Hello all,
I was balancing the other day at a large grain storage facility and had balanced several fans...none of the fans had ever been balanced or even maintained properly. I had taken to clamping the base to the fan housing with a pair of Vise-grips because it wouldn't stay put. One fan in particular was so bad that when I started it up it slung the vise grips off and exploded the magnet. I was able to static-balance it down to 4 mils and try it again, but...

Well anyway, I need a new magnet or magnetic base. Anyone know where I can get one for slightly less than the cost of my firstborn child?

Richard,

I don't know of anyone who makes a replacement base. You might try Dave Gallager at reliabilitydirect.com.

You could have one made, but depending on the worth of your firstborn, you might do better at CSI.

On second thought, I have a good base. Tell me about your second born and maybe we can work something out

Danny

Wow, Danny
Quick response. How are you at answering Jeopardy questions?

I will give Dave at reliabilitydirect a try. My second born is sixteen, called to be a missionary to Japan and speaks fluent Japanese. Wouldn't be a good trade-you probably couldn't afford to feed him...or my other food-disposals either.

One option is take an aluminum disc and buy rare earth magnetics (~$20 ea). On a 3" disc drill 6 holes slightly undersized and attach a 1" block in the middle w/hole out the top, one out the side at 90 degree and one 45. Or shop you local pawn shops as you can usually find some interesting mag bases some machanist left behind. You never know. Or, shop E-bay. Or use a heavy stand apart from the machine. Or, I'll take a break!

CTC (www.ctconline.com) offers a number of different magnet styles, at a cost slightly cheaper than your firstborne. The great part about CTC products is the lifetime warranty. If you somehow destroy one of their products, it will be replaced...as long as you can find some part of the original to return. If you drop your accelerometer against a coupling and launch it into space, you're on your own!

Jon
Spintelligent Labs

Jon,

The CSI 404 is a Banner photo tach. The holder is a machined swivel base and CTC doesn't show anything comparable in their catalog.

That doesn't mean that they won't make it. They are a very customer-oriented company and have been responsive to needs.

Danny

Here is an adjustable rigid arm magnetic base. Starret also makes one with lockable flexible arm.

http://www.mcmaster.com/ctlg/DisplCtlgPage.asp?ReqTyp=C...20&McMMainWidth=1708
Have to scroll down to bottom of page...

Thanks Danny. *blush* I guess with balancing being part of the question, I should have thought further! I'm sure glad I didn't launch into a discussion of frequency response!

We used to use a c-clamp with a ball-head designed for photo apps for mounting tachs. Not always as convenient as a mag base but pretty cheap and usually you can find a mounting arrangement.

Jon
Spintelligent Labs

Possible Monarch makes the exact one. I'm unsure CSI makes anything like transducers, bases, etc.... I have a very old tack meter (photo) with the exact same magnetic holder or appears to be anyway; but, it's in FL and I'm in WV.

Richard,

I saw this in a Northern Tool catalog.

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/p..._200328223_200328223

It looks like the same magnet to me.

Hope this helps,

Joe

Thanks everybody for the help. I found several that might work...Even after replacement, I will be utilizing some of the other mounting methods like Jon's C-Clamp or Sam's seperate pedestal base. There are some applications (taping heads that wrap armor around electrical wire) where your tach is unsafe at any speed because of the flailing arms and rollers and having it isolated from this wheel of death would prolong its career.

Joe, I think it is the same base, and I will only have to enlarge the hole to 3/8". At $5.99, I can only wonder how much cheaper than it is than getting a replacement from CSI. I'm going with this option.

All of this just goes to show you that there is more than one way to skin a cat. But can anyone tell me why you would want to skin a cat in the first place?

I do like the swivel head on these units. but I don't like the flat round magnet. Setting up on bearing housings and other not so flat surfaces has been agravating for me. I like to use a dial indicator base. The one I really like I don't know the name of off the top of my head. I can best describe it like this: it looks like a conventional dial indicator base but the magenets are laminations that you slide to conform to your mounting surface. I will try and get next to mine in a while and see if I can find some information on it, maybe a photo.

Good point, Mike.
I have had problems trying to mount on round bearing housings....

Good to have innovators here-i'm one of those who will not work on anything as a hobby, so my innovation skills are lacking at best.

I did a Google search and found one on Ebay for $12.00 us and $9.00 shipping. Played heck finding it. The product is called Anyform and the manufacturer is HDT International. There was nothing on the company. Apparently they make precision tools like micrometers and gauge blocks. Several listings for their products on Ebay but nothing about the company. Ironically when I pulled it out of my tach kit it has a CSI sticker on it for the 407 Pulse Pickup.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ANYFORM-MAGNETIC-BASE-INDICATOR-STA...910638QQcmdZViewItem

Mike, I found one in McMaster-Carr on page 2129 that is conformable, but it has the whole indicator arm assembly, too.

Do yourself a favor and get rid of the 404... spend $215 for the Monarch PLT200 laser tach from Reliability Direct (click here for info). Just buy the basic unit... you can make your own cable for about $5.

It works fine from 5 ft. away (probably further) so you can get it away from whatever is vibrating so bad. It is threaded for a 1/4-20 bolt. Works great with a cheap tripod from Wal-Mart. I use a Starrett 659 mag base (extra heavy duty, but expensive) or a NOGA dial indicator arm (extremely flexible).

Rusty,

Does it trigger off a keyway or do you have to stop and mark the shaft?

Danny

Danny, I also use the PLT 200. The laser will trigger off the shaft key if you just want speed. For balancing, I input from the ROS-P photoeye on a magnetic base which requires a mark. (I use reflective tape) It outputs to my 2130. CSI has a technote on how to measure the output voltage of any tach. It is a good little unit and never gives me an "unstable" like the CSI does.
Pete

I use the PLT 200. I bought it for a backup for my Lasetach 98F. I wasn't able to get it to work with my datapac, since the datapac has to have a 4-5 volt TTL pulse to see, however, the new Enpac I bought will see a 2 to 2-1/2 volt pulse, and it see's the PLT 200. So I didn't waste my money after all
Seems to be a good rugged little unit. I hope my 98F works for many years though, I like it.

Dave

I have two of the 98F's and now two of the PLT200's. (I balance 4 baghouse fans at a time at a steel mill client of mine at the end of their semi-annual shutdowns... saves a lot of time) The 98F seems to give better results taking coastdown data. But other than that, the PLT200 works very well. You could probably get balance phase readings using a key or keyway, if you held your mouth just right. But I just always use tape. For reference run data with the machine running (with no tape), I use a 444 strobe (with my 2120). Then I put the tape on when I shut it down the 1st time and proceed from there.

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