Designing My Own Cyclone

I use my Dust Deputy, which I located in one corner of the garage in a movable stand. The shopvac I’m using as the suction souce is located under it. It will pull dust and chips through roughly 20 feet of 2” ABS pipe that I ran in the rafters to keep it out from under foot. When I’m cleaning the driveway of chips, I can roll the stand out and use the shopvac hose on the DD. The 5 gallon container that comes with the DD is enough for my work.

-- Random Orbital Nailer

You need to go to Bill Pentz’s web site. Loaded with all the information that you need. He has plans specifications, data everything
The address is www.billpentz.com

-- Jack T, John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life."

Yeah I’ve read almost his entire site and from what I’ve read it would seem that the cyclone designed by the woodstore.net will actually work very well, if the blower actually operates above 650CFM.

both Blowers claim to operate as high as 850 for the Penn State and 914 for the Central Machinery. I guess what I’m saying is that I was really looking for advice on a blower motor, either the two I’ve listed, or maybe an alternative that I don’t know about yet.

And seeing as I’m pretty sure that these motors don’t really operate at this peak CFM that they post in their specification I don’t know how to judge them. I have sent emails to both companies requesting real clarification.

Bill Pentz’s Website is really cool, however, I don’t think I’ll be building my own blower anytime soon. To be honest for the money I’d rather work some overtime and buy a premade blower that works, rather than make one myself that may or may not work.

Well- I went out and bought the Harbor Freight machine just today- based on all the other good reviews on this site. It actually claims 1550 cfm on the packaging. Yeah- I know probably not realistic. However- I do have to tell you that the motor and blower seem to be pretty stout. I’m impressed so far. This is in line with what the other users have said about it. It will be a couple days before I can do anything useful with it- and I’m new to dust collection too- so I may not be able to give great feedback but I think its a steal of a deal.

Lets make the decision even harder. I have a 20% off coupon that I can email you. The coupon is blank, no name. It expires 2/15/10 and is for in store only. That will a make the HF unit $80.00 vs the $230 for the Penn State unit . I have printed it out and used it before. You put you name on it in the open lines so they can mail you flyers.

Dave.

davidwmorrison@gmail.com

I agree with “Jack_T” , there is no better site on the Web about cyclones, than “Bill Pentz’s”.
I made a cyclone from plans from his site a couple years ago and it works great. I searched all over
for plans and think these are the best. I built just the cyclone not the blower.

Which model did you buy from Harbor freight that advertised the 1550 CFM? Was it the same model i showed a link to? Was it the full blown dust collector shown in this link:

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=97869

I’d gladly take a 20% off coupon. Who can argue with 20% off =D Thank you for the offer

I know my wife is definitely in support of the cheaper model, but then again she doesn’t want me to spend our life savings building the woodshop of my dreams either, always just trying to hold me back….. from bankruptcy bah! (j/k) =D

So from everyone’s knowledge here, you’ll think I should go with the Harbor Freight Blower, over the Penn State? I mean we are talking a small shop dust collector here, so it’s not like I need to have ten machines running at once all capable of sucking up dust. I in reality will be operating one machine at a time, and providing only suction to that machine. If anything the tablesaw, router table and downdraft table will be the hard ones to operate because of the large amount of suction, and in the case of the tablesaw and router table, multiple points of suction. And I guess I could always supplement the dust collect at the machine with my shopvac and one of those mini-cyclones.

I certainly do not agree. You cannot just take a regular dust collector blower and make a cyclone collector. You need to reread Bill Penz’s page on blowers. The rating for a regular blower will be completely wrong when applied to a cyclone because it does not take the drag of the cyclone into consideration. It can be off by more tha fifty (50%).

-- Jack T, John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life."

Coupon sent michaelimbimbo web site

Dave

I bought the HF 2HP for 139.00 and I am very happy with it.
I mounted it with a trash can baffle/separator. It works well but ti is too cumbersome.
I wan to mount the baffle and the blower right unto the trash can without the hoses.

-- Bert

According to Bill’s site, in order to get separation of very fine dust, when you use a smaller motor and impeller, you need to increase the size of the cyclone. I thought about using the HF 2HP motor/impeller to make a cyclone, and using Bill’s spreadsheet, a 24” diameter cyclone was required, which was also quite tall. If you make it smaller, apparently, the finer dust will get into your filters, clogging them and reducing efficiency.

-- Gerry, http://www.thecncwoodworker.com/index.html http://www.jointcam.com

I’ve been reading away at Bill’s Website. Man it is a lot of information. Part of me is thinking about ordering teh Clearvue Cyclone and save myself the hassle =P, and get onto real woodworking.

I’m going to keep reading the website, and make a more informed decision once I’m done. I just finished the chapter on ducting, and I’m moving on. I’m very excited about getting my woodshop up and running, and don’t want to find myself regretting it a few years from now because I didn’t deal with the wood dust properly now.

thanks for all the help guys, I’ll keep you posted on how I proceed.

I have been reading and thinking about dust collection and air filtration for a while.
This can become a major expense and major hassle.
I understand that we want to filtrate the air for two major reason: this is what we breath and we want to keep the shop as dust free as possible ( a dream really).
I have thinking another way: rejecting the air from the dust collector not in the shop but outside and may be wearing one of this or similar ( I occasionally wear a respirator at work and I have one at home, not dust mask a real respirator):

Trend AIR/PRO Air Circulating Face Shield
High-tech protection for all woodworking applications, this powered polycarbonate face shield with hood has high-efficiency twin filters for excellent protection against harmful dust.
Designed for comfort, unit features unique visor design for improved field of vision, rear-positioned motor for noise reduction and optional attachable ear protection, available separately. Operates for 8 hours with rechargeable NiMH battery pack. Wt. 4.8 lbs.
Sales at Sears for $400.00 which is not cheap.

What do you think?

-- Bert