Thread: Sturdee's Triton's dustbucket/mini cyclone.

As the plans are no longer available elsewhere and as there have been some queries in respect of some details in various posts I'll put them all together in one thread.


The original instructions :

HOW TO CONVERT THE TRITON DUST BUCKET INTO A MINI CYCLONE

Having read the discussions on dust collection on Woodwork Forums Bulletin Board and having seen how Wayne Davey (the undisputed Australian expert on cyclones) made a mini cyclone for his vacuum cleaner I decided to make one out of my old Triton dust bucket. The finished item stands 850 mm tall and the parts I had to purchase cost me $ 9.00 as I already had some of the other items.

On completion I used it to vacuum out the contents of my workcentre dustbag and all the dust collected into the mini cyclone drum and none in the vacuum cleaner bag without any loss of suction of clogged up filters. For fixed use it works great but for better mobility you may want to put some castors under it.

PARTS REQUIRED

Purchased from Bunnings:
400mm length of plastic pipe 25mm, 2 plastic pipe joiners 25mm and 40mm Outside Diameter and a 90% elbow for above.

Purchased from Supercheap Auto in Ringwood:
220mm diam plastic funnel

Already held:
2 Triton bayonet hose adaptors (part no. CMA033)
A 15 Lt. paint drum with lid (you can also use a 20lt drum)
Ofcuts of chipboard or MDF
3 Bolts with washers and extra nuts.
Silicone or putty.

THE DUST BUCKET LID

1. Remove filter from the lid and discard. Enlarge the top hole and one of the side holes to 40mm.
2. From the plastic pipe cut 3 pieces of 45 mm in length.
3. Grind of the protruding locking bits on the bayonet hose adaptors and grind some of the side of the 90 % elbow so it will fit inside the bucket.
4. Glue one of the short pieces of pipe into each of the bayonet hose adaptors. Glue the 40mm pipe joiners into both holes of the lid from the bottom and glue the adaptors into the joiners from the top of the lid.
5. Glue the pipe into the centre joiner and glue the elbow into the other joiner using the other short piece making sure the side of the elbow that is ground down is on the outside.
6. Close other entry hole and seal everything with Silicone.

PREPARING THE BUCKET

1. Cut a disk out of chipboard with a diameter of 265 mm and cut out of this disk a further disk of 215mm diam. This is to seal the gap between the bucket and the funnel.
2. Cut out of the inside disk above a hole of 110 mm diam.
3. Cut another disk out of chipboard with a diameter of 220 mm and cut out of this disk a 110 mm hole.
4. Cut out of the bottom of the bucket a hole of 110 mm diam.
5. Cut out of the centre of the paint lid a hole of 110 mm diam.
6. Drill through disks No 2 and 3, dust bucket bottom and paint lid three holes for the bolts.

ASSEMBLING THE BUCKET

1. Attach disk (no 1 above) to the top of the funnel with small nails and seal with silicone.
2. Attach disk (no 3 above) onto funnel halfway up and attach with silicone and attach the three bolts with the nuts countersunk into the chipboard.
3. OPTIONAL Paint above, paint lid and paint drum if desired because once assembled it is too late.
4. Push above assembly into the dust bucket and seal with silicone and secure to the bucket with washers and nuts.
5. Put paint lid onto bucket and final disk and secure with further nuts.
6. Cut of protruding end of funnel and seal with silicone.

ASSEMBLY OF UNIT

Attach lid to bucket and bucket to paint drum. Connect vacuum cleaner hose to the centre adaptor and the Triton hose to the other adaptor and it is ready for use. Happy vacuuming and remember the dust you see swirling in the dust bucket before it drops into the drum is not ending up in your lungs.

This photo shows the original completed unit and this one shows the components before final assemby.

Another member drew a schematic diagram which explains the instructions.


Since then there have been a number of queries , some are helpful to those now building one:


See attached diagram.

My questions are... what is the orange area, I am assuming the area above it is the base of the Triton bucket and that the orange area is a space between the base of the Triton bucket and the lid of the paint bucket created by the (blue) nut and washer? If that is so, why is there a need for the space?

Third question... Why is there a need for a countersunk nut (coloured green) when the bolt head and the blue nut would hold them together???

It seems to me that what is required is for the Triton bucket base and the paint bucket lid to be sandwiched together with a hole between them and a funnel sealed into the hole. Or is there more to it than that?


and my reply:

Your assumption that all that is required is for the Triton bucket base and the paint bucket lid to be sandwiched together with a hole between them and a funnel sealed into the hole is correct. However this is not as easy to do and my method makes sure that this is done easily, accurately and permanently.

To your specific questions. The orange area is indeed the space between the base of the bucket and the paint tin lid. The space is there because of the way the dust bucket and most plastic paint drums are constructed. Because the space is there I used it for the securing nuts.

The need for the countersunk nut ( coloured green ) is there to make sure that the bolt is fixed firmly in place. If the holes are slightly too large the coachbolts have an annoying habit of turning with the nuts and once the funnel unit is pushed in place it stops access the bolts and it is difficult to tighten them. For the sake of a few extra nuts you avoid possible problems.


Another one often asked is about the funnel used and my reply:

The funnel I used is the 220mm wide black funnel sold by Supercheap Auto for about $ 3.00. As the bottom gets cut of after fitting, only the top 130mm of the funnel is used leaving an opening of 80mm as the bottom outlet.


And the other question that is mainly asked is about the pipe used and my reply:


The plastic pipe referred to is available from Bunnings in their plumbing department. It is not the standard drainage pipe but the (high pressure) water supply pipe. It has a different OD than the drainage pipe as it has thicker pipe walls.

Hence the pipe has an 25mm ID and approx 33mm OD and the joiners have an 33mm ID and 40mm OD.

THe OD of the joiner fits neatly into the holes in the dustbucket lid and the OD of the pipe fits neatly into the ID of the Triton hose fittings. Hence the selection of the water pressure pipe.

The ID of a standard ( ) vac hose slides over the 25mm pipe, at least mine does.


SINCE THEN

Since then I and others have made the minicyclone by using ordinary plastic buckets or paint drums which work as well as the Triton dust bucket. A search will show quite a few examples.

In addition Gumby has made a video about making the mini cyclone which is available for members to down load.


Peter.

PS May be a link to this post could go in Best of the best to save the difficulties of searching.