Home made boom arm

[vjs406]

Thought I would post a pic of my home made boom arm. I had some time this last winter and assembled it mostly with stuff I had around. A lot of the ideas came from here by other posters so thank you! Hope to pass on any ideas someone else can use.

It inserts like a Systainer and installs or comes off in 30 seconds. I was surprised how stable it is and so far have no need for any outriggers like the factory Festool unit has. It rotates on an AG bearing and really helps with the 8' long cuts with the TS55. 

No economic reason to make it this way, I had most everything and imagine it would cost nearly as much as the Festool unit just in materials.

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[duburban]

looks great, i'm seeing room for a dust cyclone in there at the bottom for the next edition.

 

[Svar]

I actually think it is superior to the factory model. Saves about 2 m of hose and has smaller loss of suction judging from the looks of it (large diameter straight smooth pipe).

 

[duburban]

can you provide some close up photos of how you wrangled the electrical cable along the pvc.

 

[vjs406]

can you provide some close up photos of how you wrangled the electrical cable along the pvc.

Actually, it is mostly steel, I wanted to retain the anti-static properties as I sometimes cut PVC and you know how it likes to stick to everything. So far the pipe has been totally clean with wood and plastic. I cut some aluminum and it also was no problem. The pipe is powder coated on the outside only and does look like PVC in the pic.

Pics of how the electrical is run. It is 12 gauge wire.

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[GPowers]

Wow!! very cool boom arm, Better over all design and Looks better then the Festool one. Appears to have more options and flexibility too.

 

[semenza]

Very nice. Love the nice neat , quality build.  And the way it goes on/off like a Systainer.  [cool]

Seth

 

[Kev]

Damn - it's not a robotic sanding arm - oh well  [wink]

 

[sgryd]

Really great work!

 

[PaulMarcel]

Very nicely done; doesn't look home-made at all... you must have a lot of interesting left-overs from projects if that was all from things laying around!

 

[Samer]

very nice

 

[AdamM]

Very nice!

 

[Runhard]

Awesome! I'll trade you for my boom arm  [thumbs up]

 

[Sparktrician]

WOW!!!  Very nicely done!!!  Looks to me like you get better "reach" than the standard setup, too.  Does the arm rotate from the hub at the bottom? 

 

[vjs406]

WOW!!!  Very nicely done!!!  Looks to me like you get better "reach" than the standard setup, too.  Does the arm rotate from the hub at the bottom? 

Yes, the whole boom arm was based on a rotating bearing, pic pretty much shows how it works.

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[Runhard]

This set up would make it possible to place a boom arm on a midi or mini. I might try to make something like this.

 

[Gneyenhuis]

Very nice. Do you have the part# of the AG bearing and flange?
Thanks,
Gary

 

[vjs406]

Very nice. Do you have the part# of the AG bearing and flange?
Thanks,
Gary

Here is a listing of the bearing numbers that will work. It is one of the few items I had to buy to make the unit, I got mine here. 
http://www.primebearing.com/UCF215-48-3-Cast-Iron-4-Bolt-Flange-Bearing.html

** Interchange List **

    AMI: UCF215-48
    Browning: VF4S-248
    Dodge: F4B-SC-300
    Fafnir: YCJ-3
    IPTCI: UCF215-48
    Link-Belt: F3-U2E48N
    NTN: UCF215-300D1
    Peer: UCF215-48
    Sealmaster: SF-48

Note: I reduced the weight by machining away some material as shown in the pics below.

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[vjs406]

This set up would make it possible to place a boom arm on a midi or mini. I might try to make something like this.

Yes, it should/would work on a Mini or Midi. The attachment I used will not work with them directly though, only the larger CT vacs. The base would have to be different which would be apparent with the older 4 latch method. The 50mm hose would be quite short coming straight up as it does.

My brother actually has a mini and had I really thought it through I would of made the base work on both.

 

[elviscustombuilding]

Did you Fabricate the additional cap on the top side of bearing or did you purchase that? I really like the way this looks you did a great job.