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Vexing Dust Collection problem

4K views 19 replies 12 participants last post by  josephf 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
Been running a makeshift dust control system using a RIDGID shop vac and a Dust Deputy cyclone sitting on top of a Home Depot 5 gallon can. Everything was working just fine, except the 5 gallon orange bucket was filling up quickly.

So I went and bought a 30 gallon fiber drum with a locking lid, attached the dust deputy, and plugged in my random orbital sander.

Crush. Freaking. City.

I mean, it wasn't even running 10 seconds and that fiber drum crumpled like a coke can at the bottom of the sea.

Eff bomb.

So…it's either back to the 5 gallon drum (not happy), or…

(This is where you smart dudes and dudettes come to the rescue)
 
#4 · (Edited by Moderator)
Those blue plastic drums that gas/convienience markets use for trash cans would work well, but not sure where to get them. Or, pick up a 12" diameter Sono tube concrete forming tube about 4 ft long. Make ends for it out of 3/4" plywood. 12" diameter is about 10 gallons per ft of height. This stuff is 1/4"nthick and way stronger than fiber drum material. A 4 ft piece usually sells for about $10.
 
#6 ·
One thing you may want to think about is bleeding off some of that vacuum. A ROS has a pretty small port and you would be running that Vac pretty hard if sanding for a long time. Perhaps think about putting in a small wye and using a little capture hood or scoop to use up some of that vac.

Getting another can is also a good idea, one with stronger sides. I have a large ShopVac hooked up to a ClearVue Mini and use 2" clear tubing with blast gates. If I forget to open a gate and turn it on, it will suck in the sides of a 20 Gallon metal trash can. (doesn't like that)

When I run my spindle sander (with a tiny port) sometimes I open another gate to bleed off the vac a bit. You can only suck so much air through a sander.
 
#7 ·
Those blue plastic drums that gas/convienience markets use for trash cans would work well, but not sure where to get them. Or, pick up a 12" diameter Sono tube concrete forming tube about 4 ft long. Make ends for it out of 3/4" plywood. 12" diameter is about 10 gallons per ft of height. This stuff is 1/4"nthick and way stronger than fiber drum material. A 4 ft piece usually sells for about $10.

- crank49
Not 10 gal more like 5 gal.
 
#8 ·
AlecLong,

I went through this exact same dance last year. I wanted more capacity than the 5 gallon Home Depot bucket for my shopvac/dust deputy setup. I have a shipping container company in my city so I had a ton of options available to me. I tried a Brute garbage can, a fiber drum, a regular thin walled garbage can, and a poly plastic drum. They all held up reasonably well when the vac hose wasn't obstructed, but as soon as there was any sort of obstruction, the container collapsed. The poly plastic drum crushed the least, but still caved in a bit. I even tried reinforcing the fiber drum with furring strips, but that didn't work for long either. I kept avoiding buying the metal drums because they were the most expensive of the options (though not by a whole lot) and the sizes were a bit big for my small shopvac cart, but in the end, going through all the options ended up costing me more than just buying a metal drum from the start.

The shipping container company had a few buckets made with the same kind of hard plastic as the Home Depot buckets, but in 10 gallon sizes, so that's what I'm using now.
 
#9 ·
Thanks for all the replies so far. Here are my thoughts on all your suggestions, because I've thought many of the same things. Maybe I'm not considering something?

Blue plastic barrel: Too big. Plus, the ones I have access to don't have removable lids, so there's no way to empty them.

Metal trash can: I've seen pics of those on other lumberjocks pages, looking just as crushy-crushy as the fiber drum. Apparently shop-vac based DC systems have a high-suck/low-volume issue?

Concrete form: Good idea, but seems like a bit too much engineering for my skillset and free time.

Metal barrel: This one I've considered, but like you nerdbot I don't know where to find them inexpensively. I don't want a 55 gallon barrel (too big for my Garrop), and I'm a little nervous about plunking down $50-$70 on another thing that might crush. I was also looking at Brute cans, because I've seen others using them on this site, but the walls on that are thinner and more flexible than the fiber drum, so I think that'd implode in about .24 seconds.

So here's my question: I've seen fiber drums hooked up to shop vac DC systems before. I've seen them on this forum, or on Pinterest, or other WW forums. How are THOSE guys doing it without the can collapsing?
 
#11 ·
I didn't know there were 95 gallon drums! I'm going to see if I can get a white one to replace my blue 55 gallon drum. It would be nice to see from the side how much was in it.
 
