# Homemade dust collector project



## DennisCA (7 Oct 2015)

Figured this could deserve it's own thread. I decided a while ago to build a wooden dust collector after seeing Matthias Wandel and also later people like Marius Hornberger build some great stuff from wood and get machines that rivaled hundred or even thousand euro setups for chump change.

I'm cheaper than Uncle Scrooge and my favorite disney character was Gyro Gearloose so this project was a natural fit for me. I had gotten a 4kw 2880rpm 3-phase motor for 25 euros earlier and it turned out to be perfect for this.

I bought the woodgears dust collector plans just so I could modify and enlarge the impeller, the rest I have designed myself. I liked the impeller design, 12 highly backwards curved blades makes for a very efficient design. And since it's a wooden impeller it cannot be a material handling design, so there is no reason to build a wastefully inefficient standard design. You get around the not material handling part by using cyclonic separation and pre-filtering. I think that's a more efficient setup really. 

I cut the circles for the impeller on my bandsaw jig and then I routed grooves in them using a setup on my router table, where I had a nail in the surface at a set distance from the router bit and pivot points made on the impellers.

I made vanes from gluing two pieces of 4mm birch plywood, here's a jig I used, it worked better with clamps than in the vice, actually:






After a while I had this:





I trimmed it down in size to 46cm or 18" using my table saw jig again:





Then I balanced it by mounting it on a threaded rod and some ball bearings of the same size as the bore of the motor:





Mounted it on the motor:





First test, a success, but the sound. Oh dear the sound, it sounded like a cross between a jet engine and a demon.





I made the impeller housing afterwards (didn't take any photos of that), or scroll housing as it's also called. It's not a circular shape, but a spiral one, so I made a router jig with a band-clamp that wound around a dowel of the right diameter, so that in one turn I got the proper shape and size outlet I needed.

Then I needed to make a hole in the bottom that's the size of the impeller. This so I can remove the housing later from the impeller and motor for inspection and cleaning. I am copying Marius Hornbergers design in this aspect.

Best way to cut this type of hole is with a router compass. I don't have one, but I have a fence and removing the fence part from the shafts is easy and requires no tools, so I made another attachment to work as a router compass:





Then setting it correctly:





Turn out I didn't set it correctly and made the hole a few millimeters too small, I thought about various solutions to enlarge it a bit but the best one turned out to be using a simple spokeshave and a kind of clamping jig, worked real well. I also routed a rabbet in the hole and I will rout a corresponding one in the insert plate. 





Next up is to make the insert plate in question and mount it to the motor.


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## DennisCA (7 Oct 2015)

I made the backing plate afterwards and mounted it on the motor mounting flange. I had to make a complicated mounting arrangement here to get the back plate back far enough so it wouldn't rub against the back of the impeller.

Also note the rabbet / rebate on the backing plate, there is a corresponding one on the impeller housing.





Test mount:










Now I can start working on the walls for the scroll housing, I use 4mm plywood, this plywood I have is exceptionally bendy in one direction. I didn't buy bendy plywood, just regular 4mm plywood and it does this. Well it's a good thing it does, very useful.











And last night I took this video where I had assembled it for a test:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrW-fWd8g-Y

Still not finished though, needs to be properly sealed up yet. But after that I can start on the separator, and some way to hang the motor from the wall in the neighboring room where I will put this whole thing, I don't want it in the shop taking up space.


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## Monkey Mark (7 Oct 2015)

That looks like it will move a whole load of air!


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## DennisCA (8 Oct 2015)

Yes it's a real monster, exactly what I wanted, bang for the buck.

Started designing the separator. I made this 500mm in diameter (20") and I made it 400mm tall. It uses a 160mm inlet and outlet (6.3") so it's a bit more than 2x tall. 

I made the baffle from 6.5mm plywood but I am not sure if it will be strong enough, perhaps one can stiffen it up with a cople of wooden boards from the underside. 

The plan is it will be screwed onto the ring above it, and you can rotate the baffle to find the best position for it and screw it back in after adjusting.
















The opening into the separator wall will be rectangular.


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## DennisCA (12 Oct 2015)

Continuing the design of the setup, I have designed it so that it ejects the air into an airtight cabinet. First into a manifold that has outlets for two large dust collector bags. I might also use filter cartridges instead. Not yet decided. There is also a provision to plug up the holes into the filters and instead open a vent through the wall, so I can went outside when weather permits.






Inserted in relation to a mockup of my shop, and the neighboring room it will be put in:


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## tomweston (17 Apr 2016)

Very, very well done.


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## DennisCA (18 Apr 2016)

Thanks, the project has stalled out however. Money mostly, and loads of other things getting in the way... I got filters and I got the motor and impeller mouted. I decided to build a full scale pentz cyclone so I need sheet metal but I have no way to transport it, no trailer or trailer hitch for my car....

But I've bought one, so now to try and install it...


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## monkeybiter (18 Apr 2016)

Just picked up on this post, very inspirational! I'm amazed at how well the impeller works.

If I'd tried that test in my workshop the ensuing dust cloud would have made for a very dull video :lol:


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