Thread: Wok is the wok for? - dust extractors

I did this to my own dusty. It sucked, or rather it didn't suck as much as it sucked before putting the woks in. So I have since removed the woks and now my dusty sucks again And, when I removed the woks, there was a very thick layer (more than an inch) of fine dust on top of the woks.

The idea is to supposedly help keep the fine dust below the wok therefore minimising what goes into the filter. It's based on a Jet Dust extractor design. I bought a wok but haven't fitted it yet and after a Kuffy's review, I might just keep it for stir frys I have some photos in my Dust extractor WIP

To thwow at a wabbit when your wifle won't work !!!

I put the part in my Jet 1.5 HP dust collector with a canister filter. It made it into what was called the Vortex dust collector.
It kept the filter cleaner and didn't effect the performance. I suspect that the exact placement is critical in getting it to work properly.

That's a reasonable point. I also believe the diam is important as well. I couldn't get the exact diam of the Jet unit so I went by what people in the US were fitting. I couldn't buy one that size in my local shops so I was going to cut mine down..
What diam was yours Maple72?

Theres a photo of one on the Carbatec website and I stand corrected re fine dust, it's all about chips - hhhhmmmm chippies!!

https://www.carbatec.com.au/dust-con...-single-carton

A couple of thoughts about woks.

One thing I suspect woks might do is reduce the swirling action cause by the airflow into the bag holder and collection bags and filters - perhaps someone with such a cyclone could takes some pics of the sawdust swirling in the collection bag of their DC with and without the wok present. If this is the case then a reduced swirling action will definitely reduce the self generated fine dust made by the big chips swirling around in the collection bags being minced into finer and finer dust. This would also reduce the abrasive wear of the big chips on the the collection bag(s) which is often a source of many DC leaks, especially if you reuse bags. If this were the case AND flow is not impacted then they sound like a good thing.

This is what the CT website says.

Dramatically improves chip separation efficiency of single stage dust collectors; Aids in the quick fallout of chips into the collector bag instead of clogging the filter bag or canister.

I guess it is dependent on what you do and maybe it's different on different DCs but I never see that many large chips on my filters, certainly no layers of chips. At most I would see is about 1 mm size chip per sqcm near the base of the filter and maybe 1 per 25 sq mm up near the top of the filter. It also should be noted that even several layers of chips won't restrict air flow that much as they seem to overlap randomly and air will easily pass around them. It could be I'm not doing enough big chip work - someone who does this and had a Wok could maybe take some photos to confirm this is the case.

What clogs filters is "fine dust". Unless HEPA style filters are used, only layers of fine dust can trap the even finer dust. This how these filters are meant to work and is why a conditioned 5 micron rated bag/filter may still trap as much as 99% of 0.3 to 0.5 micron dust. The average capture efficiency I measured for conditioned needle felt bags was 95 +/- 4% while for Pleated filters it was 93 +/-6 %. When not conditioned or small leaks can reduce this to less than 90%.

So to work properly the filters have to be "conditioned" or partially filled with some fine dust otherwise fine dust and very fine dust will leak through. If the wok reduces the amount of fine dust that gets to the filters then in the meantime the very fine dust will be getting through these filters into the shed. Conditioning is a serious business and unless you vent your DC outside the shed conditioning should be done with the DC located outside the shed - keep aside a bucket of sawdust and suck that up after having cleaned and replaced the filters and let it run for an hour or so outside the shed.

One thing we don't know is what impact does the wok have on flow rates. Once again we can't assume a zero effect or that holding a hand in front of an inlet is a suitable indicator of suck. Someone with a barometer (or at least a barometer) and a wok could maybe confirm this. If you are measuring air flows I suggest you read this first - even before you go buy something to measure the flow.

Sorry, I do not have the Jet dust collector anymore that I mentioned so can not measure the diameter.