Small blower required,
I am looking for a small organ blower which will produce 13" WG. 240V prefered or without drive. Can arrange collection from UK or Netherlands. Best regards Nick

You need something like http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Ametek-Windjammer-Rotron-240V-3-5A-Blower-Vacuum_W0QQitemZ320190034201QQihZ011QQcategoryZ42924QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD2VQQcmdZViewItem I've been using the 110V version of these blowers here in the US and they work great. It was actually Bob Essex (Many Thanks Bob !!) who turned me onto these in the first place, as he used one for his mechanical bagpipes !! All you need is a multiturn-pot and a 10V DC supply to be able to control the speed fairly well. You would certainly be able to get 13" W.G. Unfortunately all the auctions for the 240V ones on EBay at the moment are located in the US. Not sure how much shipping would be for these. You might be able to find one in a surplus store. Stephen

Small blower required
Send an email to Alan Pell: alan@alanpell.com He may be able to help - his small 'Mini 20' organ is blower-driven. Peter Jordan

Hi Folks, Many thanks for information, I have risked a few dollars on a windjammer and as my son is in California he can do a little transport. Again its not what you know its who you know. Many thanks Nick

Hi Nick and all Imoders When you get your Ametek Windjammer let me know and I can give you a few tips. For instance, a separate potentiometer is not needed to control the speed as the blower has one already inside a little hole in the side of the casing. Buying a 110 volt version is no problem either. A centre-tapped primary winding of a 240 volt mains transformer will give you 120 volts AC in Auto-Transformer mode, which will be just fine for the blower. If the secondary winding of the transformer is about 6 volts, then a little bridge rectifier and a capacitor will provide the 6 - 9 volts DC required for the blower's reference voltage circuit which is used to control the speed. I have a specification and colour chart for the wiring. Bob Essex bobessex@aol.com www.bobessex.co.uk

Hi Nick and all Imoders When you get your Ametek Windjammer let me know and I can give you a few tips. For instance, a separate potentiometer is not needed to control the speed as the blower has one already inside a little hole in the side of the casing. Buying a 110 volt version is no problem either. A centre-tapped primary winding of a 240 volt mains transformer will give you 120 volts AC in Auto-Transformer mode, which will be just fine for the blower. If the secondary winding of the transformer is about 6 volts, then a little bridge rectifier and a capacitor will provide the 6 - 9 volts DC required for the blower's reference voltage circuit which is used to control the speed. I have a specification and colour chart for the wiring. Bob Essex bobessex@aol.com www.bobessex.co.uk

Hi Bob, It's got more than 2 wires !!!!!????? Too right I,ll need some help, I mean what does a colour blind agricultural engineer normally do with more than 2 wires - answers in the Queens english only please. Cheers Nick

Bad news Nick - There are FIVE wires on the Ametek blower!!! Don't panic! They are connected thus: Green goes to Ground or Earth. White and Black are the Live and Neutral connections respectively to Mains 240v. Red and Blue are connected to a low DC voltage, about 6 Volts. - Positive to Red, Negative to Blue. You can use a small battery, but I generally use a plug-top DC power supply of about 6 volts connected to the same mains supply as the blower itself. The DC current drawn is very small. The speed, and hence the wind pressure, is adjusted using a tiny screwdriver on the potentiometer at the side of the blower casing. The blower can be adjusted to deliver up to 22 inches W.G. I have several of these great little blowers. I use one of them to deliver 13" W.G. to the big bass pipes and the trumpets in "King Solomon"; another blows the Mk1 bagpipe machine at about 10" W.G. Sadly they are not powerful enough to deliver 33" of wind for the Mk2 Great Highland Bagpipes (McLOUD) and for that I use a vacuum cleaner turbine as a blower, with a speed controller in the circuit. Bob Essex WWW.bobessex.co.uk

There are two types of Windjammer, one with the pot only and one with the pot and control wires. The pot with the control wires is in series with the wires which go to the connector. I connected a 10K multi-turn pot as a potential divider between 0 and 10V and the wiper goes to the High input. The Low input goes to the 0 side of the 10V supply. Stephen

White and Black are the Live and Neutral connections respectively to Mains 240v. I was re-reading this thread today and I thought I should comment on this. Since these blowers are made in the USA, I think the wiring conventions are probably be the USA ones - in which case White is Neutral and Black is Live...Yes, you read that correctly !! I couldn't believe it when I first moved to the US from England but it's true. The mains wiring in the USA has Black as the Live wire and White as the Neutral !! So you might want to be careful with that on the blower. It may not make any difference if the electronics are isolated but you still should watch out. Did you ever get your blower working Nick ? Stephen

Hi Stephen, In short I have a blower but UPS lost in in Bakersfield for about 15 days. It has turned up and will be heading into the UK during February. I will let you know how I get on. Wiring and colour codes are a nightmare, how in the UK we came to have a neutral as a blue on a 230V power lead and the very same colour as a live in a 3 phase 400v system is beyond me. Nick

Hi there Nick It gets worse - the three phases of the mains are now Brown , Black and Gray. These have replaced the Red, Yellow and Blue. So - Black used to be neutral, but is now a live phase. Blue used to be a live phase, but is now neutral. Red is always known as danger, and therefore a live wire, however red is now no longer used. Common sense seems to be somewhat lacking! Peter Griffiths