Thread: Dust Extraction

Barnsey,

I take it the D/C you bought is at least a 2hp (forget the 1200cfm rating - it is crap). This is what I used for the blower/motor for my Cyclone. Building one is not really all that hard. My main problem was trying to solder it up which I did not really need to do. I was just trying to make it look the best which does not matter one bit as far as performance goes. What does matter is making sure it is air tight. So, caulk it (liquid nails) and put flashing tape over the joins - not one leak.

As for the 6", I think your D/C will have a 6" inlet but it will have a 6" to two 4" Wye attached to it. Remove this and you have one 6". If not, you can take of the blower plate and make a new one out of MDF or PLY with a 6" hole. Get some 6" pvc and cut of a bit from the Mating end which you can liquid nail into the replacement PLY plate.

Yes, connecting to the Machines is fun (Not). At the moment mine are all still 4" BUT I have 6" running all the way to the machines so I only have a small length of 4" flex to each machine. Over time I will be making replacement 6" ports for each one.

I totally agree that some company should produce one (for a reasonable price) and I have talked to a few people in the various Coy's but I don't get much (read No) interest. Apparently, years ago, nearly all of them had a Cyclone available but not one bit of interest from the Woodies so they wont stock them anymore. I have mentioned that that was before we knew about the dangers of the fine wood dust and they as still not interested. I know that The Woodman group make Cyclones but these are Big Commercial units (very expensive) and I have heard they might have a small unit coming out but I think it will still be expensive for hobbist's.

So, build one like me.

As long as the cheapest way to get a blower for a cyclone is to just buy a 2hp DC, throw away the bags and just use the blower, then why would any company bother making a cyclone? When we are all buying their DC units we don't even use!
(am I being cynical?)

John,

Of course they will all be happy selling us 2hp D/C as they are in business. As for the bits that get thrown out, there is not really much value there when you look at them. A bit of curved sheet metal and two crappy cloth bags (which are probably really rated at 300micron + not 30 micron).

However, if they made a well designed 2hp Cyclone available for, say, $600, I think they might be surprised at how many they sold once word got out.

Ever since I started the Cyclone thread/project, I get a message or email at least once a week from lurkers on the forum with questions about buying or making a Cyclone. So I believe the interest is out there.

Well what sort of interest is there for a prefab kit then? ie bolt together kit with motor, mounts/frame and sealed bin? And what price would you guys think is reasonable?

I like your thinking q9.

Ok all you lurkers out there, if we could find a sheet metal fabricator to take the essence of Bill Pentz's design and fabricate a kit that you might assemble - what would the response be. How many of us want to protect ouselves and might I add our families from the perils of this dusty crap.

SWMBO is at me endlessly for the amount of dust I introduce into the house. What price to earn a brownie point or two???!!!

Wayne - thanks for your input - you are only just up the road and I spent a fair bit of my life soldering so I'm determined that if I take on this project it will be A1 quality - damn there goes my greatest weakness again!!!!

Perhaps Bill would be prepared to send us some full scale drawings from the HP Plotter so that we can get some unused production capacity utilised to make a few cyclones?????????????

Wayne - yes it is the 2hp unit - rated at 7.5 amps - best I make sure it is turned on before anything else or I won't be popular when the TV and PC take a dive on the overload!!!!!

Barnsey,

You sure do as the startup uses lots of juice. When I turn mine on, the lights in the Shop dim!!

Just a thought but, cyclones have been and are used a fair bit on farms and rural industries for a loong time for collecting grain and hay after it is cracked or hammer milled. It could be another area where cyclones could be found or sourced.

Barnsey,

You don't really need the full size plan but I suppose it would be nice. Measuring out and cutting the steel were the easy parts. Rolling, Bending and Joining was the hardest bit as you must make sure it is circular not oval!

As for making up a kit like Terry Hatfield does, that would be great. I think that two different Cone lengths, short (1.67 drum height multiple) and long (3 multiple) which is the optimum but makes for a very tall cyclone.

Trevor,

On Bill Pentz's site he mentions Grain Cyclones and says that they are not designed for picking up wood chips/dust.

The only thing that deterred me from building one was the sheet metal cutout. The drawings on Bill's site are extremely confusing, I must say. If the metal was prefabricated I am happy with the soldering/jointing etc. The rest is relatively straightforward.
I have seen a site in the USA where a guy offers a"kit" of sheet metal parts already cut, but I can't remember where it was.

Ken,

Bill Pentz's site has a link to Terry Hatfields site which is the guy that has the Cyclone Kits available.

The address is:
http://www.dusteliminator.com/

Cheers,

Barnsey & Friends,

You know I kind of like this site. It is one of the few places I can visit and still be a junior member!

Sorry there are so many dimensions on my cyclone plan, clearly my fault because I made it scalable to work from a 1.5 up to a 5 hp motor, plus vary both the cone length and inlet size. For what it is worth my son and I laid out and cut the sheetmetal (I get a handicap because he helped!) in about 3 hours. Building his oak pedestal desk was a lot harder and far more complex. The rest is pretty straight forward with as detailed step by step instructions as I've been able to write.

I did finish up the draft of my DC Testing & Measurement page and it is now there for folks to look over.

In terms of using the so called 1200 CFM dust collectors to power the cyclones, that is really not the best solution. DC makers size their impellers to not burn up the motors if the DC is run with no ducting or flex hose attached. That means when we add the overhead of ducting, filters, and cyclone, the impellers are not big enough and the system becomes air-starved with the motors running well below capacity. It is then time to either change impeller speeds with a pulley or put in a bigger impeller. I've tested a bunch now and most are far happier with a 13" impeller instead of the standard 12" that comes with these units. (Please forgive the Imperial units - live in the sticks).

The other question is do I have and would I give a CAD file to someone who wants to go into production building my plan for sale. Let's see here, two years of most of the spare time in my life giving away free detailed plans that cost me having to buy and test two DCs, one cyclone, eighteen impellers, six motors, build and test six cyclones with at least thirty different options, borrow and test over a dozen DCs and six more cyclones, and also buying $600 worth of custom testing gear. Add roughly four hours a day answering emails and updating web pages for more than a year. Total return $0 and total asked for $0. And no, I'm not going to take responsiblity to give someone a business that they are not willing to at least work hard enough to copy a working plan that has been built by over 200 people.

*smile*

bill