WIP Dust Collection: Lathe - MC900

[Groggy]

I know I am probably wasting my time, but I thought I'd have a go at taming the dust from my lathe.

The following photos show a chamber I am putting under the bed to draw the dust down between the ways. Also, at the back, there is a slot so I can channel the shavings into the chamber via a ramp that I have yet to build. I've put a 4" hose connection under the headstock and angled the chamber to feed it.

The front is yet to be completed but will include an angled ramp to keep junk from falling into the shelf area. The chamber reduces in width to keep the suction constant as you go further from the port.

Being a total novice to lathes I am open to suggestions.

[dazzler]

what a waste of time;)





Actually I think its a great idea. What about a swing up sheet off the back so that bits hit it and are channelled into the dust area.

watching with anticipation:)

[Stu in Tokyo]

I suggest buying a snow shovel, and making a rack thing to hold garbage bags open for filling.

The only way this would be of use, is if you blow your chips right outside, no bag, otherwise, you will be emptying your DC bag more than you will be turning.

28292

That is like 5 minutes of turning :D

Please don't let me stop you, I'll be interested in what you do end up with.

I use my cyclone for the sanding part of turning, for that it is great!

Cheers!

[Skewpid]

turning.

28292

That is like 5 minutes of turning :D


Cheers!

LMAO :D

Knee deep in shavings? Pure Bliss.

Im with Stu here, but I think there will be minimal shavings caught in the extractor. The big stuff will still end up on the shelf, in ya ear and on top of the beer fridge, and around your ankles. If it sucks the dust, its doing very well !

Let us know how it goes.

Rich.

[Stu in Tokyo]

I think that you would have to just about build room, that was one big DC duct to get it all with a lathe. I admit, I looked at doing this to a point, but in the end, the better solution, IMHO, is to make it so the sweeping, or shoveling (and I'm NOT kidding about a snow shovel) is easy to do.

I have to re-work the area around my lathe since I built a new stand, I want to make it so anything that falls down, is directed to where is can be scooped up.

If that makes sense.....:rolleyes:

I guess I'm talking about flat panels of plywood, that is angled down, so the chips hit the plywood and gravity brings them down to a place you can just scoop them up.

I have an air line close to my lathe with a blow gun on it, I always blow my lathe off after use, as the Nova DVR 3000's ways rust if you look at them the wrong way :rolleyes:

Good luck with the project, I hope you prove me wrong and figure out a way to get it done!

Cheers!

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

Don't be put off building some form of dusthood though, Groggy... while it won't collect all the shavings, they're not usually of a size to fit up yer nose anyway and are easy to sweep up. But fine dust from sanding and "poor" tool use, well that's another thing. Properly designed, a hood should be able to suck up that 'orrible stuff before it becomes a health hazard, so go for it!

Personally I've run a gated wye to handle both the lathes' dust-hood and a floor sweep next to the lathe. But then again, I'm using a couple of 44's as seperators to stretch emptying times. ;)

[Groggy]

Thanks for the comments guys. I am mainly interested in getting rid of redgum dust out of the air, which I believe it will do. If it sucks down the shavings as well then I'll take that as a bonus!

[hughie]

Being a total novice to lathes I am open to suggestions


Goggy I would your heading in the right direction. maybe you could have a cover os some sort that covers the bed where your not working to incease the pull at the chuck area, dunno just thought.
But as Skew says if you can pull in the dust your doing fine, have'nt snorted too many shavings lately :D darn nose is too small ;)

Be interested to see it up and running, gotta do some along those lines my self.

[Farnk]

"I have an air line close to my lathe with a blow gun on it, I always blow my lathe off after use, as the Nova DVR 3000's ways rust if you look at them the wrong way" :rolleyes:

Mate, whatever you do in the privacy of your own shed is your business!
tee hee, sorry, just had to!

[ptc]

Stu.
I thought you had gone in to the Spaggetti business.

[Groggy]

Goggy I would your heading in the right direction. maybe you could have a cover os some sort that covers the bed where your not working to incease the pull at the chuck area, dunno just thought.
But as Skew says if you can pull in the dust your doing fine, have'nt snorted too many shavings lately :D darn nose is too small ;)

Be interested to see it up and running, gotta do some along those lines my self.I am thinking along the lines of an adjustable baffle of some sort at the back to block the parts of the slots not in use. If I can think of a simple way I'll be doing it for sure. I have some ideas already but implementation may require changes (doesn't it always :o ).

