Update: Back on Dec 11th, a rep from Republic Blower looked at our system and declared the blower to be OK and that the filter was our problem. We changed the filter, cleaned it several times, did other stuff and still found inadequate vacuum performance. Today I was able to make detailed performance measurements and now know we do in fact have a blower problem. The flowrate through the machine is nowhere close to the 350 cfm rating. As a result, we have about 40" of water vacuum at the manifold of the table instead of more like 140". Blower impeller is probably dirty and restricted. Internals of regenerative blowers are rather complicated, so ours needs to go to the factory shop for cleaning and/or a rebuild. Will investigate cost and timing Wednesday. If it is a slow process, will try to get a loaner if such is available.
Mike Jury and I disconnected the blower and moved it into the workshop area pending transport to the service shop. Breaker was locked out by Mark Salas and will stay locked until repairs are completed.
During the above activity, we discovered the dust collector was stuffed to the gills. Some TRE (turkey rear end) or possibly a small flock of such critters kept running the dust collector until the collection bag was full, the cyclone section was full and the dust filter bag on top had nearly a foot of sawdust in it. Mike & I got it cleaned out and Mike rebuilt the dust filter bag support. Now to keep it from being abused again!
REQUEST TO THE SIG MEMBERS: PLEASE MONITOR THE DUST COLLECTOR INVENTORY WHEN YOU ARE IN THE WOODSHOP. ENCOURAGE ANY USERS TO EMPTY THE BAG PROMPTLY WHEN IT HAS MORE THAN 50% OF THE COLLECTION BAG FILLED.
Other weird information: Someone (probably a TRE as well) confiscated a portion of the CAT cable connecting the Multicam station Rasberry Pi to the network. Without this connection, the terminal for the Multicam was dead. Stan provided a coupler and some cable. That’s back in place and the Multicam can now be used … just without vacuum holddown.
Anyway, some progress, some weirdness, and the Multicam is at least usable.