New Skimmer

[mojoreef]

LOL John you know me, hehehe.

I got a bunch done today and toke a few pics but left the camera up in the shed, so I will post them tommorrow. I had the wet neck gutter almost built and then the router ate it and spit it across the room in about 4 peices, I had to hit the router with a 2x4 to get even, lol

Had a visitor today. I was measuring some peices and I looked to my right and thier was a 6 point buck sticking its head in the workshop, must have been about 4 feet from me. I got a couple pics of that to..after I cleaned up the small ****oo I had...heheh


Mike

 

[SeaQ]

Sweeet!!

Mike, i didn't know you were into building rocket motors as a second hobby!! I'd offer to help but then i'd be drooling over all your other cool stuff and ya wouldn't get anything done!! :lol:
Being the rookie and having looked at the drawing have a couple of ??

Are the drip ledges on the inside or out side of the riser?? With them on the inside won't they interfere with the rising foam? Also are you going to polish & radius the edge at the top of the riser to help break water tension at the edge?

On the return to the frag tank, is the water pumped or gravity fed?
Is the principle behind the 4 oceanrunners pointing at each other simular to a euro skimmer?

Awesome design .

Don't forget to call NASA before you fire that thing up!!
Will be following this and hope all goes well.
Keith

 

[mojoreef]

Keith its like a gutter with a 90% top on it on the outside of the riser neck. So water fills the gutter and then drips over and down the inside of the neck wall. and yes I will flame polish it.
The unit will be feed with a mag 9 from the sump. The pumps wont be pointing at each other, they will have a 45 degree elbow on them so that the water travels in a circle. If they pointed at each other you would loose to many bubble to collision and if thier going into a circle it gives the bubbles good contact time with the water to pull organics.


take care

Mike

 

[reeffan]

Talk about ****oo, i just had one today with my beckett mixing box. I guess im not the only one making all this mistakes....heheheh. So, i really have to go to your house this weekend and see what you are cooking =).

reeeffan

 

[big t]

Your router is naughty Mike, First it nearly kills me and tears up that nice flange, and now it tears up your special part too? I would let it sit out in the rain for a while and see how it likes that! Maybe you should threaten to replace it with a newer model and see if it changes its attitude a little :lol:

 

[wanareef]

Mike

Nice looking plans. Can't wait to see the pix's. Are you cutting the 10"dia tube yourself or are you having it precut for ya? Do you have a "system" for cutting tube's?

Keep it going.... :lol:

 

[mojoreef]

Just been rolling it on the table saw against the fence Wanareef. then a couple of passes on the joiner and shes all good.


Mike

 

[Ed Hahn]

Mike,
The anticipation is killing me. Will you post some pix please?
Ed

 

[wanareef]

Mike

Sound's good. I made a little "sled" for the tube to sit in and stay perpendicular to the blade - I guess it's my turnig the tube into the blade that I get a wobble cut. I could run it across the jointer, but then worried about the back end getting caught and flying acros the room or hitting me as it's leaving.

 

[big t]

wanareef, what mike did with the 10" tube was slide it thru the jointer and once the front edge went thru he rotated it around with his hands and keeping it flush with the fence and vertical with his hands. It worked supprisingly well. We did have to take off the guard so be careful.

 

[wanareef]

bigt

Thanks - it's just the trail end of the tube that I'm concered with. Just in case it catches and the cutter head catching it and something going wrong. It won't be the first time. :lol:

 

[big t]

What I was trying to point out to you is that the 'trail edge' never really gets dragged across, it gets rotated across, and never really has a chance to catch. I have run smaller tubes thru the jointer and I know what you are talking about, it makes a horrible noise even when it goes perfect

 

[mojoreef]

Ok I got some pics, just the begining here. I have most of it done now but didnt take pics today.I will bring the camera up thier tommorrow. So here are a couple of the building and a couple of my new buddy.


Mike

 

[mojoreef]

And some more on the wet neck


Mike

 

[jlehigh]

That's a beautiful Buck Mike... I miss living outside the city enough to enjoy native visitors..

The skimmer is a courageous design to say the least. It looks incredible thus far..

 

[mojoreef]

Ok here are some more pics.
1= skimmer cup, its about 12 inches tall.
2= a close up of the wet neck inside the skimmer
3= skimmer attached to the neck and main tube
4= peice of the lower wet neck, this grabs the water from the neck and transfers it out to the main tube.
5= the other part of the lower wetneck. its a peice of 6 inch tube with about an inch taken out and then re-glued together. I beveled it so it is sloped towards the outer wall of the tube.

 

[mojoreef]

heres a couple of more

1=installing the lower wetneck
2=a close up of the above
3 the skimmer assembled

 

[big t]

I think that it is a little too small buddy. How do you like those little bessey clamps? I love them, it is a shame the bigger ones are soo hard to find now. Nice work!!!

 

[snobanker]

Hey mike I hate to burst your bubble but that buck aint no 6 point.....Western count makes it a two point.....lol... Hey that skimmer looks awesome. Great work.

 

[Scooterman]

Mike, I wonder about the 4 OR pumps, by design, the needle wheel housing turns 1/4 turn and out it comes, everything, not much to hold it together, not externally anyways but hey mine never came loose in the sump. Just a thought, I have three OR pumps, one OR 2700, w/needle wheel, two OR 6500's, I think the body on the 3500 is slightly different though. One good thing is the pumps are very low power consumption. Another note, and this is difficult for me to compare but I can't say that the needle wheel with air induction is actually the most efficient way to make bubbles, I've been running mine a few years now & I often do wonder about that, seems to me you could get more bubbles in there somehow. Sorry, just my opinion, don't know if it would be worth anything in this design, BTW looks awesome.