Homefill Woes

[Feel Good Glass]

So Iv had a Homefill from a forum vendor (who has been super helpful, but this is outside his realm of knowledge) for a little less than 6 months and baby it to the extreme; never run it for more than 12 hours at once, run in an A/Ced room indoors, no smoking etc. A few days ago it began to make a squeaking noise almost like a belt or something needed to be lubed. Then when I went to run it the next day, the unit will switch to fill mode but does not fill and a peculiar smell was noticed that seemed to be coming from the homefill unit. After further inspection, the motor was removed and spins freely so I dont believe thats the problem. That brings us to the main fly wheel that drives all the pistons, which WILL NOT move. Its almost completely siezed up, and will only move with great force. Iv consulted others with homefills and they confirmed that the wheel should be spinning freely with and without the motor attached. Going to start cold calling medical equipment repair companies tomorrow I guess, anyone have any insight or experience here? Thanks so much to anyone who contributes!

[leatherneck8541]

i want a home fill so bad but can't afford one now, wish i could help, but would love to know what the issue is with your homefill just in case i ever encounter that problem my self down the road

[jr23]

Homefill's are starting to break. The ex ones don't last either, Wait for it the rix ones have issues too!

Seems to me there is a common denominator here.

Most of these units fill bottles the size of a 2 liter coke bottle to the size of a scuba tank .

My grandma has one fills her bottles fine, I just don't think these machines are made to be running at full blast filling k tanks for running big torches.

They are prob the holy grail for the bead folks.

[Emmett's Glass]

How many hours were on the homefill when you had this problem?
E

[Feel Good Glass]

1008 hours. I never filled any bottles past like 1500psi to be safe

[gn0me]

This has nothing to do with your woes, but the title of your post just gave me one of these:

http://bluntobject.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/tactical-facepalm.jpg?w=655

Sorry I can't help more.

[Aussie]

ok, take photos so you remember where everything goes. Disconnect from power, take off the cover, remove the electrical panel, underneath the electrical panel is the hub housing. There is a 5-sided panel on top of this housing with 5 holes that you can look into the hub through and a bearing in the middle with the driveshaft going through it. If you take off that top panel you'll be presented with the piston hub itself. Disconnect the pistons and push them into the cylinders as far as they go. You'll notice that the piston rods have a hole where the bolt slips through to connect them to the hub. In those holes are bushings, I'm sure they're worn (you'll probably find some whitish powder sitting on the bottom plate), so while you have them disconnected, you may as well replace them and get a vacuum cleaner in there to suck out the dust. One of the piston rods is different because it stabilises the hub and prevents it from rotating.
Now the two possibilities of the cause of your woes are:
the stabilising piston has knocked about somewhat, caused the seating it slots into to enlarge and somehow lodged into the recess and seized. This is the more unlikely scenario.
the other, more likely, possibility is that your roller bearing has worn and the pins inside the bearing are now positioned at an angle and that is what's preventing your driveshaft from moving. To remove this bearing you will have to take off at least a couple of the piston cylinders to make enough space to remove the whole central hub. They just screw off, but make sure to mark them so you screw them back in exactly the same distance that they were before. Also, before you can unscrew the cylinders, you will need to take off the brass blocks which form part of the manifold, at the other end of the cylinders.
Anyway, I'm sure you'll be able to work out the progression of dismantling, it's not amazingly complicated ... take pictures!
Once you have enough space in the hub housing to remove the piston hub .... remove it. In the middle of the hub is a bearing which has the numbers B-1012 stamped on the rim and it looks just like this. Although depending on how it is worn, you'll probably find that some of the pins fall out upon removing the hub from the shaft.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51sbwn7j0QL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

This bearing is the most likely culprit. They're not particularly difficult to find from a bearing supplier (make sure you take the original bearing in so they can match it), but you need to make absolutely sure that there is no lubricant in the replacement bearing, so it means a lot of cleaning. You can then lubricate it with something like Oxycheq Oxy Lube grease lubricant, which is especially formulated to work in oxygen rich environments. If you leave any normal oil or grease in the bearing, this will cause friction and burn up and cause more issues, so I can't stress enough that it needs to be absolutely clean!

hope that helps

[Feel Good Glass]

Wow thanks so much! I have to be honest Im more than a little bit afraid of completely ruining the whole unit by taking out the pistons, but at this point its just a pile of parts anyways right hahah. Going to take a look at it today after i get my quota done in the shop and see if I can get to this bearing. The help is much apreciated man!

[Hollister]

http://medicalequipmentinstallationcoronaca.info/

[drew1492]

Awsome tutorial Aussie I thought it was either a bad bearing or piston after the motor was ruled out. Just wasnt sure how the bearing was changed or checked. I am sure this will help a lot of people out.

[Aussie]

Wow thanks so much! I have to be honest Im more than a little bit afraid of completely ruining the whole unit by taking out the pistons, but at this point its just a pile of parts anyways right hahah. Going to take a look at it today after i get my quota done in the shop and see if I can get to this bearing. The help is much apreciated man!

