Thread: ClearVue cyclone installation

That's an impressive set-up Tisorp. How have you found the cyclone?

Nice unit. How high is the cyclone from ground to the top?

Originally Posted by Waldo

That's an impressive set-up Tisorp. How have you found the cyclone?

So far meeting expectations. Certainly excellent removal of visible dust.

Originally Posted by Groggy

Nice unit. How high is the cyclone from ground to the top?

The total height of my set up is approx. 2.5 Meters The ClearVue website recommends a minimum clearance of 8 feet which is about 2.4 Meters

Nice looking set up good job , I'd be looking to shield the clear plastic from sun light it will deteriorate eventually and go yellowish.

Great Job there.

I agree with Harry about the clear plastic. Even plastic bag around it will be better than nothing.

Does your enclosure include the motor? If so what have you done to supply cooling air to the motor ?

Thank you to Harry72 and BobL for your comments. I had not given any thought to the effects of light as it is protected from direct sunlight by the car port but would be interested to hear from anyone with experience with one of these units in a similar location. I will put this question directly to the Australian agent for cyclone or he may care to comment here.

At present the motor is completely enclosed to try to minimise noise. The top panel of the enclosure is held down by 4 screws and it would be easy to put some sort of baffled ventilator into that if it were thought necessary. As I am most unlikely to run the cyclone for prolonged periods I had hoped to avoid this. It would seem prudent however to check the temperature within the enclosure and to compare this with ambient temperature so I will do this and report further.

Cheers

Originally Posted by Tisorp

Measured noise levels. (no other machinery running)
Inside the shed …………75 dB.
Outside the shed, 1metre from cyclone….. 82 dB
At neighbours fence …….72dB.
How much attenuation of sound level I have achieved is impossible to say without a control of some sort and I did not have a sound meter before the enclosure and the muffler were in place. The current sound levels are acceptable to me.

The Clearvue site claims 78 dB at 3 m - so if you measure the sound level 3m away you will have an idea of how much attenuation you have achieved. It suspect that a substantial amount of vibration is being conducted from the impeller and motor to the rest of the exposed cyclone and then being emitted as sound. Short of putting the whole thing inside an acoustic chamber there is little you can do about this.

Originally Posted by Tisorp

As I am most unlikely to run the cyclone for prolonged periods I had hoped to avoid this.

When any regular WW machinery is used, no matter how well set up the DC system is invisible dust will escape from the ports and ducting system. About the only way to get this out of a shed is put the DC system outside the shed and to run the DC for 10 to 15 minutes after the last dust making activity. What this often means in practice is when one starts WW the DC goes on and generally stays on until one is finished making dust.

It would seem prudent however to check the temperature within the enclosure and to compare this with ambient temperature so I will do this and report further.

I would definitely check the temperature. The clearvue systems are rated at 21A, so assuming an 80% efficiency, ~4A or 1000W will be lost as heat. Even if you run your motor for a short period it will be heating up well beyond what it is rated for and while it may not fail in the short term, long term this amount of heat will degrade insulation and force the bearings to run much hotter than usual. If it is a good motor it will have some sort of thermal cut out so you can probably just run it on a hot day and see if it stops working. If you can investigate and solve this problem that will be a great help for everyone wanting to do this.

Acoustically and thermally it's better to put the whole thing inside an acoustic chamber. The acoustic muffler then goes on the exit point of the chamber which if placed close to the motor will force air across and help keep the motor cool.

Originally Posted by BobL

Acoustically and thermally it's better to put the whole thing inside an acoustic chamber. The acoustic muffler then goes on the exit point of the chamber which if placed close to the motor will force air across and help keep the motor cool.

You propose to exhaust into the cabinet without filters? I must admit I find it a bit hard to understand this bit so maybe I am not getting what you mean.

Looking good Jeff. I hope it gives you many hours of dust free pleasure and for sure it will make your past time far healthier than it was. If I have heard one story of people having to abandon this hobby we all value and love I have heard twenty. A lot of those from people whose livelihood was ripped away from them due to being unable to continue due to lung issues caused by dust. It is also more pleasurable not to have to move dust and debris to work on anything.

As for the sunlight issue I will consult the experts as I have never had the question posed to me. Discolouration should not have any effect on performance but an interesting question all the same. In Oz we are tending to put these things outdoors (I know of at least three) one of which has been in place some years with no apparent issues but then two of them have only been in place this year. They are all shaded and not subject to direct sun light.

Thank you again to BobL for your thoughtful contributions. I am cognisant of the problem of post hoc invisible dust and have installed a large fan Attachment 185115at the rear of the shed which (hopefully) blows that dust out through the open roller door. This necessitates the wearing of suitably warm clothing in winter as the wind chill factor is considerable.

I suspect most of the residual noise comes from the outflow duct of the cyclone and I may try to further enclose that at a later time. As previously stated I will report back on the temperature issue when I have had time to do the appropriate measurements.

Thank you also to Mini for your response. I await your advice regarding the efects of UV light on the cyclone.

Cheers

Originally Posted by Mini

You propose to exhaust into the cabinet without filters? I must admit I find it a bit hard to understand this bit so maybe I am not getting what you mean.

Nope - 5 micron bags will filter inside the enclosure the air then goes out a set of baffles. I've been working on the enclosure albeit slowly. If I get down the shed tomorrow I'll take some pics.

How's your enclosure going?

Slowly.

Originally Posted by Tisorp

Thank you again to BobL for your thoughtful contributions. I am cognisant of the problem of post hoc invisible dust and have installed a large fan Attachment 185115at the rear of the shed which (hopefully) blows that dust out through the open roller door. This necessitates the wearing of suitably warm clothing in winter as the wind chill factor is considerable.

I know what you mean about the warm clothes. Fortunately Perth winters have been rather mild recently so it has not been that necessary in the last few years.

That fan looks like a bit of monster, but how many dB does it generate? I assume you open the window up behind the fan to create a cross flow? Exchanging air by trying to push it through a single opening, even one as big as a roller door, is not a very efficient way of going about it. You may feel it getting cold in the shed but it's no guarantee that you are getting effective dust removal. If would be far better to install the fan in the window and pull the air out of the shed rather than trying to blow it thru a doorway.

One thing that I'm finding hard to fathom is you have a beautiful 5HP cyclone that can clear a large space very effectively in about 10 minutes that you have put outside to reduce the noise, but instead of using the cyclone to clear the shed you use a big (possibly noisy?) fan inside the shed ??

I suspect most of the residual noise comes from the outflow duct of the cyclone and I may try to further enclose that at a later time. As previously stated I will report back on the temperature issue when I have had time to do the appropriate measurements.

By outflow do you mean the muffler?

I'm sorry if I sound overly critical, it's just my point of view (and 30 years of dabbling in designing and building dust free handling systems) and hopefully it can help.