Well I finally got off my butt and decided to swap out the Eheim NW pump on my skimmer for a mesh modded OceanRunner 2500. The Eheim runs amazing but it was just too strong for the skimmer I have. Since I had to gate back that pump more than half it generated a hum that could only be heard by small woodland creatures and my wife. Therefore changing pumps became a necessity.
Modding the OR impeller was a piece of cake, as was making a venturi inlet with some plumbing pieces I had around. Connecting the pump to my skimmer should have been the easy part... its always the easy stuff that messes up my whole day.
Anyone familiar with the OR pumps has seen it has a stubby 3/4 mpt outlet sticking out of the housing. This fitting is actually an adapter that converts what looks like metric fine threads of the housing to 3/4". I started by screwing on a 3/4 female thread barb fitting by hand. Thats as far as I got, screwing it on by hand when I hear a cracking sound as the adapter fitting shears off! Nothing infuriates me more than things which are poorly designed and made from cheap materials
Looking at the threads in the hole (of the housing) is when I noticed they were fine and metric. UGH, now what?! After studying the housing it was obvious that tapping it for larger threads might be just as disastrous given how little material there appeared to be in the walls of the outlet passage. So I did what any other self respecting DIY'er would do, got out my drill and bored out those threads until I had a nice smooth outlet. Then I took an old sch80 barb fitting, cut off the barbs so only a 1/2" stub remained, and shaved it down to be the same diameter as the hole in the housing. Gobbed on some multi purpose PVC/ABS glue and jammed that sucka in so the male 3/4 threads of the hacked barb fitting now stuck out. Take that you, you, you piece of imported plastic that ruined my day :hmpf:
Finally after the glue dried I got it all hooked up again and the skimmer is running a little quieter. Time to go to bed
Modding the OR impeller was a piece of cake, as was making a venturi inlet with some plumbing pieces I had around. Connecting the pump to my skimmer should have been the easy part... its always the easy stuff that messes up my whole day.
Anyone familiar with the OR pumps has seen it has a stubby 3/4 mpt outlet sticking out of the housing. This fitting is actually an adapter that converts what looks like metric fine threads of the housing to 3/4". I started by screwing on a 3/4 female thread barb fitting by hand. Thats as far as I got, screwing it on by hand when I hear a cracking sound as the adapter fitting shears off! Nothing infuriates me more than things which are poorly designed and made from cheap materials
Looking at the threads in the hole (of the housing) is when I noticed they were fine and metric. UGH, now what?! After studying the housing it was obvious that tapping it for larger threads might be just as disastrous given how little material there appeared to be in the walls of the outlet passage. So I did what any other self respecting DIY'er would do, got out my drill and bored out those threads until I had a nice smooth outlet. Then I took an old sch80 barb fitting, cut off the barbs so only a 1/2" stub remained, and shaved it down to be the same diameter as the hole in the housing. Gobbed on some multi purpose PVC/ABS glue and jammed that sucka in so the male 3/4 threads of the hacked barb fitting now stuck out. Take that you, you, you piece of imported plastic that ruined my day :hmpf:
Finally after the glue dried I got it all hooked up again and the skimmer is running a little quieter. Time to go to bed