Sturdee's Triton's dustbucket/mini cyclone.

**Sturdee** · 17th May 2005, 08:34 PM

My detailed instruction on how to convert the Triton dustbucket into a mini cyclone were available in an issue of the Triton Woodworker and available from the Triton Woodworkers Club Holmesglen website.

However as these newsletters, having been archived, are no longer available for members of this board here are the details on how to do the mod.

HOW TO CONVERT THE TRITON DUST BUCKET INTO A MINI CYCLONE

Having read the discussions on dust collection on Woodwork Forums Bulletin Board and having seen how Wayne Davey (the undisputed Australian expert on cyclones) made a mini cyclone for his vacuum cleaner I decided to make one out of my old Triton dust bucket. The finished item stands 850 mm tall and the parts I had to purchase cost me $ 9.00 as I already had some of the other items.

On completion I used it to vacuum out the contents of my workcentre dustbag and all the dust collected into the mini cyclone drum and none in the vacuum cleaner bag without any loss of suction of clogged up filters. For fixed use it works great but for better mobility you may want to put some castors under it.

PARTS REQUIRED

Purchased from Bunnings:
400mm length of plastic pipe 25mm, 2 plastic pipe joiners 25mm and 40mm Outside Diameter and a 90% elbow for above.

Purchased from Supercheap Auto in Ringwood:
220mm diam plastic funnel

Already held:
2 Triton bayonet hose adaptors (part no. CMA033)
A 15 Lt. paint drum with lid (you can also use a 20lt drum)
Ofcuts of chipboard or MDF
3 Bolts with washers and extra nuts.
Silicone or putty.

THE DUST BUCKET LID

1. Remove filter from the lid and discard. Enlarge the top hole and one of the side holes to 40mm.
2. From the plastic pipe cut 3 pieces of 45 mm in length.
3. Grind of the protruding locking bits on the bayonet hose adaptors and grind some of the side of the 90 % elbow so it will fit inside the bucket.
4. Glue one of the short pieces of pipe into each of the bayonet hose adaptors. Glue the 40mm pipe joiners into both holes of the lid from the bottom and glue the adaptors into the joiners from the top of the lid.
5. Glue the pipe into the centre joiner and glue the elbow into the other joiner using the other short piece making sure the side of the elbow that is ground down is on the outside.
6. Close other entry hole and seal everything with Silicone.

PREPARING THE BUCKET

1. Cut a disk out of chipboard with a diameter of 265 mm and cut out of this disk a further disk of 215mm diam. This is to seal the gap between the bucket and the funnel.
2. Cut out of the inside disk above a hole of 110 mm diam.
3. Cut another disk out of chipboard with a diameter of 220 mm and cut out of this disk a 110 mm hole.
4. Cut out of the bottom of the bucket a hole of 110 mm diam.
5. Cut out of the centre of the paint lid a hole of 110 mm diam.
6. Drill through disks No 2 and 3, dust bucket bottom and paint lid three holes for the bolts.

ASSEMBLING THE BUCKET

1. Attach disk (no 1 above) to the top of the funnel with small nails and seal with silicone.
2. Attach disk (no 3 above) onto funnel halfway up and attach with silicone and attach the three bolts with the nuts countersunk into the chipboard.
3. OPTIONAL Paint above, paint lid and paint drum if desired because once assembled it is too late.
4. Push above assembly into the dust bucket and seal with silicone and secure to the bucket with washers and nuts.
5. Put paint lid onto bucket and final disk and secure with further nuts.
6. Cut of protruding end of funnel and seal with silicone.

ASSEMBLY OF UNIT

Attach lid to bucket and bucket to paint drum. Connect vacuum cleaner hose to the centre adaptor and the Triton hose to the other adaptor and it is ready for use. Happy vacuuming and remember the dust you see swirling in the dust bucket before it drops into the drum is not ending up in your lungs.

SINCE THEN

Since then I and others have made the minicyclone by using ordinary plastic buckets or paint drums which work as well as the Triton dust bucket.

Peter.

**Sturdee** · 17th May 2005, 09:05 PM

And here is a diagram drawn by Hem explaining the mini cyclone.

Peter.

**Gumby** · 17th May 2005, 09:36 PM

Could I add that since I upgraded my little el-cheapo vac to a new one, this system is running much better. You need lots of suction to make sure the cyclone action in the bucket is effective and my old vac had lost some power. I bought one for $99 from Godfrey's in Dandenog rd Springvale. It's a Pullman brand and sucks like crazy. It's also bagless and because of Sturdee's mod, it hardly gets any dust or particles in it anyway. (photo attached)

**dan_tom** · 18th May 2005, 02:25 AM

Thank you for the info Sturdee. I had looked at the Triton Club page a couple of times and was wondering if I was doing something wrong. I am hoping to wrangle a bargin on a 2hp dust collector however I still use the Triton Bucket for belt sanding, etc.
Thanks again, the info provided by this site is great,
Cheers
Tom

**horse** · 18th May 2005, 11:21 AM

Thanks Sturdee for the generosity of your posting.

If I may impinge on your generosity a bit further, I have a cupla questions. My apologies if my questions seem a little dumb as I have no idea how a cyclone vac works, if I did I probably would have no need for the questions.

See attached diagram.

