2nd Hand Cyclone

I’d just use a 6” to 4” reducer at the vacuum and go from there.

Of course you were wearing a mask when you picked it up!

Nice Snag

Lew

Manufacturer recommends keeping the main trunk lilne at 6 inches and put reducers and blast gates as close to the machine as possible.

-- DocK, WV

Choking that down to 4” might burn out the motor. You might have to go with 6” pvc and ground the duct work. I’m sure this thing will run enough velocity through the duct to cause some considerable static.

-- Tim -- http://tmuli.com

From my understanding of dust collection, the manufacturer is correct. Dust collectors work opposite of shop vacs. It takes volume to move the dust. In fact the other day we were cleaning up a pile on the floor and our clear flex hose was about half cloged where it had about a 90degree bend. Actually quit sucking even though it was half clogged.

I got my stuff on ebay, used standard hvac elbows and taped the seams with duct tape. did have to bite and buy the Wye’s and shutoffs. I placed shutoffs as close to the dust collector as possible to concentrate on which tool I am using. I have an 8” main trunk, down to 6” above each tool, then 4-6 reducer just before tool so I can use 4” shutoffs at tools and flex pipe. However there are 6” shutoffs where the branches break apart.

PVC creates a lot of static, make sure you use a grounding wire. I have never heard of it exploding but that is what they claim. It is more so that the static electricity when you are near a plastic pipe is annoying to me.

Read this book – Woodshop Dust Control: A Complete Guide to Setting Up Your Own System: Completely Revised and Updated. Sandor Nagyszalanczy (Author). The information is excellent and accurate. Spend a few bucks here and save a lot of headaches with sizing and installation. It’s available on Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/Woodshop-Dust-Control-Complete-Completely/dp/1561584991/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1216263816&sr=8-1

-- Only the Shadow knows....................

Nice find, and yeah when I have done research the 6” stuff is pretty pricey. The Lowe’s here carries 6” PVC and has the 90/45/Wye/T’s for it, but blast gates and double Wyes are a different story of course. Every once in a while my local Woodcraft has 6” blast gates. Hope this helps.

I did some 4” PVC runs behind my Miter Bench project here the blog on it.

-- //FC - Round Rock, TX - "Experience is what you get just after you need it"

Nice grab on the dust collection system. You may want to go to the local hardware stores and see if they have any 6” pvc/mainline pipe that they have an end broke or something. Contractors will not buy these pieces and sometimes you can get them for pennies on the dollar. I used to work at a hardware store so I know they can sometimes have the strangest stuff they will get rid of for practically nothing if it has even the slightest cosmetic flaws. Good luck!

-- Steve-o

Hi Dock! What a deal on the cyclone. Those manufacturer recommendations sound right on to me. I bit the bullet and used 26 ga. spiral duct for mine (not cheap) and my trunk line is 8.” I definitely wouldn’t use the light weight duct they use for HVAC that snaps together along it’s length. It may collapse if you forget to open a blast gate before turning on the cyclone. I’m sure there is something in between. I’ll ask around. Your welcome to come down and look at my system. I’ll help you design your system if you want. I designed mine. I didn’t like what Onieda designed.

-- Dan, West Virginia, http://www.danpleskaCreations.com

Thanks for the link John maybe I’ll read the directions first this time. Appreciate the offer Dan I may be contacting you. Oh yeah I got an E-Mail from WoodCraft, they closed their store in Pittsburgh, I guess I’ll be driving to Parkersburg for my WoodCraft supplies.

-- DocK, WV

You can also get some invaluable info at the Clearvue cyclones site. www.clearvue.com
It is very important to make your 6” runs all the way to each machine and neck down from their if needed. It would be best to add enough opening with a 6” gate from the machine or 2 smaller gates to get the equivalent of 6”. This way, the dust collector will run at it’s true potential and pick up the fine particulates.
John

-- Oldworld, Fair Oaks, Ca