Thread: Questions about a second hand set up.

Looking good Rob

That bloody drum sander sticks out like a sore thumb, can’t you paint it grey or something?

Originally Posted by riverbuilder

That bloody drum sander sticks out like a sore thumb, can’t you paint it grey or something?

LOL , It does doesn't it ! It might be a quick thing to do. Ill think about it. Ive got to many paint job projects though .
I have a replacement for the thicknesser off to the side that's about to be painted grey . Ive got to finish the extraction off first then get back to finishing a couple of woodwork jobs before I can do the thicknesser.

Got another section up today.
A 150 branch that will go across the floor and divide at the end to take dust from the two table saws.
I'll have to make a wooden cover so it doesn't get stood on. Thinking of making cable operated Blast gates for the two table saws.

I saw this Youtube video of such a blast gate build . Its a beauty !
Amazing Latch Mechanism for Remote Control of Blast Gates - Woodworking - YouTube

Ive also been test running the cyclone . Its a good sucker! So far anyway . With those two lines open there is a ferocious amount of air going through .
It'll be interesting to see what its like down the other end at the thicknesser branch with them all (5 branches) open. Then close them off one at a time from the cyclone back.


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Rob

First stage main line and branch lines are up and close to the machines that needed extraction first. I connected the thicknesser and have been using that and the duct that goes to the floor for table saws as a floor sweep.

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Suction is fantastic . But the noise of the unit outside had me worried .
I went to the front gate and got my son to turn the unit on a few days ago when it was pretty windy rough weather. It sounded like someone was taking off in a plane down behind the shed ! Its a long way to neighbors, 1 KM and more, but when its still and quiet here I'm amazed at how sound travels .
So I got to work and fitted up the muffler that came with the unit . I thought it may make some sort of a difference but was shocked at the huge difference it made. This unit would have annoyed people 1 km away and now with muffler on it cant be heard at our house 100 meters away . I think it took 90 % of the offensive sound away . And there must be a difference to suction but I cant detect it .

I think the muffler was originally fitted with the fat long part coming off the cyclone first and the elbow which has two curved vanes inside at the corner was at the end but it made sense to fit it the way I did pointing down and close to the stand that holds the cyclone up . I just wanted to get it going without having to build a way of supporting it . Pointing up with a roof above the outlet would be good but id not be able to see if dust was coming out when full and I don't want dust on the roof where rain water is collected either . I may keep it this way and weld some support back to the stand at some stage. And Ill probably build more covering around the upper unit which will keep weather of it and even make it a little bit quieter .
That Muffler is lined in perforated sheet metal inside and has some sort of padding or wadding behind that .

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Blast gates have evolved as I'm doing them . The first one was like I made them for the old workshop . Masonite for the gate with ply body and no collars . Bad idea . The old workshop gates were on the wooden floor . The gates lasted well with Masonite because the gate slid on the floor and couldn't bend . We kicked them open and closed for probably 15 years with hardly a problem .
The first one sorted out my sizing and I went to all plywood . Then I turned collars in double thickness ply to add to each side to give strong fitting and gluing area for the pipes. The Ply is around 17mm so its a gate and side spacers of 17mm , two covers of 17mm and the collars add 4 x 17mm to the thickness . So they are 119 thick . The gate is 600 long. and the body is about 290 x 290 I think . I'm thinking of painting them when I get the time .

I glued this first one onto the pipe on its bottom side with Sellys PlastiBond . Good gap filling and tough stuff and ill be using more of it where its needed. Mostly Ill be gluing in short joiners each side .

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First gate on the thicknesser is all bracing Ply . Just laminated pine . The next two gates have collars made with Birch ply on Bracing Ply body . A lot nicer to turn and a touch thicker. I'm mostly going back to all Bracing ply though in pine as I want to save the remaining birch ply and the pine plywood seems good enough .

I’m surprised you didn’t try the whole system without gates at all, Iworked at a place once and they had a similar setup to that cyclone and no gates on any machines and it worked brilliantly.

I wouldn't want to go connecting everything up then have to take it apart to add gates . I think it will be OK to have two or three machines open at times depending on what Im doing but there will be times I want max power. And Ill be adding a fair bit more to the system later. So I want good gates. It would be nice to not have to have them for sure but it wont work well without them by the time I'm finished .
The last set up I had I had gates on all machines but I was really stretching the limits of its power with some of the last machines I connected down the end of the line . I had to go empty and clean filters a lot more to keep the end machine working . The filthiest dust producer was at the end of the line . Routing MDF on a faceplate lathe . Having something that I can tune to my needs is what I want .

I made a lifting tower for emptying my drum . Its 2 x 200 Litre welded together.
It was a pain getting it empty in a trailer 1M off the ground with the drum at roughly 1800 high for a total of 2.8 M with nothing but me tilting it and poking at the opening with a small spade.

Here's some pictures .

The tower is welded steel and is 40 x 40 x 3mm SHS. Its second hand and gets advertised on Gumtree . Sourced by the sellers from the port of Melbourne . I think it comes in some sort of packing inside shipping containers . It comes in 2.4 lengths .

The rope block and tackle Ive had hanging around for years . Now its got an important job . I wonder how long the natural rope will last being used outside like that ? I can always spray the steel with some sort of oil and replace rope if it fails.

First test was today with a small load in the drum . Its pretty good . I can hold the rope with one hand and push the drum to empty up the middle of the trailer. Its going to be quite a bit faster compared to what I was doing before.
That last picture was seeing how high I could lift the drum . It emptied at a lower height . The lifting tower is 4 Meters tall .

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Another job will be to re line that great little tipping trailer I have with some second hand Polycarb or roofing iron maybe . Its second skin I had put in years ago welded on top of the first one is disintegrating fast with wet sawdust sitting in it making things worse. Maybe Ill even put a light weight roof on it.

I suggest adding some handles to the drum to make it easier to push/pull into place. You might be able to attach the lifting rope to it too.

Pete

Originally Posted by QC Inspector

I suggest adding some handles to the drum to make it easier to push/pull into place. You might be able to attach the lifting rope to it too.

Pete

Yeah I'm thinking of adding to the drum . I will see how the webbing around the bottom half goes and thought a bit of strap iron bolted tight art the join would be better. With a ring welded at that point for lifting . I need some strap iron just the right size though. The webbing will be a good start and easy to move up or down to experiment with the lifting point first .

Two small wheels that take the weight when the drum is tilted forward may be good too . Though I only need to move the drum forward about 800 mm before tipping it to rest on the trailer. Ill possibly just put up with shuffling it over.

A hand on top when the lid is off is the way Ive been moving it . A handle 2/3 up from bottom could be good though . As a way to shift but also as a way to hook it to the trailer before it gets lifted up . It could stop it rolling back if the wheels are on it . I'm trying not to dent the drum when it goes over onto trailer with rough treatment as well . The right made up handle could help there too .

In a similar vein, this is how they used to coal steam locomotive at smaller NZ Railways engine depots.

Note the design. The pivot is a little below half-way up the side (maybe 40% up from bottom). This allowed the operator to begin tipping the bucket without loosing control (as would happen if the pivot point was much lower). I've seen these in use and they work well.

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Obviously wood chips are lighter than coal, so a lower pivot might be worth experimenting with. But having the pivot not far below centre also made it easier to tip the empty bucket back up again.

My tuppence worth....

Cheers, Vann.