Thread: Timbecom cyclone, any good?

I have no experience re this unit but Timbercon’s specifications for the unit leave me wondering - HPLV.?

wow.

How good that we can get these now. When I was hunting for one, I ended up with a huge 3HP 150mm hose (!!yes!) unit with a bag and pleated filter. Super chuffed with it too.

If I were looking again, Id unhesitatingly go with this unit: https://www.timbecon.com.au/sherwood...dust-extractor

3HP, 125mm inlets etc.... a cyclone to save bag emptying pain... looks pretty good to me.... It would be so much nicer it it were 150mm though

For a workshop extraction device I would prefer a HVLP unit to a HPLV unit. That unit is described as a HPLV unit though I suspect Timbercon got it wrong - like a number of their descriptions.

Just as a side question, is this setup any less efficient than the "all in one " version I originally look at?

https://www.timbecon.com.au/sherwood...scds-200-dck-2

Cheers

Originally Posted by woodtryer

Just as a side question, is this setup any less efficient than the "all in one " version I originally look at?

https://www.timbecon.com.au/sherwood...scds-200-dck-2

Cheers

Well, it's certainly less "efficient" in the sense that having a redundant centrifugal separator improves nothing and seriously hurts airflow. That harmless looking "bag and filter holder" adds nothing except pressure loss, about the same as 40m of 150mm PVC. That's a very poor use of a cyclone.

Peter, interestingly I am also seriously looking at these cyclones as well and got in contact with Timbecon yesterday for some advice. The assistant agreed that the HPLV description is a typo / mistake. I described my fairly basic workshop setup with thicknesser and jointer being the likely high emission tools and the intention to keep runs as short and possible and connect the extractor to each machine on a one by one plug and play basis, their feedback was that the 3HP unit which I was looking at should be more than sufficient. Whilst the additional 1HP only gives 150CFM extra vs the equivalent 2HP (suspect its the same impeller and cannot fully utilise the additional power) the filter looks to be bigger which should help in being able to allow the unit to exhaust more air?

They were not able to provide any info on the impeller diameter or the static pressure in inches of H20 which interestingly they do give for their single stage units.

Looking & asking around there seems to be a decent cost gap between these units $1200-$1500 and the next step up which are $2500 plus. Hence whilst there industrial range looks like a better / more efficient machine (the 1.5HP industrial does 900 CFM whilst the 3HP "normal" cyclone does 750 CFM guessing the impeller and overall construction are better all around), it falls well outside my budget.

I suspect that provided your expectations are realistic then it should prove to be a good solid unit, Sherwood give 5 year warranty and I have always found Timbecon good to deal with. If the machine was total crap then you would just get the 12 months bare min I suspect. However don't expect to be able to a) capture 99% of the fine dust that a $4000 Bill Pentz (Clearvue) cyclone would, b) nor be able to hook it up to some elaborate array of ducting with multiple machines running and expect it perform flawlessly. However short runs, 1 machine at a time and I think that it would be orders of magnitude better than not having one. From a health perspective I think that wearing a dust mask would still be needed when operating machinery but the unit would hopefully make cleanup a lot quicker and cut down the fine dust which settles around the workshop.

Assuming you have seen the linked video from the Timbecon page to Small Fry Creations channel on youtube where they test the unit? This also has a follow up video where she tests a Sherwood thicknesser with the 2HP DC connected, performance looked reasonable to me. SHERWOOD Helical Head Thicknesser review and comparison to Straight Blades - YouTube

There is a rumour that Carbatec have a new range of DC's due to arrive somewhere around end of Sept. However I doubt that these would offer notably more bang for buck and may even be effectively the same (a lot of machinery looks very similar between Carbatec and Timbecon bar the colour). However I could be wrong.

I must stress I have no direct experience with the units and am more than happy to give way to any "wiser" people, which I suspect many on this forum are! One additional question I will throw out there is whether anyone knows what the smaller approx 2 inch line running from the cyclone to the base of the collection bin on the 3HP unit (https://www.timbecon.com.au/sherwood...dust-extractor) is for? Its not there on the 2HP (https://www.timbecon.com.au/sherwood...dust-extractor), maybe its to stop the chip bag getting sucked into the cyclone when empty?

