dust extractor

[spargs]

I am interested in getting a little dust extractor for my woodwork. I am only using (at the moment) routers, jigsaws, drills, planes etc. Will the portable 600W GMC RDC25 dust extractor capable of 60CFM be ok. http://www.gmcompany.com/index.cfm?ppage=products&pparentcategory_uuid=4C0618D8-2B2F-45D2-B422F564ADA82F85&pcategory_uuid=4C0618D8-2B2F-45D2-B422F564ADA82F85&pproduct_uuid=7A15F0C4-0C8F-4DE5-A855C6B654DFD1F5. I was also thinking about making a mini cyclone... what are your views?

[ozwinner]

Hi
I think 60 CFM is fairly useless, I just upgraded from 600CFM to 1200CFM.
Even the 600CFM was fairly ordinary with a router.
Cheers, Allan

[Gumby]

Spargs, buy the Triton dust bucket, attach a cheapo vacuum cleaner and thats a good start for around $100 (you can get 2nd hand vacuums cheap). Then if you want to, make the Sturdee mod to it explained in detail elsewhere in these forums. It's fabulous. I've just emptied my 15L paint tin and hardly a speck got in the vacuum. There's no way i'd spend the big dollars on anything....this one fits my needs perfectly.

[kenmil]

On the subject of vacuums, Bunnings (I know:rolleyes: ) have a unit called a Shop Vac, made in the USA and on special @ $100 when I bought mine a couple of weeks ago. Very happy with it, and it would suck the pickets off a fence. Should be able to make a reasonable small cyclone with it, and it has a large hose - about 50-60mm I think.
Bunnings now have them as a standard line I think.

[Barry_White]

Rather than destroy my Triton Dust Bucket I decided to make a Mini Cyclone along the lines of Sturdee's by using a $9.00, 20 litre plastic drum with a lid from Bunnings.

I used 40 mm plastic plumbing fittings that I had and some scrap pine board. I bought a funnel from Supercheap Autos the same as Sturdee.

I mounted it on a 20 litre metal paint drum with a removable lid with a ring clip fastener (This I got for free along with three others from a painter friend all nicely washed out.)

The Triton flexible hose fits inside 40mm sewerage pipe so you really don't need any special fittings to connect the pipe.

So if you don't have a Triton Dust Bucket this is a cheaper option.

I can at least sell my Triton Dust Bucket if I get desprate for a few dollars.

I also mounted it on a little trolley so that I can move it around easily.

I have posted a few pictures

This one is of the complete unit mounted on the trolley.

[Barry_White]

This is another view of the complete unit.

[Barry_White]

This is a view of the inside of the lid of the cyclone.

[Barry_White]

This shows the lid of the cyclone, the inside of the cyclone and the inside of the paint drum.

[Barry_White]

BTW all I'm using is a little 1000 watt Sanyo vacuum with it which seems to suck ok and it seems to work pretty well.

[Gumby]

Thats bloody brilliant Baz. i must say I hacked into my Triton dust bucket with a bit of trepidation but what the heck, it was going to be made redundant anyway so I thought I wouldn't burn much money if I giot it wrong or it didn't work BUT I had seen the Sturdee one working firast hand so it wasn't a big problem. The point is, it works.

[Gumby]

Oh yeah, and my vacuum is only a little 1000 wat bugger too !

[Sturdee]

.......I hacked into my Triton dust bucket with a bit of trepidation ...

Oh Gumby, so little faith despite having seen it work :) :)


Bazza, great job you did on your version of the dust bucket and I am glad that the additional info helped.

Peter.

[Gumby]

Forgive me Inspector , I should have known better :)

[GCP310]

Nice work Barry, Any chance of some more details on the bucket/funnel assembly?

BTW, i picked up a wet/dry vac at our local tip for $5.00, no garrantees that it was going to work, lo and behold, the only thing wrong with it was a broken castor on the front mounting frame.

G

[Barry_White]

Hi Glenn

It is mainly the design of Sturdee's that I went by. If you have a look at the following thread it will give you the basic details.
http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/showthread.php?s=&postid=42513#post42513
The changes I made were that I used a plastic drum from Bunnings instead of the Triton bucket. In the lid of the bucket I cut a disc out of pineboard for the inside the same dia as the inside of the lid and screwed it to the inside with four screws and flat washers from the outside.

I then cut a smaller disc for the outside and screwed it through to the inside disc in the centre of the the lid.

