Hi,

I am a first time poster here, but a lurker for the past several months.

My "Home" board is DirtyGrout.com as my main focus is now T&G cleaning. I have been in the exterior pressure washing business for more than 10 years, but as I get older I think I want to go inside to work. I am getting tired of the dark, wet, cold, damp, danger (Metro Atlanta) and as the EPA CWA gets closer I want for something else to do...lol

My reason for posting here is that I am searching for the blower (blower ONLY) from a TM. Looking for 600 CFM or more.

Don't mind new or used, but would prefer to buy locally if possible. Since I am new to this field I don't even know the places around Atlanta to look that might have something like what I need.

I am designing and building a custom rig to meet very specific purposes and needs, and a blower is the last piece of that puzzle before I start putting everything together in a few weeks.

95% + of my work is commercial. I have little or no interest in doing residential work. A future step will be carpet cleaning, and from what I have learned I am sold on encapsulation. As that evolves I may be more active here, but I may have already found a good teacher who is also a member here (Hi Rick).

Don't know if this will get much response since I don't know how many here even work with TM's but it's at least worth a shot to ask!

THANKS for any information you might have to point me in the right direction.

Patrick

Hi Patrick should of knbown you would find your way here sooner or later you sniff out money better than anyone i know lol! You can find a blower a jondon http://www.jon-doninc.com/catalog/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=blower but trust me they don't give them away. Also Truckmounts and Cleaning Solutions might have one off 85 they would probably be a little more resonable. But first I would try Duane (*owner) at Acclerated Cleaning http://www.acceleratedcleaning.com/
these are all local

“you sniff out money better than anyone i know”, you say…

Anyone who knows me knows that I am not cheap, but I am definitely thrifty and practical. Generous to a fault with my friends and family, but always looking for a way to do it better and have it cost less when possible, ESPECIALLY for a big ticket item like a TM.

As far as stuff like this is concerned, I have acquired a life-long reputation for being able to do what others could not do, or when others said that couldn’t be done, and I can usually do it for less $$ than anyone expected me to be able to do it for. This will not be the first time for this if, no, when it works. When I was 12 I fixed a lawn mower that a shop had discarded, made enough $$ with it to buy and fix a motorcycle that someone else couldn’t get fixed and sold cheap, fixed it up, traded up to the one I painted and rode for 3 years, age 14-15-16. I will never forget that red Honda 305 dream, electric start, twin cyl and pipes w/megs, a cool ride for a 14 year old in 1964 in South Florida.

More recently, reasons for needing this pump are that coming from an exterior pressure washing background, still doing a good bit of flat-surface work, but also wanting to come inside to clean T&G, and later carpets, I need to expand my capabilities, equipment wise.

Rick, you have seen my postings on DG.com about wanting to design and build a rig that uses modular components that are affordable, easily replaceable and
interchangeable, where no one single part costs more than say, $1K or so (trailer and hotbox might exceed that by just a little), and so you don’t take a beating on resale (You buy a new TM for say, $10K - $15K that is worth maybe ½ that in a few years) value, and if it needs maintenance, repairs, parts, the whole rig is down until you get it back, whenever that is. Also, for me, a TM also has limited capability for psi and gpm on the high side that I need for exterior concrete cleaning, so spending $10 - $12 - $15K or more on a TM is not acceptable for me.

This blower I am looking for is the very last piece of the puzzle, and I will also get it done for way less than the $1K - $2K that a new TM blower might cost, and I am still looking around to see what else I can find, and exploring all options I can think of.

The result of what I am working on will be a trailer-mounted unit that can adjust pressure down to 150psi / 2.5gpm for carpets, to a pressure and flow acceptable for T&G that falls somewhere in the middle, to the capability to generate 4,000psi @ 8+ gpm to clean large areas of exterior concrete. It will be able to operate all three functions with variable pressure and flow, with hot or cold water, can carry 300+ gal of fresh water, and extract and recover to a second 300+ gal storage tank of dirty water (but not at the same time, both tanks being full will weigh too much to tow and will have to have one empty tank to recover from the full fresh water tank anyway).

It will be able to do ANYTHING (I can think of) that an expensive TM can do, and will also have several functions that a TM does not.

All separate components will be fully modular and interchangeable with quick connects, all with replaceable components, meaning ZERO downtime for maintenance or repairs, all set up on a trailer for somewhere around $7,000 including the trailer, less the attachments.

All separate components will be fully modular and interchangeable with quick connects, all with replaceable components, meaning ZERO downtime for maintenance or repairs, all set up on a trailer for somewhere around $7,500 INCLUDING the trailer.

One further step I plan to make is to be able to filter the recovered water down to 5 microns, pump it back to the supply tank and reuse it for exterior work so I have a closed loop system and can run all day without refilling fresh water tank (other than evaporation, and what is not extracted etc.). This function will only work for exterior cleaning, as gray water is fine for that, but not for the clean rinse needed for interior T&G. It will also be in full compliance with current EPA CWA water reclaim / recovery laws. This part will not fall into that $7,000 price, but will keep me in business for exterior pressure cleaning from a being EPA legal standpoint.

As I said, the last part of the puzzle is the pump, and I am looking at TM blowers, but also seriously looking at high cfm (600 – 1,200) squirrel cage blowers that I can run off either house current or a generator. Everything on this rig will also be self- supported so I can work without needing a source for water or electricity when doing exterior concrete cleaning at night.

I have looked into TM pumps some more since I posted this last night, and even more sure that the price of them might make it prohibitive. I see portys running around 200 cfm, and I see TM’s running anywhere from 200 – 800 or so cfm.

Already know about cfm, also know about lift (essentially torque). From a Physics standpoint, if you can create a total vacuum, and have enough air movement OUT of the storage tank, you will create a strong vacuum at the end of the suction hose feeding to the tank. I can create that with enough vacuum pulling air out of the tank. These pumps are less than $200 for a pump in that 600 – 1,200 cfm range and could be combined at that price (will tell you how I plan to do that on request).

Maybe 2-3 weeks away from having this all up and running after I decide how I want to go in terms of a blower…

Keep ya posted Rick, you and BZ will be among the first to see it up and running.

Later,

Patrick