Replies

1. 
   PlaneWood | Jan 14, 2003 12:45am | #1

   Woodchuck -

   Mine is the Delta 1200 CFM model and it sets outside under the eve on a concrete pad and with a little canvas shed to protect it from the elements.  I have two blast gates in the wall of my shop.

   I built a separator using a 44 gallon Rubbermaid trash can.  The kind found at HD with the flat lid.  It's heaver and does not collapse with the vacuum.  You can bend a piece of reinforcement rod into a circle and wedge it inside if it does want to collapse.

   I got a 4" galvanized elbow and glued it in the side of the lid with the elbow inside and pointing around the side of the can.  The outlet was a piece of 4" straight galvanized glued into the center of the lid.  It has worked great.  You can find the galvanized duct pipe in the heating/AC section of HD or Lowe's.

   I was afraid of something getting sucked up into the impellors.  I'm always using the DC to clean up the shop and have had nails, screw drivers, etc get sucked up.  This has eliminated that problem.   While only the larger chips stays in the trash can and the dust goes into the bag, I really had no desires for a 'dust' separator'.  I just wanted a 'junk' separator.

   PlaneWood by Mike_in_Katy
   PlaneWood

2. 
   Wil | Jan 14, 2003 01:40am | #2

   I thought about building a cyclone out of a Jet 650 DC, but abandoned the idea after going through the pressure drop calculations.  It just has too little power. 

   The fellow who maintains http://www.inpro.net/offcenter built the Wood Magazine cyclone, and likes it a lot.  He is very helpful - I'm sure he would be happy to repond to any questions you might have.

   Wil

3. 
   wop | Jan 14, 2003 01:50am | #3

        Wood magazine ran an article a few years ago on how to build one and I think they sell plans for it. Or on web sites such as Oneida and penn state you can find sizes of various cyclone units and get someone to build it for you.I got mine built our of stainless steel from a company that normally makes exhaust pipes for heating systems for about$300 dollars. If you need a filter to take up little space a truck air filter will work great(mine is an Iveco $30) the 200 liter (55 gallon)collection drums I got free from a place 500m from my shop that produces them. It's not so difficult and you can save a bit of money if you have time to do it.

                                                                    Philip

4. 
   Jamie_Buxton | Jan 14, 2003 02:08am | #4

   You might check out Bill Pentz's site --- http://cnets.net/~eclectic/woodworking/cyclone/.   He's done a lot of research about small-shop cyclones, and has lots of info about building your own.

1. 
   PlaneWood | Jan 14, 2003 07:31pm | #5

   Why would a small shop want a cyclone??  Give me some reasons.  Like I said earlier, I just want to pull heavy objects out of the air stream before they can cause damage to the impellor.

   As long as the stuff gets into the bag, why do you care how it got there?

   I've seen large mills using cyclones but that was because they dumped the larger chips onto the ground and wanted the dust captured.  But those guys were making a 10' tall pile each day.

   PlaneWood by Mike_in_KatyPlaneWood