My questions are... what is the orange area, I am assuming the area above it is the base of the Triton bucket and that the orange area is a space between the base of the Triton bucket and the lid of the paint bucket created by the (blue) nut and washer? If that is so, why is there a need for the space?

Third question... Why is there a need for a countersunk nut (coloured green) when the bolt head and the blue nut would hold them together???

It seems to me that what is required is for the Triton bucket base and the paint bucket lid to be sandwiched together with a hole between them and a funnel sealed into the hole. Or is there more to it than that?

Cheers

David

**Stuart** · 18th May 2005, 11:38 AM

Sturdee - any objection for me putting this information up on the club's website directly (rather than within a (now archived) newsletter)?

BTW for those interested, the archived newsletters will soon be available on CD from the club's library. I intend to do an archive every 12 months to keep from running out of server space. With the club's website now already over 20MB, I need all the space I can get!

**Gumby** · 18th May 2005, 12:51 PM

Originally Posted by stuart_lees

Sturdee - any objection for me putting this information up on the club's website directly (rather than within a (now archived) newsletter)?

!

I was going to suggest that. Good idea. I'm sure he'd agree.

**Sturdee** · 18th May 2005, 08:38 PM

David,

There are no dumb questions. The only thing that would be dumb is not asking any questions if something is not clear.

Your assumption that all that is required is for the Triton bucket base and the paint bucket lid to be sandwiched together with a hole between them and a funnel sealed into the hole is correct. However this is not as easy to do and my method makes sure that this is done easily, accurately and permanently.

To your specific questions. The orange area is indeed the space between the base of the bucket and the paint tin lid. The space is there because of the way the dust bucket and most plastic paint drums are constructed. Because the space is there I used it for the securing nuts.

The need for the countersunk nut ( coloured green ) is there to make sure that the bolt is fixed firmly in place. If the holes are slightly too large the coachbolts have an annoying habit of turning with the nuts and once the funnel unit is pushed in place it stops access the bolts and it is difficult to tighten them. For the sake of a few extra nuts you avoid possible problems.

Good luck with making it, you won’t regret it. There are hundreds of satisfied customers.

Peter.

**Sturdee** · 19th May 2005, 09:35 AM

Originally Posted by stuart_lees

Sturdee - any objection for me putting this information up on the club's website directly (rather than within a (now archived) newsletter)?

Sturdee does object.

He also regrets that, like a certain seppo Joe, this rather impersonal public approach has been taken rather than a personal private approach when a diifferent reply might have eventuated.

However having had to take the step of posting it here I do not see the need for it to be elsewhere anymore, but maybe a link to this thread might be appropriate.

Sturdee, who prefers the more personal Peter.

**Stuart** · 19th May 2005, 11:57 AM

Oh, I'm sorry. After the last lot of posts where you strongly disagreed with any business being conducted in private, I endeavoured to honour your preferences by keeping everything in the public arena.

Given that, on the board, everyone is referred to by their pseudonym, I find it bloody strange that you can take offence at something so minor. If Sturdee wanted the more personal "Peter" he could have used a different online persona, like his real name.

So to the Termites, DPBs, Gumbys, Horses, Robbos, Zundfolges, RouterManiacs, Wongos, SilentCs, (and so on), I sincerely apologise if I have ever not used your real names when replying to a post, even when I have known your real names, and I futher apologise that I will continue to do so in the future, unless you specifically object that is.

Originally Posted by Sturdee

Sturdee does object.

That was already totally obvious to anyone when you didn't make any reference to it in your previous post 12 hours earlier. But.... thanks for spelling it out. I might have missed that subtlety (not).

Originally Posted by Sturdee

.......... but maybe a link to this thread might be appropriate.

Um........ no I really don't think so.

**silentC** · 19th May 2005, 12:34 PM

OK fellas, with all due respect to both of you as valuable contributors to the forum, don't you think it's time to bury the hatchet? Maybe you should get together and have a beer sometime, huh?

I can lend you a shovel

**DPB** · 19th May 2005, 02:16 PM

LIFE IS JUST TOO SHORT FOR THIS!

**Sturdee** · 19th May 2005, 03:40 PM

Thank you Stuart_Lees for your fourth stinging biting personal attack on me since your infamous raspberry.

I don't understand why. Probably never will. Suppose that's my loss and I hope I can get over this.

Previously I've said that I would move on and as such I am trying not to get involved in any arguments with you. Pity that you can't seem to do that.

Peter.

**Cagey** · 21st May 2005, 11:22 PM

Sturdee, does it matter how long/deep the funnel is? The only one wide enough i could get, seems a bit short. Will it effect the cyclone. Ive never seen one of these things, so im flying half blind.

**Sturdee** · 22nd May 2005, 04:06 PM

Cagey,

The funnel I used is the 220mm wide black funnel sold by Supercheap Auto for about $ 3.00. As the bottom gets cut of after fitting, only the top 130mm of the funnel is used leaving an opening of 80mm as the bottom outlet.

If yours is similar than you will have no problems. I don't know if an other size will affect the cyclone effect, so I would get the right one.

BTW this funnel is a standard item from Supercheap Auto as I got one last month for the latest I built.

Peter.

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Sturdee's Triton's dustbucket/mini cyclone.

Thanks for the info!

What?

Life is indeed too short for this.

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