Originally Posted by Matt712

I must stress I have no direct experience with the units and am more than happy to give way to any "wiser" people, which I suspect many on this forum are! One additional question I will throw out there is whether anyone knows what the smaller approx 2 inch line running from the cyclone to the base of the collection bin on the 3HP unit (https://www.timbecon.com.au/sherwood...dust-extractor) is for? Its not there on the 2HP (https://www.timbecon.com.au/sherwood...dust-extractor), maybe its to stop the chip bag getting sucked into the cyclone when empty?

The 2" line is so a plastic bag can be used in the collection bin. If it is not used, the plastic bag will get sucked out of the collection bag and be shredded by they cyclone - just pay you never have a leak in that line.

FWIW I reckon you are better off not using a collection bag as it becomes just another thing that can leak - not that any leak releases dust but just drops the cyclone efficiency so more fine dust will be released into the air stream. I've measured the typical total exposure to dust when emptying bags and if you do this outside with the breeze at your back the exposure is very low.

The flow rates on all these DCs and cyclones are somewhat irrelevant.
The most air that most small DCs will pull though a (short) 4" duct is about 425 CFM and less for flexy.
Provided the DC is up for it (ie a 12" impeller DC is not) a 6" duct does much better, 1250CFM for short solid ducts and about 1000 CFM for flexy.

But its all rapidly downhill from there.
Longer ducts and flexes, cyclones, choked machine ports, and clogged filters will drop the flows significantly.
This is why larger impeller/motors are used.

For folks with 2HP or smaller DCs not working 40 hours a eek in their shed, trying to control fine dust from machinery is a losing game and I strongly recommend forced ventilation as a cheap way to manage this.

Hi Bob,

As an alternative, any thoughts on straight 3HP Dusty linked below with pleated filters? There is no cyclone for fine dust but overall this may provide better CFM.

https://www.timbecon.com.au/sherwood...-collector-3hp

Re ventilation, would a powerful split system be sufficient for ventilation or additional exhaust fans are required? I have a 6 x 8 meter workshop with 3m ceiling and thinking of installing a 7kw - 8kw split system.

Many thanks.

Originally Posted by saladonion

Hi Bob,

As an alternative, any thoughts on straight 3HP Dusty linked below with pleated filters? There is no cyclone for fine dust but overall this may provide better CFM.
https://www.timbecon.com.au/sherwood...-collector-3hp

It depends on the size of the impeller. If it is the same as the 2HP DC the motor HP will make little difference. What will make a difference is the two filters will decrease the filter resistance and hence increase the flow, and increase time taken for the filters to clog.

Re ventilation, would a powerful split system be sufficient for ventilation or additional exhaust fans are required? I have a 6 x 8 meter workshop with 3m ceiling and thinking of installing a 7kw - 8kw split system..

Split systems don't usually generate enough ventilation.
If its a 6 x 8 x 3m shed that's 144 cubic metres
To get 10 room air changes per hour you'd need ~1500 m^3 per hour of exhausting.
Thats ~4 x 400 m^3/hr fans.
BTW standard exhaust fans with grills are unlikely to get to 400 m^3/hr

Evap ACs are much better as they pump large amounts of air through buildings.

Originally Posted by BobL

BTW standard exhaust fans with grills are unlikely to get to 400 m^3/hr
.

Wondering if you have any links to products or recommendations that you think might hit the brief?

Thanks for your knowledgeable input BobL. I guess now I need to ask is there any of these cyclone dc under $3000 worth buying?

Thanks Peter

Originally Posted by mote

Wondering if you have any links to products or recommendations that you think might hit the brief?

Look up hydroponic exhaust fan on ebay.
There are many different kinds (of varying quality, efficiency noise levels, etc) but I reckon the ones that look like this are the go
Screen Shot 2021-08-05 at 5.02.07 pm.jpg


2 x 10" or maybe even 8" fans should do the trick.
The prices are not too bad thanks to the numbers that our gro-your-own brethren purchase.

just clarifyign, are you saying that dc has a 12 inch impeller?

Originally Posted by BobL

Look up hydroponic exhaust fan on ebay.

Thanks! So the image you show looks like you would mount it on the wall or ceiling then run some ducting, is that about right?

There is this one at Bunnings that sits on the floor. I suppose the advantage of the mounted and ducting you can run it with the door closed!

Here is a picture of the Bunnings one:

d404b19c-3821-4d54-b6db-cb7588b8c914.jpeg
Bristol 300mm Extraction Fan & 5m Hose Combo - Bunnings Australia