Thread: WIP Cyclone

Thanks tashammer
The Cyclone is working well, it has nearly filled up its first drum of sawdust. :eek:

Looks like its working ok Al. Good result

As part of continuing with the dust collection I was thinking of making an overhead guard for my tablesaw to incorporate with the dust extraction that is currently going to the table saw cabinet.
I just have a couple of questions
Are the overhead guards worth having from a dust/chip collection side of things.
What diameter hose should I use to connect to the guard,

Any other information on overhead guards that anyone can give me would be also appreciated.
Thanks

Al you have to play with the blastgates when you have both above table and below table collection as there are two competing forces. I have run 4" to both top and bottom. During cutting the blasgate to the top is fully open and to the bottom is less than a third open. Once the cuts are complete I open the bottom gate fully and close the top to remove all the dust from the bottom. I have tried other combinations but they have not worked for me. Getting the above collection as close to the top of the wood is required. You need a flap down if you are just cutting a 1mm from a piece of timber as the dust goes out sidways. Some of the USA above table collection allows for auto adjustment for wood height which I think is the way to go but thats another project.
Barry

Thanks for your reply Barry.
I will keep what you said in mind when setting up the blastgates.

At this stage I am not sure which way I am going to go with set up of the overhead table saw guard either go with a manually adjustable guard on a slider or an self adjusting guard for the wood height.

Did you make your overhead table saw guard and would you have any pictures of it.

Al sorry for the delay in replying but I have been in Paris . I just butchered the Triton saw guard to fit the 4" pipe
http://burgess.barry.googlepages.com...onnections.jPG
I am not happly with the results especially when I just cut off 1mm - the dust scrays sideways. I looked at this one from a Unisaw as a start to build my own
http://www.pennstateind.com/store/tsguard.html
This would be better but I have seen one with a split guard that allows for a small cuts, say 1mm and half of the fence remains on the table while the other half adjusts to allow for the height of the timber. I was watching a video on the Woodworking channel but have not found a site with it -but am still looking. I would go for a self adjusting fence when I rebuild.
Barry

Thanks for the feedback Barry. Thats a neat looking mod on the guard.

I posted the same question in the general part of the forum and got some great replys also. here is a link if your interested. http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com...ad.php?t=40379

Hi Al !

Great job ! Very very impressive....

I was wondering whether you ever tested your air quality ? It would be great to know exactly what size dust particles are floating around. If I remember correctly from Bill's site we are trying to achieve .5microns and even better would be the medicals target of .2microns....

I noticed that you use flexible tube from the machine and I remember reading too how much that can restrict airflow....had you considered using anything else ? Do you think you are getting >800cfm air flow ?

Great documenting......gives me motivation to giving it a go myself but those clearvue units are pretty impressive too...

I have a radial arm saw which I think might be quite difficult to make a guard for....still pondering that..

All the best,

Joe in Ivanhoe

Originally Posted by Al B

Thanks tashammer
The Cyclone is working well, it has nearly filled up its first drum of sawdust. :eek:

Al ,
I have followed this thread from beging to end and I am amazed and very impressed at your duct work and cyclone.
I found Bill Pentz site a couple of weeks ago ,by following some links on another site (cant remember which one ,maybe it was the US based Router forum ).
I will be building Bills' cyclone some time in the future .I hope this thread is preserved as a best of the best as it will be a very valuable source of info for myself and others wanting to build their dust extraction systems
I have had some experience over the years with sheetmetal work although limited ,hopefully I will be able to emulate something similar in my shed.
Finally I would like to thank you and all the other contributers for sharing your experiences and ideas with others in this forum.
I would also like to thank Bill Pentz for his website and his generosity for sharing his knowlegde on the cyclone dust extractor.

Originally Posted by Al B

Blast gate for table saw done.

Great job

But please promise that one day you will put some cat food near one of the ducts

Originally Posted by drj6564

Hi Al !

Great job ! Very very impressive....

I was wondering whether you ever tested your air quality ? It would be great to know exactly what size dust particles are floating around. If I remember correctly from Bill's site we are trying to achieve .5microns and even better would be the medicals target of .2microns....

Hi Joe

Thanks for you kind words

I have never actually tested the air quality before or after building the cyclone.
I just remember each time I used to start up my old dust extractor I would get a cloud of fine dust coming off the bags as they filled up with air, but
with the cyclone this does not happen anymore.
"As for the fine dust" during the time when I was working on the ductwork I had just swept up in the shed, which had created dust in the air. I did a little test to see if the cyclone would suck the dust out the air, I had placed a bucket under the cone of the cyclone, when I checked the bucket after running the blower for about 5 to 10 minutes I was surprised at the amount of fine dust that had been sucked in through the cyclone and ended up in the bucket. This was the first time the cyclone had anything through it so was clean.

Originally Posted by drj6564

I noticed that you use flexible tube from the machine and I remember reading too how much that can restrict airflow....had you considered using anything else ? Do you think you are getting >800cfm air flow ?

I only used Flexible hose as this allows me to move the machines if cutting larger bits of timber. Not sure on the cfm figure, Dust wise it definitely is an improvement.

Originally Posted by drj6564

Great documenting......gives me motivation to giving it a go myself but those clearvue units are pretty impressive too...

I have a radial arm saw which I think might be quite difficult to make a guard for....still pondering that..

All the best,

Joe in Ivanhoe

Thanks again Joe,
I had a great time building the cyclone and sharing the WIP on this forum.

Originally Posted by Woodlee

Al ,
I have followed this thread from beging to end and I am amazed and very impressed at your duct work and cyclone.
I found Bill Pentz site a couple of weeks ago ,by following some links on another site (cant remember which one ,maybe it was the US based Router forum ).
I will be building Bills' cyclone some time in the future .I hope this thread is preserved as a best of the best as it will be a very valuable source of info for myself and others wanting to build their dust extraction systems
I have had some experience over the years with sheetmetal work although limited ,hopefully I will be able to emulate something similar in my shed.
Finally I would like to thank you and all the other contributers for sharing your experiences and ideas with others in this forum.
I would also like to thank Bill Pentz for his website and his generosity for sharing his knowlegde on the cyclone dust extractor.

Thanks Woodlee,

Originally Posted by dazzler

Great job

But please promise that one day you will put some cat food near one of the ducts

Hi Al,

I see that you opened up the intake side of your blower to let it move a lil more air, but i'm wondering how far you have opened it up, dimensions??? or if you have just gone to the same as your exhaust size and havnt checked the current consumption??? What diameter is the top cylinder of your cyclone??? Am curious as i have a blow through that i've just finished but not ducted yet or opened up the inlet either, and was wondering if 150mm would be enough for the 2HP blower i have...

Awsome work by the way!!!

Originally Posted by Mick C.

Hi Al,

I see that you opened up the intake side of your blower to let it move a lil more air, but i'm wondering how far you have opened it up, dimensions??? or if you have just gone to the same as your exhaust size and havnt checked the current consumption??? What diameter is the top cylinder of your cyclone??? Am curious as i have a blow through that i've just finished but not ducted yet or opened up the inlet either, and was wondering if 150mm would be enough for the 2HP blower i have...

Awsome work by the way!!!

Thanks Mick, I followed the sizes that were on the plans which I downloaded from Bill Pentz's site. The outlet pipe from the cyclone to the blower measures 280mm Dia. The centre hole on the MDF ring which attaches to the blower is a snug fit around the outlet pipe.