My portable dust separator

**Dengue** · 30th October 2011, 02:16 PM

Hello, based on the Thien dust separator, I decided to make a smaller , more portable dust separator for taking with me to use on my son's machines (bandsaw and jointer). with my 1hp portable dust collector

My current one, attached to my table saw and a is one that you can see here, and uses a 44 gal blue plastic drum, but it is not really portable.

I decided to have a go at making one with a 75l plastic garbage bin $25, and a large cheap pot $12 from Bunnings garden centre. The top opening on each are the same, about 500mm. I wanted to retain the 4 inch hoses.

The pictures show the arrangement of the separator, and a test run with 2 x 2m hoses connected to the little dust collector.

The test run was interesting. I sucked up 3kg of dust from my table saw dust separator, and this included rat droppings from a problem I had at one stage.

Only 80% of the dust went in to the garbage bin, by weight. Not a good result.

The dust on the baffle board was interesting. In the larger diameter part of the baffle, the heavier rat droppings stayed there, with a fair build up of sawdust.

The strange part was the buildup of the dust directly opposite, on the perimeter of the smaller circle of the baffle. I think this would indicate that the swirling air from the little DC ran out of puff about this point , suggesting that it was inadequate for the job. It was definitely not strong ewnough to push the rat dropping around the baffle board

I would welcome other peoples views. The setup is really intended for a jointer and thicknesser which generates a lot of dust.

I like it because when it is full, I lift the conical pot off, put the original lid on the garbage bin, and take it to the tip. EASY!!

**Dengue** · 1st November 2011, 12:40 PM

This last picture was incorrect, and the dust separator didn't work with the hoses connected the way they were. I swapped them, with the centre bend connected to the dust extractor. On a subsequent test run 96% of the dust was captured in the dust separator, measured by weight

**Dengue** · 1st November 2011, 06:58 PM

The reasons I used the concial pot on top were:
1. smooth conical shape, compared to the ribbed sides of the garbage bin, which means more effective cyclonic air flow and separation.
2. More volume, esp when using a thicknesser which generates a lot of chips quickly.

Out of interest, I fitted the top inlet / outlet board and baffle board to the garbage bin only. Luckily the opening on the bin and the pot were the same, purely by chance.

Only 90% of the dust was captured this way, compared to 96% of the original setup, probably due to the ribbed sides of the bin affecting cyclonic air flow , and also because the baffle board was probably not hard against the side of the bin.

Incidentally, when the conical pot was mounted on the garbage bin, there was a distinctive swirl patten on the dust collected in the bottom of the bin. The dust was built up around the sides, but not much in the centre. Mind you, I was only using about half a bucket of sawdust, 1400 gms.

**Bushmiller** · 1st November 2011, 07:51 PM

Jill

Most impressive. I have made a note of this thread and your previous ones in the same vein. My son and I have gone down a similar path with garbage bins and poly 44s, but without the same level of sophistication, particularly with the extra baffle according to Thien.

Great job.

Regards
Paul

**Barbarian_Child** · 1st November 2011, 08:53 PM

Nice work Jill

Great idea weighing the dust to get the %%. Wish I had thought of that.

Cheers
Brian

**Pops** · 1st November 2011, 09:22 PM

Hi Jill,

What Bushmiller said. Well done indeed. Top design I think.

Cheers
Pops

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