I then bored a 1 3/4" hole through the centre and at the edge and used 40mm sewerage pipe and elbows and joiners to create the inlets and outlets.

The only difference to Sturdee's at the bottom is that I put an extra pine board disc between the bottom of the bucket and the lid of the paint drum.

Any problems let me know and I will do a sketch.

[GCP310]

thanks for the link. that explains a lot to me now.

Looks like im off to bunnings on the weekend.

[SteveI]

I have also built a very similar cyclone to the one pictured. Main difference is I used a five litre top bucket (about $4 at Bunnings)(thought it might give higher velocity).

I also use a 45-degree inlet instead of 90.

Then used the Triton dust bucket so I could see what was happening - just bought a 20 litre bucket lid (about $3) and it fits perfectly and doesn't require butchering the Triton bucket

I also started off with a plastic funnel that matched the size of the bottom of the 5L bucket (about $4 Bunnings). It was sealed in place same as the above pics, with a little Selleys All-Clear.

However, I found the 5-10mm lip this created caused a blockage. If you vacuum a small piece of 12mm x 12mm trim it zipped around the bucket but kept hitting the lip on the top of the funnel and bouncing back up into the air stream. It would not drop into the bucket until you turned off the vacuum or squeezed the hose to reduce the airflow.

I decided to try a cone and used the Red-Bag site (http://www.red-bag.nl/engintools/calccone.php) to calculate the cutout. I made the cone out of some polycarbonate I had lying around (bought from Bunnings some time ago.)

It didn't need to be able to withstand the vacuum pressure because it was inside the bucket.

It was held together with pop rivets (long side out) and All-clear. Dimensions were 175mm wide at the top and 90mm at the bottom and about 220mm high. This allows it to sit about 150mm from the op of the bucket and gives a cylinder to cone ratio of about 1.6.

It is just held in the bucket with a bead of silicon.

Immediate success - the 12mm wooden trim dropped straight into the bucket.

Pics to follow

[SteveI]

Complete unit - note ply re-enforcing to hold 40mm pipe vertical when it is being dragged over by the vacuum hose - just glued with contact - also keeps lid flat

Also ribs around the bucket to stop it collapsing when the hose is blocked - 12mm trim stuck on with silicon

There is also a hole with a piece of polycarbonate stuck over it so I can see what's happening

[SteveI]

This is the cone made from polycarbonate - very easy to do (much easier than metal)

[SteveI]

Look mum - no lip to catch things - think the 10 litre buck might be better but this will do for now

[Gumby]

looks good Steve. i think I'll get some polycarb or maybe make a rim out of mdf for my Triton one. I must say i didn't mind hacking into the Triton lid. The bucket was going to be redundant anyway as it was and is probably only worth about $20 s/hand. It is a nice strong lid and saves having any reinforcement but if you don't have one to start with then yours or Barry's is the way to go

[Barry_White]

Hi Steve

That's a great idea using the polycarbonate.

That overcomes the problem of the ledge inside the top drum because of the funnel not being big eneough.

Too bad we can't all have a brainstorm session before we all go off and build our own ideas first.

I suppose the others that come later to build one on the cheap can benefit from the combination of all the combined ideas.

[SteveI]

By the way - make sure you leave a 10mm tab along each side of the cone cut-out for joining - mark the joining line with a knife or similar. The polycarbonate is great for lining up because it is clear and you can line up the marks precisely.

I found running a felt-pen mark around the inside of the bucket (ie at 150mm - or wherever you decide) was useful for ensuring the cone was aligned vertically.

[spargs]

Thanks everyone for their response, looks like I will be making a mini cyclone connected with a little shop vac.
My next question, my routers dust extraction outlet is around 1 ", how do I go about connecting this to my standard vacuum cleaner hose?

[Barry_White]

You may have to fiddle around with different sizes of sewer pipe, high pressure PVC pipe or electrical PVC conduit and if it doesn't quite fit cut four slots in the outside piece and put a screw type hose clamp on it or wrap some PVC duct tape on it to change the diameter.

[soundman]

check out the hose from your vac.
take off any wand attachments or handles and look at the raw hose.

if the hose is common corigated stuff the ID most probably will be 32mm.

in that case 32mm electrical conduit is your friend.

with various methods ( heat moulding, packing, ect) you can get a dust atachment for most tools.

32mm conduit hasn't failed me yet.

[spargs]

where can i get 32mm electrical conduit from? I am in melbourne

[Barry_White]

From an electrical wholesaler like Cetnaj. Lawrence & Hanson or even Bunnings may carry it.