Bouncy castle blowers

UKworkshop.co.uk

Help Support UKworkshop.co.uk:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Blockplane

Established Member
Joined
25 Oct 2016
Messages
267
Reaction score
2
Location
South Wales
Anyone here got a bouncy castle for their children/grandchildren?
I'm contemplating buying one of the yellow plastic blowers for another purpose entirely, but first would like to know how noisy they are.
Would a 3/8 ply box lined with acoustic foam be enough to silence one, or nearly so?
 
We have a small bouncy castle blockplane. My mrs turned up with it from somewhere. :-s
Its an orange job about a foot and a half square in two dimensions x 5" maybe from memory. It's not loud. Think big hairdryer. It hums and obviously blows, but it's nowhere near the magnitude of noise as my (cheap lidl) shop vac. As in different world. You know it's on of course, but you could have it on and comfortably enjoy gin and tonic 8 foot away while the kids from the local 5 houses establish dominance in the latest turfwar.
(My 6 year old lass takes no prisoners.)

oI3q03B.jpg


If you were to lag it, I don't think you'd have much trouble lowering the volume even further within reason. Itsa dull sound that doesn't grate the brain like some noise.
 
People very often dont realise that this kind of machine needs lots of air in, and lots of air out, and quite a lot of air to keep it cool.
"Boxing in" an air blower is not so simple as it sounds, and usually ends up taking up three times the space.

Just in case youre thinking of using this for a dust extractor..... :roll: :roll: :roll:
 
Bouncy castle type blowers only have to blow small amounts of air once the castle is erected and so will cope well with low air volumes.
Put your thinking head on Bob, the blower only has to cope with air losses from leaks!
To the op, you need to say more about your application. The motor might need to suitable for continuous free air flow rather than working into a “short circuit” such as a bouncy castle.
 
Thank you for your replies,

BM101 - that is very encouraging, thanks!

To answer Myfordman - I want to use it to blow a small pipe organ (my lockdown project) which will require approx 6 to 8 cfm at 2 1/2 or 3" of water. Published spec. for one of the new ones on offer on ebay hits this pretty closely. (Before anyone comments, there is a spill valve in the reservoir which vents any surplus)
 
Interesting application indeed hence the off topic classification. I think you might well be OK. The unit will clearly be rated well enough to inflate the castle in the first place before it gets to the stalled air point at full inflation.
I'd hazard a guess at you not playing for hours on end.
A lot will depend on the capacity, and noise arising from the spill valve.
If practical, I'd have a go at ducting the spill valve back to the air intake of the blower, whilst still allowing a path for outside air to come in.
A clever solution might be to regulate the blower output based on the air coming from the spill valve ie to ain to have neglible air spill but I'm not quite sure how I'd do that and in anycase could turn out to be grossly over-engineered.
I have a friend who is very knowledgeable on all matter's organ(!). He gets involved with repairs and rebuilds of church organs all over the place as well as playing. I'll mention the project to him and see what has to say.
 
Thanks Myfordman,

I suspect your friend will point me in the direction of a 'proper' blower costing about £400!

Re using the wind from the spill valve is a no-go as it is mounted on the reservoir top, which is a moving component.

Flow regulators (think dust extraction blastgate or roller blind, linked to the reservoir)are used on 'big' organs, but I was hoping to get away without. None of the small organ projects I have read about online (unfortunately none of which mention the source of their blower) have fitted one.
 
Just for info. if it helps. Bit bigger than I remembered.

LALrG5Y.jpg


N9QyBMy.jpg
 
Blockplane":hip0yycu said:
Thanks Myfordman,

I suspect your friend will point me in the direction of a 'proper' blower costing about £400!

Re using the wind from the spill valve is a no-go as it is mounted on the reservoir top, which is a moving component.

Flow regulators (think dust extraction blastgate or roller blind, linked to the reservoir)are used on 'big' organs, but I was hoping to get away without. None of the small organ projects I have read about online (unfortunately none of which mention the source of their blower) have fitted one.