[Stu in Tokyo]

"I have an air line close to my lathe with a blow gun on it, I always blow my lathe off after use, as the Nova DVR 3000's ways rust if you look at them the wrong way" :rolleyes:

Mate, whatever you do in the privacy of your own shed is your business!
tee hee, sorry, just had to!

Well, it is a Dungeon not a shed, and no, I don't have pictures....... :rolleyes: ;) :D

[Stu in Tokyo]

Stu.
I thought you had gone in to the Spaghetti business.

No kidding! That was fun, some nice fresh WET wood and I had at it, did not make nothing but a mess............ oh, I was "practicing" my skills........... (yep, that's my story, I'm sticking to it :rolleyes: :D )

Cheers!

[hughie]

I am thinking along the lines of an adjustable baffle of some sort at the back to block the parts of the slots not in use. If I can think of a simple way I'll be doing it for sure. I have some ideas already but implementation may require changes (doesn't it always :o


Groggy,

As I have a similar lathe I am interested in your progress. I too have come up with a number of ideas for this problem. I generally knock em up outa an old cardboard box to test em..... Then back to the drawing board...:(
Basically what I need is a damn hurricane to get the suction I prefer...:D
My current thinking is along the lines of Skew, using an old 44gal drum as a cyclone catcher and settle for dust removal as something easily achievable.

[dai sensei]

Good luck with it Groggy. I built a hopper for mine (here (http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/showthread.php?t=35950))that works in a similar way to yours I think. You can always sweep up what it misses.

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

A lot of cardboard goes into my hoods, too. :o

I've given up on the "hopper" idea (takes too much suck) and have settled for just a small box as the basis for a hood, about 5"sq x 1" deep that hangs off the end of my DC hose and can connect to my spare banjo for positioning. The rest of it tends to be cardboard scraps that're stapled on to suit the job at hand. I've yet to find a style of hood that works well in an all-round manner... it's either good for spindles, but pathetic for bowls or great for inside bowls and totally useless for anything else. Worse, what's good for one sized bowl just doesn't work on another size. Still, cardboard's cheap.

Stu has something with his wind-tunnel idea, but who'd want to work in one? :D

[Farnk]

I've got a slightly different method, it's the 8 year old that is still keen to help out. He gets out brush and pan and sorts it out....

But on a serious note, when I'm sanding a piece, I have 2 old 120mm server fans that blow across the bed of the lathe at an angle. This keeps the dust away and it's a quick sweep up job when I'm finished.

Still, as a fellow MC-900 owner, I'm keeping a keen eye on this thread!

[Tornatus]

G'day Groggy

In my early enthusiasm I had an idea like yours, except I mounted a wooden curtain rail across the front of my lathe, slotted to take one end of a piece of 4mm plywood, which I bent into an S shape down under the ways and out over the top of the panel with which I had enclosed the back of the lathe. The plan was that shavings would fall onto this S slope and slide down into a hopper thingy I built to fit behind the lathe with a collector hose mounted in the bottom, leading to a primary stage separator (lid from Gary Pye) over a 44 gallon drum. The hopper also has a back panel which extends up to about my head height (6 ft 4 in in the old way of telling time) and curves over toward the lathe so that thrown shavings would be deflected down into the hopper.

Great in theory, but in practice the shavings just fall onto the sloping shelf and collect there, refusing to slide into the hopper - at least it makes it easier to scrape them up and cart them off in a bucket. The only things that readily fall into the hopper are my chuck key, drive dogs, pen bushes and anything else I happen to fumble as I remove it from or attach it to the lathe - including finished turnings. I had to make a special wire "fishing hook" to retrieve fallen items, and on occasion I have also had to resort to a magnet on a string.

The guys are right - just concentrate on collecting dust from as close to the work as possible and leave the shavings to fall to where they can be swept up later. I am now fitting one of the articulated arms from Carba-Tec which allow you to position a dust hood as close to the work as possible.

If you still want to collect shavings with your dust system, I suggest you use a dedicated flexible hose fitted with a floor sweep head - but you must have a primary separator in the system if you want to avoid clogging the collector intake or damaging the impeller.

