Thread: my clearvue cyclone setup.

no bags you say? Do you vent straight outside? Looks the goods. can you put a detail pic on of your blast gates? they look pretty flash.

Originally Posted by Lumber Bunker

no bags you say? Do you vent straight outside? Looks the goods. can you put a detail pic on of your blast gates? they look pretty flash.

yes, vent straight outside. you can buy them with filters. But I didn't bother. Just more resistance and it was going all outside anyway, and also these cyclone designs have very high seperation rates anyway...ie. it all ends up in the drum, except the really fine stuff you can't see.

I'll get a pick tomorrow of the gates if you like. There just clear plasic ones. There not that flash. Work fine mind you, Got 6 of them with the kit. I'll have to make a couple more I think. out of mdf scrap probably.

Hey Jake
Well done on your cyclone set up.

It looks like you have a great sucker there.
Nice job.

Even though I have read a lot of the information about cyclones, I didn't expect the 6" pipes to be that much more effective than the 4" ones.
Now I believe.

Looks like a great set-up I especially like what looks like a sldie mechanism for the inlet, you will need it.

How does the vibration go with the pipes given you have it only sitting in the hangers? I ended up fixing mine to the walls with steel strapping due to the anoying bumping noise. Also, I hope you didn't glue the PVC pipe joints, you may need to pull it apart from time to time to clear blockages.

G'day Jake

I am pleased that you have succeeded and it is performing as you hoped. I finished up buying an old 4HP 3 phase machine, which does not perform very well, but I intend to rebuild the cyclone as close as possible to Bill Pentz's design and this should give me quite good performance. I am not sure when I will have it finished as I am looking into extending the workshop, and if this works out I will be concentrating on that before the dust extractor.

Regards

G'day Jake,

That's a very nice set up you have there. I've never seen anyone before with plumbing sitting at that height level before. As Dai Sensei says the strapping around it would help with any vibration, if you have any.

I've been eying off what I suspect to be a 3ph cyclone that's sitting outside an abandoned factory that's being gutted not far from me, with the hope of grabbing it - knowing my luck and I haven't checked for a few weeks now it's probably been demolished with the rest of the place. But,

Well done Jake.

Only thing I wonder about is the effectiveness of the wye in the third pic that runs against the direction of the others and what I guess also runs in the opposite direction to the suction of the cyclone?

Another question. Is the suction of the cyclone suffice that you don't need gates after each wye in the run so that you don't have long runs of dead air?

Originally Posted by apricotripper

The downside was cost. After ducting an all that, talking probably near $3000AU.....but since only one dust extractors needed, and no bags clogging, I thought thats ok.

That's alot cheaper than the double lung transplant I saw on Ebay.

In a couple years time you wont miss the money & you'll still be happy with the setup.

Originally Posted by Waldo

Only thing I wonder about is the effectiveness of the wye in the third pic that runs against the direction of the others and what I guess also runs in the opposite direction to the suction of the cyclone?

He's got a wye in the corner of the shed (pic 2), so air's flowing into that corner along both walls.

Originally Posted by dai sensei

Looks like a great set-up I especially like what looks like a sldie mechanism for the inlet, you will need it.

How does the vibration go with the pipes given you have it only sitting in the hangers? I ended up fixing mine to the walls with steel strapping due to the anoying bumping noise. Also, I hope you didn't glue the PVC pipe joints, you may need to pull it apart from time to time to clear blockages.

Can get the calipers in with it slidable eh. used drawrunners. but, max movements about 500mm. Today I made a big woodern slider instead of the runners so I can use the same extraction over both lathes.

Vibration. not getting any bumping sounds. maybe its cause of the larger diameter pipe....Was worried, that I'd get resonating vibration through this thin metal cladded shed of mine. So, freestanded the cyclone off the ground, and used a little flex hose between the cyclone and the start of the ducting. ( that first pic shows it) but no vibration. only air wooshing sounds and hum of the motor in the awning next door.

The sounds that bother me is the high pitched squealing sounds of the air rushing through the thicknesser and jointer heads. not used to that. finding it hard to get used to.

didn't glue the joints. was told to just put a small screw to hold them together, and run silicon around the joint so they can come apart easy. I haven't bothered putting silicon around them yet.

Originally Posted by Waldo

G'day Jake,


Only thing I wonder about is the effectiveness of the wye in the third pic that runs against the direction of the others and what I guess also runs in the opposite direction to the suction of the cyclone?

Another question. Is the suction of the cyclone suffice that you don't need gates after each wye in the run so that you don't have long runs of dead air?

hi mate. Good luck with that find !

you only meant to have one blast gate open at one time. When all the gates are closed along one wall there, it just pulls from the other. not sure what you mean about against the direction. maybe my pictures misleading.

from just playing around with it so far, I think you can simply say.....if all blast gates along one wire are closed, then that entire length is out of the system in terms of performance.

ie. can do what you like. just have a blast gate immediately prior to each machine. Found for best performance, just have one gate open. Found I could get by with two open though for some of the tools.

Sposed to have the cyclone positioned close to your main dust producers, like the thicknesser. Which I haven't done, because I had have it away from the house. noise considerations etc....but no problems it seems even so far away.

Basically, In designing the ducting, I tried to keep the number of bends, flexi hose and reductions to 4" to a minimum. especially the 4".
feel, the performance of this cyclone, is compensating for my ducting designs mistakes anyway. thankgod.

a few more pics.

pic 1 and 2 - finished the hood and pickup from under the scm. excited about that, since its normally a very messy area. Will put wire mesh over it to stop the large bits falling in. Will attach a smaller hose there when I can find some from the main pickup off the machine. Beginning to think I may not need it. Most of its being pulled into that 150mm pickup there anyway.

pic 3....there's your blast gate lumber bunker.

pic 4,5.....quite fond of this pick idea of mine at the lathe. show it off. Its a small piece of timber running inside a long length that runs over the entire length of my lathes. just applied rebates forming a woodern track of sorts. Will attach that hose holder to it latter (that box thingo) to hang off it .So I can use the same hose over both lathes. can slide from one end to the other. slide it out of the way when need be.

That sucks Jake

And it's 6" too, not the usual 4"









(just putting a 5" hose from my dusty in place of the wye to the second stage 44 gal drum improved things dramatically, so going 6" for the whole shebang )