Thread: My wooden cyclone

Don't you love it when a plan comes together. I plan on building a cyclone extractor for the new shed, and with the sawdust I collect it will go into the veg garden / compost heap.

It would appear you made the cyclone slates with a compound tapered bevel cut. What were the table saw settings?

Good Morning srichard44

Nice concept and nice work. Isn't it great when things work! At first you pictures confused my muddled brain until I realised that you had actually made two separate wooden cyclones.

A couple of questions, if you do not mind.

FIRST. You appear to have used white pine for the carcases. Did you have to do anything special to make it airtight - its quite a pourous wood? And have there been any issues with sawdust sticking to the insides of the cyclone?

SECOND. The larger cyclone is essentially a barrel and a cone joined or glued together. Did you consider simply lengthening the cyclone cone so that it could be made in one piece? This would be structurally simpler.

THIRDLY. How do the two cyclones compare in use? Does the larger one capture more dust? does it capture more of the finer dust particles? Is one quieter/noisier than the other? etc.

Fair Winds

Graeme

I took Ron's figure that would take to make a funnel at 40, I divided 360 and came up with 9 degrees. I made the mistake and cut 'cyclone 1' and had to a lot to fill the inside. Cyclone 2 was cut at 4.5 degrees ( each side of two come together at 9 degrees), 24" long and each piece was cut tapered 1" X 1/2". I used a jig made for this work.

Originally Posted by opelblues

Don't you love it when a plan comes together. I plan on building a cyclone extractor for the new shed, and with the sawdust I collect it will go into the veg garden / compost heap.

Are you sure about this??

It is quite some time since I worked in the timber industry, but then AQIS insisted that all imported timber was pressure or infusion treated prior to import and virtually all plantation pine is CCA treated. But there are many other poison treatments that are not visible like CCA. As you live in termite/white ant country I would have thought that most timber marketed there would be treated.

Is treated sawdust safe for the compost, or do the insecticides and fungicides kill the compost bugs; will any nasty chemicals get into the veges?

A good dust extraction system is almost mandatory for the sake of your health, I am not so sure about the next step.

Fair Winds

Graeme

1. You appear to have used white pine for the carcases. Did you have to do anything special to make it airtight - its quite a pourous wood? And have there been any issues with sawdust sticking to the insides of the cyclone?

Yes, I used pine. I get it free from a motorcycle store pallets. I used sawdust and glue for the cyclone 1. Cyclone 2 was filled with sawdust and glue then two coats of poly inside. I made the boards 1/2" thick and have not any problem sticking to the insides. I used door and window chalking for all joints.

2. The larger cyclone is essentially a barrel and a cone joined or glued together. Did you consider simply lengthening the cyclone cone so that it could be made in one piece? This would be structurally simpler.

Take a look at a clear plastic cyclone (Our Products) and read Bill's website about making an air ramp just below the dirty air (from the machines). It starts the air movement around and directed downward. The reason for the 'barrel' is to get the dust moving in a directed direction. I suppose that it could be built as just cone but I built it to keep the size down to take a lot of space.

3. How do the two cyclones compare in use? Does the larger one capture more dust? does it capture more of the finer dust particles? Is one quieter/noisier than the other? etc.

Cyclone 2 gets more into the metal can and less in the cloth bag. My DC is outside the shop and have same noise level with or without the cyclone(s).

Just to let you know, I have not built something to raising the cyclone to empty can. When I get it built, I will let you know.