All Capitol machines come with an owners manual for the engine, blower, water pump if it has one and the machine as a whole. The factory service recommendations are listed in these manual’s. We STRONGLY suggest that you follow these to the best of your ability. If you take care of your machine it will take care of you.

Air Intake:

Make sure to blow out the fly wheel on the engine and change the air filter on a regular basis. IF you don’t have an air hood on your engine please get one. For $80 you can literally triple the life of your engine.

Here are the most common mistakes that I run into in regards to customers servicing their machine’s or should I say the lack of.

Seals:

All Capitol machine’s have an airlock system that have seals bolted to the rotor. Although these seals are very durable and designed to last. If you use your machine on a regular basis we strongly suggest that you change your seals annually. If you don’t use your machine on a daily basis you can probably get by with changing your seals every couple of years. Usually what happens with a machine that’s not used as much is the seals aren’t getting conditioned by the material and they have a tenancy to get brittle and dry rot. So in an attempt to save between $140 to $180 depending on which model you have, it can end up costing the owner hundreds if not thousands of dollars. What happens usually without you knowing is the machine gradually starts getting less coverage. In turn it takes more product to do a job that you have bid based on the estimated coverage listed on the bag. Therefore each job takes longer, labor costs go up, the amount of material required to blow the desired R-Value increases and profits go down. If the material starts pulsating in your hose and you get blow back in your hopper your seals are bad. Although I can usually ship the same day, you have waited too long and cost yourself at least a day of production. Changing your seals is a very easy process on a Capitol machine. If you have a machine built after 1996 it has an easy access panel that just bolts to the front of the airlock and feeder box. Take the access panel off and change one seal at a time. Each seal has 13 bolts, when you put the new seal on just tighten your bolt until its snug. Don’t over tighten, the bolts wont back out. You want to make sure that the seal keeps it’s natural form. So if you over tighten causing the seal to lose its natural form it will wear out twice as fast. One last recommendation before we move on. If you buy a Capitol machine used please start out with a new set of seals. To order your seals call JJ at 1-800-421-6473 or go to http://www.capitolmachine.com/products-page/airlock-seals/ and click on the set of seals that go on the model that you own.

Blower:

The positive displacement blower that every Capitol comes equipped with Whether it be a 70,80, 100 or a 125 requires a synthetic oil that needs to be changed on a regular basis. Again this will be in the owners manuel that we provided you when you purchased your machine. If you have misplaced it or perhaps you bought your machine used call me and I’ll be glad to mail you one. I talk to customers all the time that have no idea that the blower even requires maintenance, but that’s definitely not the case. Not changing the oil in your blower can result in a several thousand dollar mistake. If you need the synthetic oil that is recommended for all Capitol blowers you can visit us on line at http://www.capitolmachine.com/products-page/blowers/ or call me and I’ll be glad to ship a quart out the same day if possible.

Engine:

Capitol Insulation blowing machine’s come with many different engine options so I won’t try to cover all the service recommendations in this blog. Again I would strongly recommend that you follow the service schedule in the owners manual for your engine that was provided to you when you bought your machine. Most of the air-cooled gas engines are going to require 10W-30, but you will want to check the factory recommendations on the frequency of the oil and filter changes. If you don’t have an owners manual for any component on your machine call me and I will mail you one at no charge.

Water pump:

If your Capitol Machine has a water pump your primary concern should be to keep the water drained out of the pump especially in freezing temperatures. It seems like a no brainer, but you would be surprised.

Bearings, Bushing’s and Gear box

Last but not least, make sure to grease all the bearings on a regular basis. In regards to how often it really depends on how much use your machine gets. Naturally if you are blowing several thousand sq. ft. daily you need to this frequently. If you just use your machine occasionally you can probably get by with greasing it a few times a year. One thing is for sure, it would be really hard if not impossible to over grease a bearing. Grease will make the bearing operate optimally and reduce heat and friction which ultimately is the life of the bearing. You have two types of bushings on a Capitol machine an H1 and a L1. The L1′s are locking bushings that have set screws and usually slide onto a shaft with a keyway. It is essential that you check these periodically to make sure that they are still tight and doing what they are designed to do. An early indicator that your bushing isn’t tight would be loose belts. If you see a belt coming off the crankshaft or the three way gear box that appears to be loose stop your machine immediately, disconnect the battery for safety precautions and make sure that the set screw on all of your bushings are tight. There is a three way gear box mounted in the middle of your machine. This gear box literally in some way or another, without getting to technical for what’s suppose to be an informative blog is responsible for every moving part on your Capitol Machine. It takes 90 weight gear oil that you can easily pick up at any parts store. Make sure at all times that there is oil in your gear box and depending on how much you use your machine change the oil on a regular basis.

We at Capitol truly try to build the toughest most reliable insulation blowing machine on the market. If you will be proactive and not reactive with the maintenance of your machine it could possibly last you a lifetime. I have also included a video that shows you first hand how to change your seals and clutches. Please take a few minutes to watch. May God Bless your path abundantly!!!

In October of  2012, Capitol Machine provided a Model 70 insulation blowing machine to assist in the certification process for a group of contractors in the southeast region of the U.S. Thanks to Mr. Joe Arrigo (National Trainer for Owens Corning) we all left with a very clear understanding of how this application was to be performed. We started the day with a four hour power point presentation on job safety and  step by step instructions on how to properly install Owens Corning Pro Pink L77 into the cavity of walls. After the classroom portion of the certification process was over we went to the spec house in Hattiesburg, MS. Compliments of IDI Distributors. At that point the contractors started their hands on training on how to put up the netting required for this application. Capitol Machine introduced it’s NEW Model 70 this year, so this provided us with the opportunity to collect some much needed data on our machine setting’s and etc. Once again thanks to IDI Distributors and Owens Corning for allowing us to be a part! The first few cavities that we blew were to get the machine dialed in. After we got the machine settings just perfect what happened next was truly AMAZING! As you will see in the video we were able to blow each wall cavity to the perfect density (R-15)  in exactly 25 seconds. Even with the instructional part of the class taking place and breaking for lunch, we were able to finish insulating a 1400 sq. ft. house in just a few hours. For those of you that own a Capitol Machine Model 70 insulation blowing machine I have listed the settings for this application below. Thanks to Joe Arrigo, Joe Novogratz, Chip Phillips, Craig May and Rich Parker for helping Capitol Machine better serve our customers!

Settings for the Model 70

With dense packing, the material is decreased and the air is increased. The slide gate is set to 50% open (“4″ setting). The machine ran at 3400 RPMs.

Performance

In a 2×4-8 wall cavity, the packing was complete between 25-30 seconds. This results in a R-15 value which is a high density for fiberglass.

Video