Plastic Cyclonic dust extractor & set up for wood shop machines

[DAPPH]

Has anyone got or set up a decent extraction system using a vacuum cyclonic separator discharging into a round barrel , supporting three or so extraction tubes of say 10 foot lengths of around 60 mm flexi wired reinforced translucent pipe off a 100 mm plastic main drain pipe chest with screw on sealed caps on the ends in case of blockages . A system that can be set open or closed up with wooden plugs & tubes removed if not in use .

If so have you got any thoughts or advice especially about a spring seated flap valve below pepper pot of holes in the sealed screw on gasketed barrel lid , that unseats if the vacuum gets too great due to blockages in the inlet pipes off the machines . Any thoughts on an anti static bare copper wire running through the chest into the cyclone & earthing it out etc. ? What size vacuum machine is desirable, could it be a simple hot ash vacuum sucker .
All advice welcome as I'm researching things for setting up three or more such cyclone extraction points in our Men's Shed .

 

[rosinante]

I used a wall hung bag type dust , chip extraction , too bag off connected it to a 65l blue drum via an elbow with a baffle inside andcexhausted it out of the shop , if chips appeared outside shop the drum was full Google Thien baffle , worked extremely well , 100 mm dia hose and fittings, never worried about static the system worked on high flow rather than vacuum levels , no need for relief valves, Thien Baffle , easy and cheap . Chris

 

[500e]

The Thien cyclo is a demon build works well

 

[julianf]

I don't think you need a pressure valve.

Workshop dust extractors are high volume low pressure. They're not going to collapse a metal clip top drum with a blockage.

 

[julianf]

Ps I've got some axminster thing on wheels with bags... Fair size motor.

If I suck up something I shouldn't, and it gets caught on the inlet mesh, I stick my arm down to get it out again. Nothing bad happens.

It shifts a vast amount of air though.

 

[Turbo]

I have one of the smaller plastic cyclones fitted to a 20l metal drum. I used it recently to collect the dust when sanding down paintwork in our bathroom with a henry providing the suction. If I touched the hose connected to the electric DA sander I would get a static shock every time so I had to be careful!

 

[Shiny Steve]

Static means you need better earthing. Some people wind copper wire connected to earth around nylon parts as they seem to build up lots of static, this can cause sparks and dust explosions particularly from sanding.

 

[dyno-tron]

I went cheap and made my own from an old metal bin (pre wheely bin type), plywood lid with 4” spigot in the middle to the extractor. Inlet was via 4” pipe glued into the lid near the edge at about 30deg angle.
It had a butchered traffic cone under the spigot to replicate the tapered cone seen in designs on interweb.

I ran 4” pipe with blast gates to the machines and stepped down where necessary.
Even had a long flex pipe with vacuum cleaner tools to act as a floor vac.

Worked very well, never had anything in the bag attached to the extractor outlet :-)

 

[Sergei Slovenija]

Any welder can repeat this; in the description of the video there are links where to get the drawings.

 

[DAPPH]

I went cheap and made my own from an old metal bin (pre wheely bin type), plywood lid with 4” spigot in the middle to the extractor. Inlet was via 4” pipe glued into the lid near the edge at about 30deg angle.
It had a butchered traffic cone under the spigot to replicate the tapered cone seen in designs on interweb.

I ran 4” pipe with blast gates to the machines and stepped down where necessary.
Even had a long flex pipe with vacuum cleaner tools to act as a floor vac.

Worked very well, never had anything in the bag attached to the extractor outlet :-)

Got any pictures of your set up that you can post in the thread or PM to me please ?

 

[DAPPH]

Any welder can repeat this; in the description of the video there are links where to get the drawings.

Cor , I watched all thre videos ......did you catch how long it took him to make ?
I'm not sure my birth certificate had that long left on it .

 

[Sergei Slovenija]

Cor , I watched all thre videos ......did you catch how long it took him to make ?
I'm not sure my birth certificate had that long left on it .

The guy had a carpenter's approach to work and no rollers. Therefore, he got out as best he could, using workaround technologies, although he has large wooden hammers (for sure)

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

I had a basic setup years ago (10+ years ago!) when I had a biggish bandsaw...mine was a plastic cyclone just bolted to a plastic bucket being "powered" by an old Dyson.

Main downside was the very inconvenient bin with cyclone on top....and having to have a separate vac too so stuff lying around....it did work very well as I recall...sold it on when I got rid of the band saw.

I seem to remember at the time they were only available in the USA so I had to import it (the cyclone bit)....but got my money back when I sold it on.

 

[Erie Fred]

I had a basic setup years ago (10+ years ago!) when I had a biggish bandsaw...mine was a plastic cyclone just bolted to a plastic bucket being "powered" by an old Dyson.

Main downside was the very inconvenient bin with cyclone on top....and having to have a separate vac too so stuff lying around....it did work very well as I recall...sold it on when I got rid of the band saw.

I seem to remember at the time they were only available in the USA so I had to import it (the cyclone bit)....but got my money back when I sold it on.

This company ?

https://www.oneida-air.com/

 

[mark roberts]

Spiral wire ducting is pretty hopeless for long runs, smooth is better. Depending on the size of the machines 4" is reasonable. I have used 6" on my planer but its 18" so needs a good bit of volume to move the chips. My extractor is 3hp I think but I have others on wheels. For my little planer I use an old nilfisk twin motor vacuum which is high pressure, its also useful for stuff like sanders and routers.

