# Building a cyclone system



## Manitario (Jul 4, 2010)

Penn state make some great dust collectors, and if I had to buy another cyclone I'd get one of their Tempest models. However, this is still just a 2hp motor with a 12" impeller, quality motor or not…


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## RobertsPlace (Aug 19, 2012)

Sounds interesting. More pics please.


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## jeffski1 (Nov 29, 2008)

yes more pics…


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## b2rtch (Jan 20, 2010)

Thank you for posting


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## TheDane (May 15, 2008)

I have a Super Dust Deputy with an underpowered Jet DC. Yours sounds like a viable option for me … would appreciate any pix you can provide and info on how you handled filtering return air , etc.


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## Kentuk55 (Sep 21, 2010)

Nice write up Crickett. I just added a Super Dust Deputy (the plastic one) and a 30 gal. can to my Harbor Freight 2hp collector. Wow! What a difference. It is a very large improvement of dust collection. I'm gonna try and post it soon.


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## Crickett (May 7, 2014)

Here are some pictures of the dust collection system I'm running with the Penn State motor. While you say it's only a 2hp motor, it pulls 1350CFM which is more than adaquate for the machines in my shop and is higher rated than similarly priced Powermatic/Jet units. This may not suffice for a commercial shop, but I'm more of an extreme enthusiast and hardcore weekend warrior. 
You asked about how I filter the air return; in the picture you'll notice the shaker felt bag which has a 2 micron rating that's clamped to the output hub. It looks like it's leaning in the photo but that's just becuase the motor isn't running so the bag is not inflated. It's a very large bag which is custom made (and relatively inexpensive) and calculated with the propery surface area dimension to handle the CFM output rating of the motor. The last thing you want here is an undersized bag for your CFM rating as this will (1) never stay put with a powerful mortor, and (2) create back-pressure in your collection system and severly reduce suction. I look forward to your responses/questions and hope you share some of your homemade systems. Happy woodworking.


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## TheDane (May 15, 2008)

Crickett-Thanks for the additional details!


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## JohnO1955 (May 16, 2012)

I have the metal SDD on my Grizzly collector - been trying to find a larger drum for it - that 17 gallons fill up in a minute when running the planer…any ideas???


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## TheDane (May 15, 2008)

John Obelenus-I made an MDF top for a galvanized garbage can and mounted the SDD on it. I opted for the 20 gallon can, but you could easily go with a 31 gallon or larger size.

Here's a little more detail on my setup: http://lumberjocks.com/reviews/3242


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## brtech (May 26, 2010)

You really want .5 micron filtering. 2 is much better than 5, but .5 is much, much safer. You will also find that a pleated canister filter gets you more airflow than a bag.


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## Crickett (May 7, 2014)

brtech - the shaker felt bag will wind up being roughly a 0.5 micron rating once you use it several times and build up an initial dust cake on the inside walls. Shaker felt also breaths as well or better that pleated canisters. To prove that, my bag barely inflates when the motor is running at full load which is a testament to how good the airflow actually is. Possibly you are thinking of the cotton bags that come on most collectors? One benefit I see in the pleated canisters is a smaller footprint for sure, but from an operating standpoint it's a wash.


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## brtech (May 26, 2010)

I believe all filters are rated after an initial "cake" develops. Mine is. A filter rated .5 microns stops more smaller particles than a filter rated 2 microns in the same environment, regardless of how it is made.

Airflow is usually proportional to surface area for a given rating. Pleated filters have much more surface area than bags.

If your bag is not inflating, I think you aren't getting much pressure. I think that is a problem, but again, I'm not an expert. If you take out the SDD and just run suction direct to the motor inlet, does it inflate all the way? If it does, you have a problem. The goal of any separator is to get as much material out of the airflow without affecting suction. No separator is 100% efficient, but a good one doesn't hit suction too much. If you don't get much inflation with the tool connected directly to the intake, then the filter is either not stopping much, or it's mighty impressive.


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## Crickett (May 7, 2014)

Please do some research on top quality shaker felt. They breath unbelievably well - equal to or better than pleated canisters. Feel free to reach out to American Fabric Filter who built the bag for me with the given dimensions and output of my system. If the bag were to fully inflate, that would indicate that the bag wasn't breathing properly. Again, I think you're referring more to the lower quality cotton bags that comes standard as an OEM bag. Also keep in mind that with high-quality cyclones systems that you can buy, they come standard with canister filters - but as I stated before, I wanted to piece my own system together rather than buy "off the shelf." 
As for surface area, if you were to actually unfold a large pleated canister filter you would see that they would have roughly the same surface area as my bag if they were laid out. Did you not noticed the size of the bag I have attached to the motor in my pictures above? It has a massive surface area. Please don't compare my system to the small wall-hugn systems from Grizzly or Rockler as this is a waaaayyyyy better setup. Canister pleated filters really just take up less space but are no more functional that a quality shaker felt bag from an air-flow standpoint - yes micron ratings can vary. While my bag came from the manufacturer with a 2 micron rating, this figure is irrelevant to me (and should be to you too) as the inside quickly develops a dust cake and increases filtration from 2.0 to 0.5 microns. Since I have a two-stage highly efficient system, my bag is not used for material collection but just as filtration. What this means is that since the bag would probably only ever be emptied every few years, the filtration is more than adequate for my setup and dust control. I urge to you reads-up on shaker felt as this is what many pro-shops swear by, and please contact the friendly folks at American Fabric Filter to put your doubts as ease.


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## brtech (May 26, 2010)

My 35A canister has 275 sq ft of surface area. Your bag looks, say 4' tall, 2' diameter or less. Pi*D x L is about 25 sq ft. I'm no expert, but I understand the difference between a felt bag and other materials.

There are a lot of ways to measure filter effectiveness. http://wynnenv.com/filter-efficiency/ has some interesting information. I'm using a MERV 10 @ .5 micron filter. Not the best they make, MERV 15 would be better. I haven't seen a MERV rating on a felt bag. Do you have one? I looked at American Fabric Filter's website - they don't seem to quote any ratings or test methods for their woodworking bags, although they have a page on MERV.


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## RobertsPlace (Aug 19, 2012)

Thank you for sharing more pictures and details. I agree with others who posted that having a pleated filter rated for particles smaller than 1 micron would be much better - more airflow and finer filtration.


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## woodchuckerNJ (Dec 4, 2013)

Cricket, you can improve the perf of your system by replacing the hose from the super dust deputy to the blower housing with thin wall pvc.. get the waste pipe and you'll improve the draw.
Anywhere you use pvc you will get better perf… so the more the better.


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## lj61673 (Oct 31, 2011)

*Please do some research on top quality shaker felt. They breath unbelievably well - equal to or better than pleated canisters. *

The effectiveness of a filters breathing is directly attributed to surface area. A quality pleated filter has many many times the surface area of your large felt bag in a much smaller footprint.

That's why you always see pleated canister filters on high end or high efficiency dust collection systems.

Also, replacing that inlet flex hose with some thin wall DWV piping will help tremendously with you friction losses.


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## redSLED (Mar 21, 2013)

That is a great setup. Funds and space-reorganization will eventually allow me to do something similar - thanks for the ideas and photos! Will be doing some research on shaker felt as well.


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