Dust extraction for the lathe

[jefferson]

finally assembled my dust extractor last week. He scribbled "the eagle has landed" on it.

I need to build a room around it as it is very noisy - 3 hp motor cyclone. The plan at this stage is to enclose it, line it, fit double doors for ease of access and then duct into the lathe room.

Problem is, the lathe room has a nice warm wood fire in it. At 1300cfm, most of that heat will be extracted. One solution is to vent the beast thru the roof to ease the air pressure - but I loose all the heat, albeit with a lot less noise.

I could also vent the extractor room back into the lathe room, but I do wonder about the noise.

Any suggestions out there?

thanks Jeff

103605

[artme]

Move to a warmer climate!!:q:q

[rsser]

Looks like a cyclone separator?

Recall pics of o/s jobs where all that appeared to be required was a small filter cartridge on the exhaust side.

If that's the case the cartridge could be shrouded and the air piped back into the work area with the unit in a cupboard or behind a dividing wall.

[weisyboy]

you could run the air threw a series of filters back into the room that would remova any dust particles and mufle the noise.

[Allan at Wallan]

Send the heater to my place - problem solved.:2tsup:

Allan

[tea lady]

Heater in the workshop? Luxury.:p

[jefferson]

Some great ideas thus far.

So sorry Tea Lady, heating only in the workshop. After visiting Ern's place, the split system is going in before next summer.

Just got to work out those filtering plates!

regards Jeff

[Sawdust Maker]

How about you put it outside in a little shed of its own

[zelk]

Hi Jeff,
I have made a soundproofed enclosure for my dusty and it works well for me. The enclosure vents back into the workshop which, until recently, I thought was fine. However, it was pointed out to me that the dust extractor filters only partly filter the dangerous minute particle. I believe that unless you replace the air in the workshop regularly, the your dusty will be filtering the recycled air and the concentration of the harmful dust will increase with time. Sadly, if the dusty is vented out, fresh cold air will have to introduced into the workshop, increasing your heating bill.

Zelk

[rsser]

Yeah.

I just run the dusty when the lathe is producing of lot of airborne carp ... when sanding or turning dry hard timber. Most of it is picked up close to source using a Carbatec 'big gulp'. This is vented outside the workshop (which is 5 x 5 x 2 m.) With the split system heating and a 2 hp dusty, it doesn't go cold all of a sudden. Over time all the solids in the workshop warm up and this helps.

In addition to this is a box type air scrubber to get rid of the airborne particles that you can't see and that float around when the dusty is off.

[Ed Reiss]

Send the heater to my place - problem solved.:2tsup:

Allan

...and the D/C to me. Doubly solved !!! :D

[bobsreturn2003]

mate up in kuranda nth qld we just use a jumper and jeans but then 30deg to 20deg makes it cold . wood is nicer too . cheers bob

[jefferson]

It seems I have to give my new cyclone away, as well as my wood heater! Get in line people as Calm is on the prowl for my VL300 among other things.

Now, suggested I put a whirly bird in the cyclone room. Problem with that over winter is that all of my heat will go outside, as the cyclone really pulls some air. (And I mean pull, compared to my 2 hp portably units). The outside venting might be a good idea over summer, as a lot of heat would be sent out of the shed.

So I probably need the choice of venting both inside and out. The inside vent back into the turning room shouldn't be a problem, assuming the noise isn't overwhelming. I could put the chamber down low, so all of the hot air returns low and isn't lost.

As for putting the cyclone outside in its own shed - FORGET IT!

I would need to build a separate shed, as the walls are only 9ft tall. And with 25m by 9m I have some room to play with inside. (Not bragging, only stating my reasons for not going outside).

Funny thing is that my portable dust extractor seems to be working much better after gave me some more lessons with now super-sharp bowl gouges. More cutting, less dust. Less use of the Ci1 Rougher too, though the 2 inch radius cutter is superb on scraping the inside of my little boxes and bowls. A fine touch is all you need and a lot less sanding.

Back to you guys. Please string this out for a while so I can procrastinate about building the cyclone room for another month or so....