 

[julianf]

I've just done a Google image search.

My extractor is one of these -

...apart from mine just has a couple of simple bags. It's in another room though, so perfect filtration isn't needed for me.

Anyway, it seems to work fine for everything other than my old wadkin table saw, which is so leaky anyway that (judging by YouTube) very few people manage to get good dust extraction going on them.

For something like the big drum sander that I use, it's absolutely fine. To the extent that I don't use a mask when using it.

Drum sander is one of these -

...it's a monster. Creates way more dust than the wadkin but is a modern design where these things have been considered, so there's very little leakage at all.


For a planer etc it's fine also. It's really just the table saw that it's not great with.


But...

The bag is a pig to change. I mean it's not the end of the world but it's no fun at all.

Ive considered getting one of these -

And sticking it on the top of a 45 gallon steel clip top drum, just as it would be easy to empty then.

I don't know how well it would do with fine dust though.

I have one of the small cyclones (the black plastic things from China) on the top of a 30ltr drum connected up to a Henry also.

If I use the small system for alloy chips from the CNC machine it's flawless. Absolutely nothing gets through to the Henry bag. But...

I had it connected up to a bobbin sander for a while and all I remember is that the (cheap unbranded) Henry bag actually burst. It seemed that the cyclone didn't really work on the fine sawdust.

So I don't really know how the large one on 100mm ducting would work either. For a thicknesser I suspect it would be great or for a table saw (if you had a modern saw that dust extraction worked on!) but for finer sanding dust, I'm not sure. Obviously the theory is the same but the weight of the fiber dust would require so much more speed / dwell / g force etc to separate that, going by my prior experience with the little cyclone, I'm just not so sure.

 

[iNf]

As has been mentioned the thien baffle is so much easier/cheaper to make and takes up far less room than having a cone sticking out the top. I made my baffle out of a scrap piece of hardboard with some small lengths of plastic conduit as spacers and some push fit plumbing fittings as inlet/outlet to see if it worked, 10 years later my temporary job is still going
https://www.jpthien.com/cy.htm

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

This company ?

https://www.oneida-air.com/

Just had a look...that's the one ...it was called "The Dust Deputy". Ordered in 2011...cost $109.50.

As I recall they weren't available in the UK at the time...or they were a lot more money.

 

[Kerelise]

I've just done a Google image search.

My extractor is one of these -

View attachment 430121


...apart from mine just has a couple of simple bags. It's in another room though, so perfect filtration isn't needed for me.

Anyway, it seems to work fine for everything other than my old wadkin table saw, which is so leaky anyway that (judging by YouTube) very few people manage to get good dust extraction going on them.

For something like the big drum sander that I use, it's absolutely fine. To the extent that I don't use a mask when using it.

Drum sander is one of these -

View attachment 430123

...it's a monster. Creates way more dust than the wadkin but is a modern design where these things have been considered, so there's very little leakage at all.


For a planer etc it's fine also. It's really just the table saw that it's not great with.


But...

The bag is a pig to change. I mean it's not the end of the world but it's no fun at all.

Ive considered getting one of these -

View attachment 430124


And sticking it on the top of a 45 gallon steel clip top drum, just as it would be easy to empty then.

I don't know how well it would do with fine dust though.

I have one of the small cyclones (the black plastic things from China) on the top of a 30ltr drum connected up to a Henry also.

If I use the small system for alloy chips from the CNC machine it's flawless. Absolutely nothing gets through to the Henry bag. But...

I had it connected up to a bobbin sander for a while and all I remember is that the (cheap unbranded) Henry bag actually burst. It seemed that the cyclone didn't really work on the fine sawdust.

So I don't really know how the large one on 100mm ducting would work either. For a thicknesser I suspect it would be great or for a table saw (if you had a modern saw that dust extraction worked on!) but for finer sanding dust, I'm not sure. Obviously the theory is the same but the weight of the fiber dust would require so much more speed / dwell / g force etc to separate that, going by my prior experience with the little cyclone, I'm just not so sure.

Question on your top photo - one with the trolley mounted fan unit. I picked up exactly the same - but just the trolley, motor and fan unit - i.e. all the stuff on the RHS of trolley (missing all the bag stuff on LHS). Wondering if mine is running backwards - as it sucks in through the side - through that removable black plastic twin inlet thingy, and exits through that 6 inch or so pipe at the top - the one you have connected the bag (cyclone?) part...

 

[julianf]

That's exactly the direction it's supposed to go -


So, what happens is you connect up your ducting to the black plastic bit. It sucks the chips etc in there and, unlike a normal vac, these go through the fan itself and *then* into the bag.

So you need to make sure you don't suck up anything like rags or string as they get caught in the fan. Lumps of stone etc would mess up the fan, but then they would be too heavy to pass through the ducting anyway.


Axminster would sell you the missing bits but their price would probably be fearful.

They sell a smaller, simpler unit that just has a single bag on the outlet of the motor. You may consider getting that bag and manhandling it on to what you have. That would be a way cheaper path to somthing working, and then, maybe, add a cyclone pre what you have to take out the bulk of the waste (as I'm intending on doing) and just leave the bag for the very last of it.

Or.. if the cyclone removed everything you want, just vent to outside without a bag at all, depending on your situation?