I’m soon going to be modifying my Harbor Freight dust collector. I’ll be upgrading the impeller to the Rikon impeller.
Gone will be all the filters and bags, etc. and I will instead be venting it outside.
The main motor will be mounted to the basement wall and my question was regarding enclosing the motor with some sort of a box and some insulation.
I am not doing all of this to make the motor less noisy, but I figure it’s easy enough to add the insulation and if it baffles some of the sound then all the better.
My question is; do you think enclosing the motor will cause it to over heat? I was planning on leaving around an 8" gap all around the motor, so the box would not really come in contact with the motor.
If space is not an issue the more internal volume the enclosure has will allow for better cooling.
Localized heat is the killer of motors.
Worst case, build the enclosure with an air flow option (cutout considerations). Top to bottom to allow cool in and heat out. A fan can be easily added to air in air flow. Unsure if or what it would cost for a big heat sink, but it could help speed up the cooling effect by adding more surface area.
That’s not a bad idea. I could even install a temperature alarm if I needed to
UPDATE:
Just in case anyone else is thinking about doing this I just spoke with someone who was in the Army ( he said they also vent outside) and someone else who has been venting outside for the past 16 years. They both said the same thing, that there will be no additional load on the motor, and no additional heat build up on the motor. Infact the motor will actually be pulling slightly less amps and will run slightly cooler since the load on the motor will be reduced. Adding an enclosure under these conditions would not cause any additional heat buildup.