Here is his reply which I hope you find constructive

Organ builders go to a lot of trouble to minimise the blower noise. Even so, it is not difficult to tell whether the organ blower in a church is on. Blame the ears, which have a range of around 125dB. Organ blower designers take the following measures: Carefully balance the fan and motor to minimise vibration. Suspend the Motor-Fan assembly from a metal frame, using springs (the spring blower-mass resonant frequency is set to be well away from the fan rotation frequency). Place the assembly in a box made from thick plywood, lined with thick felt, and sitting on "acoustic feet". Use plain bearings lubricated with light machine oil. Acoustically decouple the Motor-Fan assembly from the distribution ducts, using corrugated couplings. Place the Bowerr on a solid floor to avoid a "soundboard effect".

As you can see, there is a lot of design work in these systems. I play the organ, and would find a noisy blower irritating. Don't buy one without hearing it run.

I would wait for an organ blower to come up on eBay. Alternatively, a web search for "redundant church organs" may turn something up.

The main suppliers of organ blowers are: Watkins and Watson, British Organ Blowers (BOB), and Discus.

You can pass my contact details to your correspondent if you wish.

Hope this helps.

Hope all is well with you and yours. All OK here.

Best wishes,

Keith.


Feel free to PM me if you would like Keith's email addy to discuss anything directly.
 
I can't add much to the above (and NIL when it comes to blowing organs - NO pun intended!) but I do remember a while back a then regular member of the Scroll Saws section here mentioned using a bouncy castle blower for dust blowing in his work shop. I do definitely remember him saying it was MUCH quieter than anything else he's tried, but please note, generally speaking scroll sawing doesn't produce as much dust as most other wood working activities. Unfortunately, said member, Claymore, removed all his (many) previous posts from this Forum for personal reasons.

He does however still appear here from time to time ("rarely" now) but it maybe worthwhile sending him a PM?
 
"We have a small bouncy castle blockplane."
That sentence had me really incredulous. Wow! You can buy absolutely anything these days!
Then I read a later post, also with the word "blockplane" in it, and the penny dropped.
Now I'm disappointed that this amazing, giant inflatable woodworking tool turned out to be caused by a missing comma.
 
[/quote]

Here is his reply which I hope you find constructive

Organ builders go to a lot of trouble to minimise the blower noise. Even so, it is not difficult to tell whether the organ blower in a church is on. Blame the ears, which have a range of around 125dB. Organ blower designers take the following measures: Carefully balance the fan and motor to minimise vibration. Suspend the Motor-Fan assembly from a metal frame, using springs (the spring blower-mass resonant frequency is set to be well away from the fan rotation frequency). Place the assembly in a box made from thick plywood, lined with thick felt, and sitting on "acoustic feet". Use plain bearings lubricated with light machine oil. Acoustically decouple the Motor-Fan assembly from the distribution ducts, using corrugated couplings. Place the Bowerr on a solid floor to avoid a "soundboard effect".

As you can see, there is a lot of design work in these systems. I play the organ, and would find a noisy blower irritating. Don't buy one without hearing it run.

I would wait for an organ blower to come up on eBay. Alternatively, a web search for "redundant church organs" may turn something up.

The main suppliers of organ blowers are: Watkins and Watson, British Organ Blowers (BOB), and Discus.

You can pass my contact details to your correspondent if you wish.

Hope this helps.

Hope all is well with you and yours. All OK here.

Best wishes,

Keith.


Feel free to PM me if you would like Keith's email addy to discuss anything directly.[/quote]

Many thanks to you and Keith.

Keith is talking in terms of "doing it properly", I am trying to do it on the cheap, having already spent more than I ought to on the project.

Having watched organs, and parts thereof on ebay for some years, blowers don't turn up very often, and a proper organ blower would be overkill for the small ( 3 1/2 octave, 2 rank) organ I am building anyway.
I need to decide whether to take a gamble on a bouncy castle blower or similar, or stick with my original plan of foot blowing.

Many thanks,
Rob
 

Latest posts

Back
Top