230 replies to this topic

[Sellsey]

Great work Buchos! Please add me to the list. Just to add T7 are located about 2 miles down the road from me so if they need access to a VX at any point let me know.

['Buchos']

Update. We will have an accurate cost for these shortly from T7. The order of bypass valves (made to operate in the same direction as the VX heater control) have arrived at T7 as have laser cut panels and now they are creating the engineering drawings to get the brackets milled out of Aluminium. They are awaiting cost of the CNC brackets and aluminum spun cone.

['Buchos']

[qu1. Strugs 2. Molly196655 3. Wolfstone 4. leevx2.2 5. D-Dawg83 6. ChrisS1 7. Bee 8. Oggster 9. Bakazan 10. 7thheav 11. Adamvx220 12. C8RKH 13. Rob3770 14. glitch 15. iRobut 16. Southstack 17. bigoldhillsroundhere 18. MIN 19. james.a 20. Bargi 21. jonn75 22. Vladimir 23. vxt5 24. ginek (LHD) 25. ultimate (LHD) 26. Mopeytitan 27. MartynM  28. Welderman 29. Jetpilot 30. Hainesy 31. Acidpopstar 32. james4563 33. Oz2044 34. Wreelybro 35. Lolat400 36. DX220 37. Mushter 38. Sdf1965 39. Sellsey

[Mushter]

Thanks Buchos.

[martinroger]

An aluminium spun cone is going to cost loads... why not plastic or drawn ally?

[Madmitch]

Or run an ally strip back and forth through the mangle until the edges meet and then butt weld it?  No tooling or specialised machinery and strong if made from NS3 or NS4.  Might have to get on this list as my heater casing is disintegrating into holes!  

Edited by Madmitch, 17 April 2017 - 12:42 PM.

[martinroger]

I agree with the above... or if we are talking thermal engineering, no metal but thermoformed nylon?

['Buchos']

I agree with the above... or if we are talking thermal engineering, no metal but thermoformed nylon?

The one I have on the original heater was 3D printed plastic, surprisingly strong but I don't know how expensive or quick it is to make stuff that way. I'll pass on the comments above (though I suspect Adam keeps an eye on the thread) for feedback.

[Madmitch]

I don't know how busy my old colleagues are at the moment, I've been a long time retired but if you would like me to I will ask and see if anyone has the time and space, it is the sort of thing we used to do all the time, let me have a drawing and I'll make a few calls.

['Buchos']

An aluminium spun cone is going to cost loads... why not plastic or drawn ally?

T7 say it’s much cheaper than people realise, granted he will bear tooling costs but the final part cost is low (and that’s made in the UK), they are also spending a little extra to get the edges machined. This cone is to be used on their standard inline midi heater as an optional 3” outlet, therefore they can order in higher quantities to keep the individual part cost down. It's my understanding they are still keeping within the original cost even though the production heater is substantially improved in quality of manufacture over the prototype.

[martinroger]

An aluminium spun cone is going to cost loads... why not plastic or drawn ally?

T7 say it’s much cheaper than people realise, granted he will bear tooling costs but the final part cost is low (and that’s made in the UK), they are also spending a little extra to get the edges machined. This cone is to be used on their standard inline midi heater as an optional 3” outlet, therefore they can order in higher quantities to keep the individual part cost down. It's my understanding they are still keeping within the original cost even though the production heater is substantially improved in quality of manufacture over the prototype.

Ah ok... i didn't see the picture like that!

[Tareim]

is this going to work better than the fezzusus heater? or whatever its called as apparently mine has that one

[Tareim]

duplicate post

Edited by Tareim, 19 April 2017 - 11:18 PM.

[fezzasus]

is this going to work better than the fezzusus heater? or whatever its called as apparently mine has that one

 

That's an interesting question. The design is a derivative of mine (the key step being a use of a valve to control water flow vs a flap to control air flow on the original). Ultimately there are four measures of a heater: 

 

- rate of heating up

- air flow

- temperature when thermally saturated

- quality

 

I would say the rate of heating up and air flow will be the same. The rate of heating is defined by the engine and long pipe run to the heater from the engine bay, while the airflow is a function of the fan and the resistance in the system which will be the same. The larger heater matrix in the T7 unit may make it hotter when saturated, but I experimented a lot with different heater matrix sizes and didn't see any gains for going larger. Importantly, this has proper after sales support and seems to be designed by someone with the engineering connections to get the right parts made, so the quality should be a step above what I was doing in 2012.

[firehawk]

1. Strugs 2. Molly196655 3. Wolfstone 4. leevx2.2 5. D-Dawg83 6. ChrisS1 7. Bee 8. Oggster 9. Bakazan 10. 7thheav 11. Adamvx220 12. C8RKH 13. Rob3770 14. glitch 15. iRobut 16. Southstack 17. bigoldhillsroundhere 18. MIN 19. james.a 20. Bargi 21. jonn75 22. Vladimir 23. vxt5 24. ginek (LHD) 25. ultimate (LHD) 26. Mopeytitan 27. MartynM  28. Welderman 29. Jetpilot 30. Hainesy 31. Acidpopstar 32. james4563 33. Oz2044 34. Wreelybro 35. Lolat400 36. DX220 37. Mushter 38. Sdf1965 39. Sellsey

40. Firehawk

 

Edited by firehawk, 20 April 2017 - 04:36 PM.

['Buchos']

is this going to work better than the fezzusus heater? or whatever its called as apparently mine has that one

In my opinion, you are already sorted, no need to change. This heater is coming about in a large part because the Fez Heater is no longer available to those of us who have rapidly crumbling original Lotus heaters.

Edited by 'Buchos', 20 April 2017 - 08:09 PM.

[Madmitch]

1. Strugs
2. Molly196655
3. Wolfstone
4. leevx2.2
5. D-Dawg83
6. ChrisS1
7. Bee
8. Oggster
9. Bakazan
10. 7thheav
11. Adamvx220
12. C8RKH
13. Rob3770
14. glitch
15. iRobut
16. Southstack
17. bigoldhillsroundhere
18. MIN
19. james.a
20. Bargi
21. jonn75
22. Vladimir
23. vxt5
24. ginek (LHD)
25. ultimate (LHD)
26. Mopeytitan
27. MartynM 
28. Welderman
29. Jetpilot
30. Hainesy
31. Acidpopstar
32. james4563
33. Oz2044
34. Wreelybro
35. Lolat400
36. DX220
37. Mushter
38. Sdf1965
39. Sellsey

40. Firehawk

41. Madmitch

 

['Buchos']

Before and after.

The 3d cad prototype mounting bracket


The machined aluminum version


These brackets bolt to the existing rivnuts and the heater drops down into them, leaving the heater mounting screws accessible from above.

[Wolfstone]

Pure Porn!

[martinroger]

Before and after. The 3d cad prototype mounting bracket The machined aluminum version These brackets bolt to the existing rivnuts and the heater drops down into them, leaving the heater mounting screws accessible from above.

Careful, that may give idea to lotus engineers about tooling access!