Cyclones

[linkshouse]

The subject of cyclones has come up in the lamp bracket topic and rather than muck up that topic I thoughts I start a new one.

So...

I'm thinking of setting up a dust extraction system rather than dragging my vacuum from machine to machine.

But I'm a bit confused (not hard!), my vacuum has a 4" hose and my bandsaw and planer both have 4" outlets.

Every cyclone I've looked at is 50mm. I can use a reducer to connect my vacuum to the cyclone but surely I won't then go back up to 100mm at the cyclone inlet and pipe around the workshop at 100mm.

Presumably I pipe the workshop with 50mm pipe? Is this big enough to carry the waste output from the planer (I imagine the bandsaw will be fine)?

I'm sure I'm making this more complicated than it really is but would appreciate any real world examples.

Thanks

Phill

 

[MattRoberts]

Hi, lots of recent discussion on this sort of thing. Check:

viewtopic.php?t=101461

viewtopic.php?t=101714

viewtopic.php?t=101576

In short, your cheapest option for 100mm piping is to build your own thien baffle.

There's no one-stop solution to dust extraction unfortunately - you really need a 100mm solution for the big machines and a 50mm or less solution for the smaller tools

 

[novocaine]

and once you've installed it all, you'll decide you want to move a machine and can't because the extractor doesn't go where you want it.

I'm going to make a mobile cyclone to connect to my shop vac, the hose is long enough to reach most of my workshop already without moving the hover, so I'll just move the bucket and cyclone from machine to machine.

good luck with it.

 

[Claymore]

I have 2 cyclones Phill and they both use 50mm hoses, I wondered the same thing about the 100mm hoses but all i found was gert big cyclones which cost a small fortune.
99% of the waste i create is fine dust and the cyclones work great BUT when used on my planer/thicknesser it gets clogged up so i end up letting the chips fly out into a heavy duty plastic bag and then clean up fine stuff after I have finished.
I was thinking of building a dust extraction system using the big pipes but think it will be overkill for the fine dust i create so I am going to improve the catching at source of the fine stuff

 

[linkshouse]

BUT when used on my planer/thicknesser it gets clogged up so i end up letting the chips fly out into a heavy duty plastic bag and then clean up fine stuff after I have finished.

That was what I feared may be the case.

Thanks

Phill

 

[scrimper]

I set up my own home made system using standard guttering downpipes with a home made collector box made of recycled plywood with an old vac motor on top it has lots of bends and the box is outside the workshop, I use this on the planer/thicknesser and it works fine, only on a few odd occasions does it block and that is when doing wide boards that produce large 'fluffy' shavings.

My late friend made a similar system using the same downpipes and connected it to all his machines, he made home-made wooden box valves to close off or switch the suction to the different devices it worked very well.

Bonus is you can make these cheaply often using s/h stuff you already have or can scrounge (for example my downpipes I found in a skip) if it works, brilliant, if not well you haven't lost much. Any old vac or vac motor will do the job.

 

[ChrisR]

Good advice from Scrimper re using gutter down pipes, also if you want 100mm (4”) ducting, use 112mm soil pipe, available from any builders merchants like Toolstation etc.

You will find it’s about a fifth of the price of dedicated 100mm ducting.

If you don’t like using duct tape to go from the 112mm soil pipe to the dedicated ducting, you can obtain adaptors, from (Axminster Tools) stock code 900063.

Chris.

 

[bigbob1]

I have the 63mm (2.5") system with a cheap cyclone a dust commander DLX and this sits on top of a 60 litre airtight storage container. The 2.5" pipe from my camvac would not fit onto the cyclone so bought a couple of solvent weld 50mm straight couplers and with the aid of a heat gun persuaded them to fit it only took about one minute I am sure you could do the same with 110 mm pipes and fitments. If you are running pipe round the workshop you will need blastgates and only have the blastgate open to the machine you are using.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eM-6pUmEQ8

 

[sunnybob]

My dust collector is 100 mm, but goes straight to a home made cyclone with 62 mm fittings. The 62 mm goes along the back wall and connects to 4 seperate machines AND a hose for cleaning up the workshop. All switched by gate valves.
I have an axminster thicknesser on a trolley and that gets connected to the 62 mm from the workshop connection. It works fine and has not clogged yet.
The collector is in a sound deadening cabinet and can not be heard over any of the machines once running.
The hardest work I have to do is decide which valve to open.