2" pipe or something like that. Is their a problem with running your bubbles though all that pipe?

It’s almost like were going back to air stones again. (Except we
plug these air stones in. Trying to find the right pump and all.

I sure you have tried this already. What happens when you tried a hybrid impeller half vanes half needles/pins?

Roland

sorry i missed this question.

the dart cant push the bubbles down that long of a pipe with out the bubbles breaking and combining into bigger bubbles. even when its pulling air on its own the bubbles will combine. i had a super short piece of 2" pvc pipe on the end with a 45 deg fitting on it and the bubbles got twice as big as with out it. there is just too much air there and not enough water you need ot get the bubbles out of the pump and into the main chamber as fast as possable. the shorter the distance the less chance the bubbles will combine into larger bubbles.

ther reason air stone skimmers are still around is because of there effecient way of producing vast amounts of air in tiny bubbles, for little wattage. this is just the next step in making a more effecient skimmer design. more air for less watts, but also less maintaince too. air stones need maintaince almost every month to replace the stones. these pumps will run months/years with out major maintaince.

[Bill Wann]

Heres myn Needle wheel .

[spazz]

thats nice!!! he bill i will be on the road this wekend (truck driver) and will be going right through your neck of the woods tomorrow night. is there a chance you could meet me in gurney and show me your system? i would love to talk shop with ya. and maybe bring the camera along for some pics???

[rivdog]

Like the cone

[jnarowe]

Bill, that is friggin sweet!

[Travis]

I agree, that is a beatiful NW. If it doesn't work in the skimmer let me know, I wouldn't mind having it as the centerpiece in my living room.

[zapata41]

NW looks great but how come you didnt place more pins in it. the BK ones look packed with pins

Tim

[Bill Wann]

Ok , Here it is . The pics dont do it justice . This thing is amazing I would have never belived it unless I saw it frist .
It looks like milk .

[jnarowe]

Boing!

[spazz]

yep its mt bill blowing up there! look out below! looks great bill. but it will be even better with 2 of them on there.

[Bill Wann]

Well the number two impeller is made , Not going to put a center cone on this one , want to see if it makes adiffrence . There are 87 pins on this thing . Its a pain in the *** to cut all those pins ,but worth it .
I am overwhelmed at how well the nw works . Now I just have to get the body of the skimmer built . Should have it finished next week .

[melev]

That's awesome.

[Roland Jacques]

OK, tell us the truth, what's in the water? stresscoat?

Really, thats is truly awesome, foamtastic, it looks like another benchmark has been set. Now you no what you can use that 6'x6' cylinder for.

This wheel raises all kinds of questions. like zapata41 noticed. so the smaller dia needles and more space in between the pins.
how do you think that effect the performance?

what size skimmer are you puting that on? would controlling the rpm on that pump be a good way to adjust the output so maybe it can work on smaller skimmers without using valves?

congrates on the wheel good team work

Roland

[spuzio]

Are you using a venturi to draw in the air by itself, and do you plan to add an airpump to allow it to draw more air into it? Can you guess on the amount of air that is being drawn in without an air pump?

[dgasmd]

Bill:

You are making me sick over here man. That is extremely impressive. It doesn't cease to amaze me how you make this stuff look so easy as if it was putting together a cheese sandwich. Very very impressive to say the least.

[melev]

"...a cheese sandwich."

[Bill Wann]

Ima working on a wheel tonoght that has twice the number of pins .See howthat goes , IAm going to use two of these on my 25 inch tube to make a skimmer. I use a high tech , percision machined , chunk of two inch pve with a hole drilled in it fir the venturi . Took all of about 2 seconds to make , works good thou . Spazz shold be showing up tonight so it will be interesting to see what we come up with .

[gobygoby]

Hey Bill....about what size (diameter) is that barrel your using?

[dgasmd]

Originally posted by Bill Wann
Spazz shold be showing up tonight so it will be interesting to see what we come up with .

Well, I hope the national guard and the Chicago police dept are ready for that kind of action

[Bill Wann]

I think its about 18 inches or so .

[vic8361]

I've been folowing this thread from the bigging and you've guys have come a long way. Looking forward to seeing these skimmers in action with so much less power consumption. Way to go guy's
Wondering if using a blower on the smaller pumps will help as well.

Vic

[ronc98]

super impressive. Now that is ALOT of bubbles

[Sparkss]

just out of curiosity, have you considered making teh NW on the CNC out of a solid block ? Would that be easier or harder than gluing all of the pins ? Especially since you and spazz now both have monster CNCs. Thanks for sharing your experiences, it has been a wonderful thread to follow.

[Bill Wann]

Here are some pics of Scott over at my house . Had lots to talk about .