Thread: MWE-251AX Cyclone

Originally Posted by Stu70

G'day All
Anyone own / know anything about quality and effectiveness of the Major Woodworking Equipment MWE-251AX Auto Cyclone dust extractor. 2hp 240v, rated to 1600 cfm, claimed 99.97% filtartion.
Frustrating to see a limited range of cyclones at ~twice the price compared to the US.

I can tell you straight away that the 1600 cfm will for be the naked impeller/cyclone without any ducting or post cyclone filter.
It only generates 8" of water pressure so for that sort of performance the most you could hope to draw with that unit is about 1000 cfm using short lengths of 6" ducting and 6" ports on a well ventilated machine.

For that sort of money I'd be heading straight for a Clearvue.

BobL, thanks for the reply.
Had a quick look at the Clearvue website and the smallest unit is a 5hp at ~$1600 US$ (I'm guessing $3,000+ landed here). I wish to make 1 quality extractor purchase to last. Plan to use it with a 14in Laguna bandsaw for resawing and later on get a decent table saw and planer/thicknesser, running only 1 machine at a time. Would appreciate any info regarding dust extraction I could get.

I wish I had been getting $3000 for a Clearvue! Stand by as there will be an announcement shortly on Clearvue in Oz.

Stu,

I am a Clear Vue owner ... a very happy one, so I am biased, but here goes.

I started by drawing up a wish list for dust extraction in my shop, as follows:

1. I wanted a ducted system so I was not dragging machines around the workshop.
2. I wanted to vent outside.
3. I wanted a small footprint (so I could keep the system in the shop and did not need to build a shed outside for a dusty).
4. I wanted to achieve the magic numbers of 1200 CFM and 4000 FPM so I had a shot at capturing the very fine material and at avoiding clogged lines.

The cheapest solution that met my wish List was a Clear Vue 1800, at about $2,250. I added about $300 to that for a VFD ... worth every penny because it boosts air flow by about 20% and it gives the motor a soft start (with a VFD you can run at 60 Hz instead of 50 Hz). I believe a new Clear Vue distributor is about to be appointed ... watch this space.

I recommend you draw up your own wish list. It makes product selection much easier. For the money, I know of nothing that pulls as much air as a Clear Vue, and I had a long hard look at the market before spending any loot. In my case, even a 3 HP dusty was more expensive, because it has such a large footprint I needed to put it outside my shed, meaning paying to build the dusty its own shed. BobL will suggest you locate a dusty outside the shed, so leaks don't fill your shop with very fine dust, and the invisible dust is the stuff that damages our health.

If you look at the literature (Bill Pentz's material is a great source of info), it indicates you need at least a 3 HP dusty or a 4 HP cyclone to pull enough air at high enough velocity through a ducted system. A 2 HP system (as Bob indicated) will work reasonably well if it is moved from machine to machine with a shortish 6 inch flexy connection ... but then the dusty is inside the shop and you need to be very careful with leaks.

The Clear Vue 1800 is only top notch when using one machine at a time, which is fine in my shop. The Clear Vue Max has a bigger impeller and can service two machines simultaneously, but in a one man shop that's pointless.

Strongly recommend you wade through the stuff on Bill Pentz's site before making a decision. Bill's Cyclone Dust Collection Research - Introduction On this forum, Bob L is the resident dust extraction guru, and he will be able to answer any questions you have.

Another consideration is power. I needed to install a 15 Amp circuit for my cyclone. It worked fine on a 10 Amp circuit until summer arrived, when thousands of air-conditioners kicked in and dropped the voltage just enough to give me a little grief occasionally.

The naked Clear Vue is NOISY ... but I dropped the noise from about 95 dB to about 65 dB for $50. At that level, even my shop vac is noisier.

Finally, Bob gave very good advice when he mentioned "a well ventilated machine". Good port/hood/shroud design is essential for good dust extraction. You might find a few ideas at this thread https://www.woodworkforums.com/f200/m...66/index6.html and much more can be found at bill Pentz's site.

Thanks John
Great info, look forward to announcement regarding clearvue in Oz.

JS has summed up the situation pretty well. There is NO off the shelf solution - all machines need to be modified to take advantage of bigger more powerful DCs and cyclone otherwise you are just wasting your money. A friend of mine has spend nearly $10K on an industrial DC and 8" ducting but has not modified any machines so he is possibly worse off than people like JS and myself who have spent a fraction of this.

To some extent it comes down to the size of your shed and whether you are prepared to fix your ducting and machines in place.

If you have a small shed and need to put your machines on wheels so they can be moved around then you can't use fixed ducting and you will need to move your DC to the machine. The advantage of this method is that a 2HP DC is all that is needed but overall, as JS describes this method still has problems. The worst problem is that most of the movable DCs I have seen have leaks.

If you have more space and you fix the machine and ducting location this will enable you to vent outside a shed and major advantage because then DC leaks are a non-issue. All DCs of 2HP or above and teh machines to which they are attached should be fitter with at least one 6" duct otherwise you will just throttle them - ie both the DC and the machine. If you need to use more than a few m of ducting then at least 3HP DC is needed to pull the air from the machines. All machines need to be modified to take advantage of 6" ducting.

If you have a large shed then and you need to use ducting lengths longer than 6m then you will need more than a 3HP DC and you should consider using 8" main ducting and 6" secondary ducting.

In my case I have a 45m^2 shed and have ducting over about 30 m^2 of it. I used a twin bag 3HP DC ($1000) and I located my whole DC outside in a sound reduction chamber which cost me less than $100 because I already had the materials but otherwise it would have cost more like $350, and then I have about $500 worth of ducting blast gates and connectors. I get 1250 CFM in the main duct. I have 4 machines hooked permanently up to my system
- 19" BS with 3 x 4" ducts
- Table saw with one 6" underneath the saw and one 4" duct connected to the blade guard.
- small WW lathe with one 6" duct
- 10" planer thicknesser - currently with only one 4" duct but this will be upgraded to a 6" duct.

My wife also has her rock polishing and glass cutting area on the end of a 6" duct. This collects the dust from when she cuts her material. She does it under water but when she finishes and leaves it the water dries out and leaves a fine layer of rock and glass dust everywhere -not noise.

At the MW end of the shed I also have a fume hood that vents externally at 500 CFM and extracts welding and grinding dust to the outside of the shed. A woodworking DC should not be used to vent this stuff as it will gum up the bags and reduce DC suck.

Thanks BobL, much appreciated info.