Jeff

[Chipman]

The ultimate answer is a heat exchanger... Now this is just theory but someone might know how to do this. If you put your exhaust pipe from the dusty inside a second pipe that draws clean fresh air back inside the shed. That way the warmth of the exhaust air warms the intake air. Good in theory but a bit difficult to do all the ducting and sealing the room so the intake air comes in through the exchanger system rather than through all the gaps in the shed!!!

Another possibility is to set up some sort of solar heating...that is free! I am playing around with using a Trombe wall design for passive heating in my shed.

Good luck

Chipman

[efgee88]

I bought a standard Carba-Tech 2hp dusty s/h with the lathe, thinking that this would be a solve all the potential dust problems. It didn't take long to realise that the standard filter bag that comes with this unit is not much use. I could smell that dusty-musty smell after doing some turning. This is of course the fine dust that has come back into the room through the bag filter. My solution was to seperate the bag/ filter assembly from the motor/fan assembly and put the bag outside the shed. I built a small "dunny-like" water proof structure from some old timber flyscreen doors cladded with some corrugated iron at the back of the shed. The bag/filter assembly inside this is connected via the 6in hose supplied through the wall into the motor/fan assembly. I placed this behind an existing partition wall to reduce the annoying motor noise. I then needed about 5m of extra hose to get close to the lathe. To optimise suction efficiency I placed a basic cyclonic bin on casters close to the lathe using a cut down old compost bin and a prefab lid supplied by Carba-Tech. The inlet hose connects to this lid from the lathe end and I have a hood fitted at the back and front of the lathe bed. This can move freely along the bed of the lathe.
I've had this up and running for about 3 weeks now, and I have had no more problems when turning. The heavy stuff that doesn't get caught still falls to the floor, but the light stuff has left the building! I am yet to reposition the lathe so that the floor space is optimised.

When sanding, I usually switch the dusty off and use a festool dust extraction unit with the nozzle very close to the job. I now have very little dust floating around the room; and the proof is up the nose - or not as in my case!

The only thing I regret having done was to cut the compost bin in half. I didn't realise how fast this bin fills up with shavings! - luckily I have another one which I might use one day.
BTW I hardly get anything in the plastic bag underneath the filter bag outside.

Sorry - too many words, so here are some pics from inside the shed.

Cheers,

FrankG

[NeilS]

Hi Jefferson

The Nth Americans have to recycle the air inside their workshops during their cold winters so have had to solve this problem.

A good starting point is Bill Pentz website here (http://billpentz.com//woodworking/cyclone/DCConversion.cfm) where you will find more than you want to know.

Neil

[BobL]

I could also vent the extractor room back into the lathe room, but I do wonder about the noise.

Any suggestions out there?
]

I'd be way more worried about the fine dust. What you'd be doing is collecting all the dust up and then dumping the most dangerous component of it back into your shed.

If you want to keep the warm air and be really safe even a cyclone wouldn't be good enough and you would have to use a couple of $1000 HEPA filters. A pity you didn't live closer because I have 2 of about a dozen of these that still have ~5 years of life left in them to give away.

[jefferson]

Neil and Bob, great advice and a good website.

I think I'll build the room around the cyclone and duct the air back into the lathe room down low - with some filter pads that don't impede the airflow.

thanks Jeff

[NeilS]

Jeff - if noise becomes an issue with recycling the air back into the workshop then you could make a muffler like the attached. Position it between the cyclone outlet and your filter/s and make sure the ID is not less than the cyclone outlet ID.

An enclosure will help with some of the noise (I have my fan and filter in a masonry bunker and that works well) but a percentage of the noise (the jet engine frequencies) still escapes with the exhaust air if it's not muffled. Without muffling I get up to 98dB next to the HEPA filter with my 3HP cyclone.

Neil

[zelk]

Hi Jeff,
Do you still have the Minimax Cu300? On my Cu 300, I lined the inside ( for about 600mm ) of the 125mm duct with carpet, just before the port for the saw. It noticeably reduced the dusty noise that travels through the duct and is released at the saw. There was no perceptible change to dust extraction. It's cheap, easily inserted and removed and worth a try.
Zelk

[bobsreturn2003]

thanks neil s excellent link ,cheers bob