#12 ·
Those blue plastic drums that gas/convienience markets use for trash cans would work well, but not sure where to get them. Or, pick up a 12" diameter Sono tube concrete forming tube about 4 ft long. Make ends for it out of 3/4" plywood. 12" diameter is about 10 gallons per ft of height. This stuff is 1/4"nthick and way stronger than fiber drum material. A 4 ft piece usually sells for about $10.

- crank49

Not 10 gal more like 5 gal.

- WhyMe
This is correct. It's actually about 5.87 gallons per foot of height. I don't see a 12" concrete form being a usable dust collection container. He'd do much better with a sturdy plastic drum or metal trash can.

Either that or just streamline the bucket-emptying process and continue to use the 5gal bucket. I mean how quickly does it really fill up? Are you collecting chips from a jointer or planer with the thing?
 
#13 ·
How quickly it fills depends on what I'm doing. Yeah, if I'm running the planer it fills up much faster. Since the orange bucket is solid color, I can't see it filling up, and sometimes it just starts losing suction as I'm working, and then I have to stop, pry the lid off, etc. It's just a pain in the twig and berries. I figured having 6x that capacity would be great, except for the implosion thing on the fiber drum.

It seems to me my best solution is either going to be to purchase (ugh) a smaller steel drum, a 30-gallon blue plastic barrel like the one in the link I posted above, or just bite the bullet and purchase the 2HP dust collector from HF.

I was hoping to keep this as cheap as possible, since my budget is already strained and I REALLY want to get a set of diamond plates for hand tool sharpening more than anything.

Clearly, though, cheap is becoming more expensive.
 
#14 ·
Alec,

I'm not exactly sure why others are able to get away with a shopvac and a fiberboard drum, but my guess would be because they have a smaller shop vac and doesn't have enough suction to collapse the drum. I bought a 12 gallon 5.5 HP vac because Wood magazine gave it good reviews, but it demolished nearly any container I attached it to. Like I said, I ended up going with a slightly larger version of the Home Depot bucket for my dust deputy setup. However, I forgot to mention that I now only use this setup for my sanders and my handheld routers. I recently purchased the 2HP HF dust collector for my bigger tools, and I use a 20 gallon fiberboard drum with that and it's holding up great.
 
#17 ·
Those blue plastic drums that gas/convienience markets use for trash cans would work well, but not sure where to get them. Or, pick up a 12" diameter Sono tube concrete forming tube about 4 ft long. Make ends for it out of 3/4" plywood. 12" diameter is about 10 gallons per ft of height. This stuff is 1/4"nthick and way stronger than fiber drum material. A 4 ft piece usually sells for about $10.

- crank49

Not 10 gal more like 5 gal.

- WhyMe

This is correct. It s actually about 5.87 gallons per foot of height. I don t see a 12" concrete form being a usable dust collection container. He d do much better with a sturdy plastic drum or metal trash can.

Either that or just streamline the bucket-emptying process and continue to use the 5gal bucket. I mean how quickly does it really fill up? Are you collecting chips from a jointer or planer with the thing?

- jonah
OK already, I fat fingered the calculator and divided by 131 instead of 231 (cubic inches per gallon.) Yes, it is 5.87 gallons per foot. So your 4 ft tube would become a 23 gallon container.

How can you not see a wax coated perfect cylinder being a dust container? You only need to cut a round plywood disk to fit into the bottom, caulk and screw in in place. Then make a larger disk for the top. Route a groove around the top to fit the cylinder walls and hold it down with bungee cords. Cut a hole in the center for the cyclone and you're good to go.
 
#19 ·
How about a rectangular container made out of thick ply or MDF? Rabbet in a bottom and top and you could even wrap a 2×6 around the outside about mid way along the height?

- WoodNSawdust
Sure. A container is a container.
But, if you have access to sono tube for around $12 for 4 ft piece, I don't think you could do that in plywood for as cheap. And round is stronger than square for supporting a vacuum.
On the other hand, if you already have some plywood laying around, go for it.
 
#20 ·
we have recycle yards that can offer great tanks for this . but also : i put a cyclone on top of an old sears shop vac tank/barrel . vac was dead -tossed that and out a piece of ply wood on top for the dust deputy .has wheels on it which can be helpful. put another -a little bigger cyclone i made on a 20gal grease/oil barrel . i got it from a tire and brake shop ,think it had gear oil in it . 20 gal barrels are a nice size . narrow,take less floor space then -well bigger barrels yet still hold alot of chips .
 
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