[hughie]

If you still want to collect shavings with your dust system, I suggest you use a dedicated flexible hose fitted with a floor sweep head - but you must have a primary separator in the system if you want to avoid clogging the collector intake or damaging the impeller.
[/QUOTE]

Thats pretty well what I have arrived at, collect the dust, sweep the chips/shavings and or suck em up at the end of the job and collect em in the 44 cyclone

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

Hmmm... I've just been watching Gumby's 'Triton Dustbucket' vid and it's got me thinking...

The main problem with dust collection and a lathe is so much area to cover, so little vacuum to go around, right? So, I'm wondering how effective it'd be to connect the 4" system up to just a sliding hopper like Dai Senseis' and use the shop-vac to evacuate around the tool?

The 2" line'd be a lot less intrusive at the "workface" than a hood and it is normally only at the tool (or s/paper) contact point that dust/shavings are generated. Unless you're doing inside partially closed forms, but even so...

Anyone tried this?

[Groggy]

Thank you for all the comments to date. The main reason for this exercise was to remove the dust from the area, not the shavings. If shavings are picked up then that is a bonus. I can attach two 4" hoses to the dusty, so when I get a cyclone ( :rolleyes: ) I'll look at attaching a second port for the big stuff. For now, I am happy the dust will be controlled and I may look at just directing the shavings into a single pile.

I am not a big-time turner like some here (Stu) but do turn the occasional item. Mostly it seems to be redgum which creates a huge amount of dust.

Anyway, it is academic at this point as I have not tested the current setup yet, when I do I'll report back,

thanks again!

[hughie]

The main problem with dust collection and a lathe is so much area to cover, so little vacuum to go around, right? So, I'm wondering how effective it'd be to connect the 4" system up to just a sliding hopper like Dai Senseis' and use the shop-vac to evacuate around the tool?

The 2" line'd be a lot less intrusive at the "workface" than a hood and it is normally only at the tool (or s/paper) contact point that dust/shavings are generated. Unless you're doing inside partially closed forms, but even so...



Skew, I have a splitter to drop my 4'' down to two 2''. The velocity increase is a real bonus and as you say its not so intrusive at the coal face. Currently I have not got both 2'' ports working, but with two it would much easier to catch/suck or whatever most of the dust .
I have considered using a small, say 20-30mm outlet on a hose to get in when sanding bowl internals. With the increased velocity in a confined space it should go well.

[Groggy]

Good luck with it Groggy. I built a hopper for mine (here (http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/showthread.php?t=35950))that works in a similar way to yours I think. You can always sweep up what it misses.Thanks Neil, I like the logic in that setup, very efficient use of the draft, I'll have a look at doing the same on mine.

[Groggy]

I finished the dust collection today and gave it a test run. I'm pretty pleased with the way it handles the dust. A few offcuts were given a second lease on life as baffles. The long piece of oregon simply slides up and down blocking the inlet where it isn't required. The pine pieces block the ways and increase the velocity through the chamber.

It still flicks chips (to be expected) but it does a darn good job with the dust control. I may experiment with a second port later on, but this has achieved its goal quite well.

[Groggy]

A few more pics:

P1 = General setup with DC hose attached.
P2 = Shows backboard and catchment trough.
P3 = Configuration I normally work in, with ways blocked behind tailstock to increase flow.

[Groggy]

Something I failed to mention was the enclosure was made using scrap (except the nuts and bolts) left over from other jobs. The front of the chamber also has an overhang so the junk falling down doesn't fall into the shelf.

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

Good job, Groggy. Don't forget to keep us posted if you decide on any "improvements." :)

One suggestion... it looks like there's a slight lip between the bottom of the hose and the bottom of the box? Fasten a good magnet there and put an access flap in the front of the box. Especially if you change chuck-jaws "on the fly" and tend to drop the screws... :o

[Groggy]

Good job, Groggy. Don't forget to keep us posted if you decide on any "improvements." :)

One suggestion... it looks like there's a slight lip between the bottom of the hose and the bottom of the box? Fasten a good magnet there and put an access flap in the front of the box. Especially if you change chuck-jaws "on the fly" and tend to drop the screws... :oSkew, the triangular shaped fillet at the front simply slides back for access. The magnet idea is a good one, thanks!