Thread: Cyclone options

In case you weren't aware, you can mount the Cyclone on an angle to fit under a lower ceiling. The downside is loosing some floor / wall space. Some of which you would gain back if you used the belt driven fan on the floor under the cyclone. Slightly less efficient than mounting the fan and motor on top of the cyclone but you wouldn't need to fabricate a fan and housing.

Photos of the blowers and motors would help. I don't get the fascination with wheelie bins, you can put any bin on wheels. Wheelie bins are in general hard to make air tight and I know several installations that have suffered the problem. You sound like a man who likes a challenge, how about a bin with an auger in it, turn the auger on and the bin empties into a trailer or wheelie bin etc. I have tried to interest a few people in this idea to no avail so far.

I like the auger idea especially to put the waste outside when you live in a cold climate. There are lots of sources for augers, like the ones used to move chicken feed from the storage bins into the barns. I'd also like to see a practical puck or pellet maker for amateur woodworkers. Both of these might be better discussed in separate threads rather than here though.

Originally Posted by QC Inspector

In case you weren't aware, you can mount the Cyclone on an angle to fit under a lower ceiling. The downside is loosing some floor / wall space. Some of which you would gain back if you used the belt driven fan on the floor under the cyclone. Slightly less efficient than mounting the fan and motor on top of the cyclone but you wouldn't need to fabricate a fan and housing.

Thanks QC Inspector. I wasn't aware that you could mount the cyclone on an angle.

There is definitely a tradeoff between using the existing blower and additional fabrication of top mounted fan.

Appreciate your response.

Regards
John

Chris

I do accept there's a few challenges to using the wheelie bin, and the auger idea sounds interesting...it would perform a similar function to a rotary air lock (which also negates the need for good bin sealing).

I've added some pics and specs for the equipment which may assist others contributing as well.

Thanks for responding.

Regards
John

I would avoid any straight vane impellers as they are much noisier than the curved vane variety.
The two I have measured were close to 100 dB at 50Hz and over 100 at 60Hz.
I know you are not going to use a VFD but you may want to up the speed of the impeller with pulleys to get the extra pressure.

The reason I brought up the auger idea is that it would be a convenient way to use a smaller drum as emptying the drum would not be so much of an issue. I could envisage if a smaller drum had to be used that an auger could be set up to move the waste to a bigger drum or even a trailer parked under it. Best of luck with the build, it will be interesting I am sure.

BobL - thanks for raising the issue of noise between straight and curved vane impellers. I appreciate you input.

Regards,
John

Originally Posted by Chris Parks

Photos of the blowers and motors would help. I don't get the fascination with wheelie bins, you can put any bin on wheels. Wheelie bins are in general hard to make air tight and I know several installations that have suffered the problem. You sound like a man who likes a challenge, how about a bin with an auger in it, turn the auger on and the bin empties into a trailer or wheelie bin etc. I have tried to interest a few people in this idea to no avail so far.

How would you make the auger airtight?

Stephen do you mean the drive? I would drive it through sealed bearings using a flexible shaft and the exit for the sawdust can be a sealed removable cap which wouldn't present many problems. If the auger was placed parallel and close to the floor feeding a rising tube it should work fairly well but any lumps of timber could present a problem if they were too big. I have never refined the idea as such but I reckon it is doable and ideal for small commercial operators. I had a customer in WA who i thought might do it but as far as I know it never happened.

Wheelie bins aren't hard to seal, you can fit automotive rubbers on the lip around the top. Little bit of silicone to hold it in place and seal the join, works fine. Commercial units like the Felder RL's use an EPDM seal for the bin to the unit if I recall correctly, so not so different. Make a lid to match the dimensions of the bin top and use toggle hasp latches front and back to hold in place. This ensures it's easy to remove, and the latches are out of harms way whe the truck picks it up to empty. if you get a white bin, they're translucent so you can see how full it is. Unless you lack the height for a wheelie bin and cyclone above it, I don't get why you wouldn't use one ;-)

Thanks richmond68 for the suggestion of automotive seal (pinchweld) for the lid of the wheelie bin.

I'm planning on cutting a hole in the standard bin lid and fitting a rubber sheet diaphragm style gasket that will seal around the cyclone bottom outlet. Wheel the bin in place, partially open the lid to push the seal over the outlet pipe, and lower the lid to leave the diaphragm seal upwardly inverted to withstand negative pressure. Maybe a couple of occy straps to hold the lid against the lip seal if required.

John

Hi John, your height is more than likely going to be an issue, my cyclone is 400 dia and the cone length is 3d (1200) so by the time you get a wheelie bin under the cone there isn't much room for the rest of it.​I put mine outside. BP from memory does say a 1.86d length cone also works well, I made my vac cyclone cone length to this spec and seems to be ok. If my understanding of cone shape is correct it comes down to the velocity of the particles spinning around inside the cone and the mass of the particles. for e.g. a light mass particle spinning at high speed in a wide cone (1.86d) is more likely to remain inside the cone and not fall out the btm whereas a large particle spinning at slow speed in a 3d cone will more than likely fall, centrifugal force v gravity essentially, there's some good vids of cone designs with animations in utube land that shows it a bit more.
Have you got some pics of the fan/blower that you already have?



Pete

Thanks for your feedback Pete - I had a look at you vac cyclone build, and more recent fan housing posts. Some very good fabrication tips there !! Thanks.

I'm working with 9' floor to ceiling height, so think I'll be able to do a 1D2D at 15" diameter, and fit the bin in as well.

Here's the existing blower (dimensionally identical to the datasheet posted above for model B60).

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