Custom Aluminum Manifold - Pics

What do you guys think?







-Bo

Okay, I'll bite. What the heck is that for?

Rod,

It's a compact water manifold for my custom ballast system I'm installing.


-bo

Bo,

Is that one inch id on the sides for your intake to the pump?

Yep, 1" ID.


The 90deg. you see on the side is the main intake.

The 3 outlets on the top go to the suction side of 3 Simer reversible pumps.



-Bo

Bo,
Let us know how well that works, it looks freaking great!

How much!!!???

Ahh, now that's the rub Sandy. I had to scrounge up the aluminum, a solid block is very hard to find in the size that you need it in my area. Most companies that carry this kind of stuff have it in 12 or 20 foot sections and that's how they want to sell it. I happened to luck up though. A local Tractor Trailer repair service had a stick of aluminum that they were willing to cut and just gave it to me (I only wanted an itty bitty piece .)

And, my father-in-law owns a machine shop. So labor for building it was also $0.00. I had a hard time finding a Tap bug enough to thread the holes though. Most shops around here never deal with a hole that big.

So to answer your question, with the exception of several hours spent in the actual design (I'm a horrible engineer), I am no actual money out of pocket.



-Bo


P.S. I have actually found a factory ballast manifold. Mastercraft sells them for $129.00

Looks good. Let us know how it works.

Do you have a pic of the factory (MC) mainifod you mentioned?

Sure wish I has access to machine shop toys.

Jeff,

Sorry no pics of the MC manifold.


-Bo

129$ is cheap. I was looking at some industrial ones for more than that. Here is the pic of the hippo manifold, notice that it is basically a pipe with valves screwed into it at a 45, the inlet at one end going to a Rule 1100. I think that this one would flow better than yours, may be easier to copy. Ask Jumbo Joe, he was helping them design a new manifold, according to his old posts.

No offense BTW I know you put some time into that part and I'm sure it will work fine. Just figured I'd post the pic since I found it. It was from a guy named Chaun Keating that used to post here, there are actually two manifolds in the picture. BTW, Supra used to use the same valves, they are sprinkler valves of unknown origin. Note that the spacing of the outlets is important, otherwise you can't get the valves installed without dissasembling them and removing the solenoids. It's a cast piece, nice but you could weld something easily. This design is nice because it is so compact and sleek. Joe, since Hippo went **** up, lets see drawings of the new manifold you designed for them. Or sell it to us!

Cj,

No offense taken. However I am interested in why you think the Hippo manifold would flow better than mine. Both have a round bore through the middle and both have outlets on the top. Actually, I believe because my manifold is fed from the middle I would get a more even water distribution to the 3 outlets.


Regards,


-Bo

Here are pics of the manifold that I'm working on!




I just did some of the machining today. Ends will be welded on, and the intake hole needs to be added. By the way, what size hose/fitting. I'll be using a scoop for supplying water. Can anyone recommend an electric valve for the intake.

Doug,

Looks great. Where did you come by the aluminum tubing? And, how are you planning on draining? Do you have a drain pump for each sack?



-Bo

Bo:
Just an observation, it looks like the hippo manifold is more of a straight shot. I know that there are some industrial engineers on here that could tell us why, but from what little I know, it is inefficient to make fluid make a 90 deg turn. Probably doesn't make a big enough difference to worry about, considering the application

Oh, I see what you mean, but really that doesn't have anything to do with my manifold. Just the fittings I decided to use, right?



-Bo

And BTW, I have actually thought about the flow rate quite a bit through out this project. With the advice and confirmation from some of the people on this forum I decided that the 1" outlets should be plenty big enough to feed the 3/4" (5/8" ID) connections to the pump.

If anyone has any thoughts on the matter please feel free to comment.



-Bo

The one thing about aerator pumps, is that you can pump water through a pump that is not running. Here is a schematic.

ballest.BMP (15.2 k)

Interesting concept. Have you actually tried this in practice? It seems that you might not be able to get much flow through those pumps.

For your valves, are you just going to manually open and close them or are you using some sort of actuated valve?


Cool idea.



-Bo

Doug,
You may have a tough time keeping that manifold flooded and the pumps primed. Having it below the waterline helps a lot, but if you get an air pocket, the pumps won't prime and it will drive you nuts. They will also have problems priming if they are laying horizontally or upside down. It's usually the drain pumps that don't prime and only when you are in a hurry or there is a storm coming!

Psyclone,

I have a self priming pump with ski locker sac and am planing on added a couple aerators to fill/empty an extra bow sac.

Very interested in your draining pump comment. How/where did you located your draining pumps?

What pumps do you use now?

Labor-half hour to machine.
Aluminum- thirty five bucks worth would build ten or eleven.
NPT taps- I have already
Not a problem to build at all. The problem would be that people would want to get them for twenty bucks.

Hmm. If not $20.00 then how much could you make and sell them for?


-Bo

Sorry, I would not have any desire to build a quantity. You seemed to do a pretty good job, and you'll get faster. try www.onlinemetals.com for the aluminum. You can buy it by the foot. Great place to buy small quantities. If your only doing aluminum, you'll only need one tap, because it'll last a long time. If I were to build them to sell, I'd get twenty bucks or so. But, I'd build a bunch (30-40) all at once, and be done with it. I built two sets of binding locks with spares, just because I did not feel like ordering any.

(Message edited by ShaunK on March 30, 2003)

James,
I have had problems with all aerator pumps that were not vertically oriented and below the sack to be emptied. The pumps are designed to be mounted vertically through the hull. They seem to work ok if the bottom is flooded and they are pushing water up. It works best if they are pushing water down hill, but watch out for air pockets. Front sacks are the hardest to drain, because the pumps move around more. I would use a self priming pump for the fronts, myself. Back sacks don't bounce around as much, aerators work ok for them. It's easier to locate pumps under them, too.

Shaun,

Actually I didn't make it, my father-in-law did. I probably could have done it, but not having the right tools on hand would have made it really difficult.

I didn't mean to imply from my question that I wanted to buy one. I was just curious what you thought they could be sold for if someone was so inclined to build them.

Anyway, thanks for the great Metal supply website. It may be very useful sometime.


-Bo

cool.