Yeah, I was scared, too, but I had no choice, no one in Australia fixes these things, so it was make or break for my first Homefill pump from UO ... which never worked right in the first place. I got to the point where the break part didn't worry me so much as it was broken already. I got a couple more months out of the machine, but because there were a bunch of other things wrong with it and I ended up totally fucking it because I was so frustrated with the whole episode that I tried a couple of quick and nasty fixes. I didn't have any more problems with the bearing, the machine was fucked in other ways. Anyway, I learned a hell of a lot about these machines, having had that one totally apart like 15+ times. I ended up getting a couple more homefills from Drew and they're working fine, so far.

The biggest issue in my original homefill was the aluminium parts. They're not really made for prolonged and extensive use and if there is even something slightly out which can knock about, it'll get worse in a really quick way.

I run my homefill 24/7, so it's pretty hard going for something that's intended to run fairly intermittently ...

So, back to your problem, I forgot to mention that it may be one of the ball bearing which are attached to the housing, but my feeling is that it's that roller bearing, because it's got to put up with quite a bit of stress.
Good luck with it. I had some images somewhere, but I can't find them or I may have thrown them out :/ otherwise I'd post them up for you to reference.

[Feel Good Glass]

Thanks again Aussie for the great info, looks like I might not have time to crack er' open till this weekend but I will post back when I do so for everyone to hear what happened.

[Bunyip]

Just wanted to say Aussie=REPPED

oh, and http://www.nonstick.com/sounds/Bugs_Bunny/ltbb_017.mp3

[Feel Good Glass]

So I got down to removing the 5 sided top panel to the main hub and after removing the 5 star screws the panel doesnt want to budge. It seems somehow still attached. Any thoughts?

[Aussie]

Feel Good sent me a PM, this is what I replied, I thought I'd go ahead and post it here, too:

Try taking the whole thing out, you will have to disconnect the oxy in line and uncouple the oxy out line, turn it upside down and with a hammer and centre punch (there should be a little conical hole on the bottom of the shaft you can insert your center punch into) and give the shaft a few gentle knocks. This should drive the shaft upwards a little. Don't knock too hard, otherwise your piston rods will bend too much. They can bend just a little. This should lift your top plate a little.
Then turn it the right way up and insert shims at the corners into the gap between the top plate and the housing. I used 5 flathead screwdrivers; knock them in gently with your hammer, alternately tapping down the shaft and knocking the shims in further until the top plate comes off.
Alternately you can use a couple of large, long bolts with the nuts on, insert them into the holes at the bottom with the nuts catching on the edge of the hole on the bottom panel inside the housing, then tighten the bolts so they push against the bottom plate and push up the top plate. Change holes every so often so the top plate comes off evenly.
Patience really pays off here.

[BK]

damn some serious home fill knowledge up in this bitch.

good looking out aussie

[Tsnider]

would be sweet if someone could find part numbers for this kind of stuff. i would like to have some back ups...

[Feel Good Glass]

Aussie posted the roller bearing model number(B-1012 ), dunno about the ball bearing.

[Samson]

would make a killer wiki entry on HOW TO's, Aussie can add a Wiki badge to his bling! 8) Good looking out A, you rock!

[alta.arte]

Hi there.
Here i shoot some pics of my Homefill units tear apart. Hope pics can help you guys in any matter, as you can see parts of the machines.
I am having some issues as well whit homefill units,

[alta.arte]

Sorry to blog the post.. but i am having serious issues whit my Homefill as well.
In my case the rings that seal the piston, that build up pressure, they are not doing their work.
My issue is that i cant find any replacement parts for those piston seals. Will be appreciated if some one can point me, where i can buy those seals, or any other way to fix it.
thanks in advance.
Pura Vida!!!

[Swampy]

Anyone:

How do you connect the line to your homefill?

I see a special female fitting but can I rip that off (because I don't have the male connector) and just hoseclamp a line from the O2 generator?

[Emmett's Glass]

Anyone:

How do you connect the line to your homefill?

I see a special female fitting but can I rip that off (because I don't have the male connector) and just hoseclamp a line from the O2 generator?

You can get the quick connect plugs from http://www.o2crs.webs.com/ about $10 each. I'm not sure about removing the female and hose clamping it.

I got the pack of mango fake cool aid today, thanks.
E

[Swampy]

Thanks for the link E :o)

[Aussie]

But yes, you can rip the female off and just connect the two hoses together of you don't want to wait for an adapter. I Mae myself a hose connector out of glass and it works just fine.

[STROKER]

I got the pack of mango fake cool aid today, thanks.
E

:D:Dme too.
customs opened mine. haha.
i was like wait a minute what the fuck is in here when i saw the package all taped up with customs tape.

[Swampy]

Gonna go do this right now... waited long enough to get the kit together heh heh thanks again and sorry to sidetrack...