Cyclone and Gate Redo

woodshaver · Feb 9, 2012

Great set up!!! Looks like you have your system working the way it should! I bet you can breath easy now!
There's nothing like knowing your not killing your self while your having fun doing your woodworking!
I'll pass this along to my son, he needs to do someting like this!

stefang · Feb 9, 2012

Your DC system certainly looks impressive Bob. You did a wonderful job on the filter holder thingy. I wish I had something like that in my shop.

shipwright · Feb 9, 2012

Thanks for the post Bob. I have a very similar 3Hp DC with the high outlet (Craftex) and have been wondering how to switch to canister filter(s) I like your idea.

SIMO · Feb 9, 2012

Great setup

a1Jim · Feb 9, 2012

cool looking unit.

longgone · Feb 9, 2012

That looks like a great design idea Bob. I have been thinking of how to best convery my cyclone to a double filter unit and your design gave me some great ideas. I have an Onieda Air super dust gorilla with a single canister and since I do alot of sanding and grinding I constantly have to take the filter outside and clean out all the fine dust with compressed air.
How do you get the filters out of your stand that you built so you can clean them? It appears that you have 8 threaded rods to loosen to remove them.
Thanks!

Bobsboxes · Feb 9, 2012

Thanks you guys.
Greg, I never removed the old one, I just ran the wiper up and down in it, and used my air hose on it. This one, I have an adapter for the clean outs and was going to hook my mini-cyclone / vac up to clean out hole and rig up a round ring w/ jets on it that I could slide up and down filters to blast them w/ air. I have only been using this for about 2 weeks so have not needed to clean it yet, I hope my idea works. Also in bottom collection box I put a cross divider in so I would just be vacing one filter at a time. I can tell by your beautiful boxes that you eat a lot of dust. A guy could run a single rod down the center of filter and mount spliter box solid and hang filters off of it. Show us what you guys come up with, Any imput is always welcome,Thanks Bob

jimp · Feb 9, 2012

Thanks for posting, Bob. I see that you have a muffler on you dust collector. How well does it work? Can you notice the difference with and without the muffler installed? Thanks.

Bobsboxes · Feb 9, 2012

Jim, I didn't get the muffler when I originally set up cyclone, I added it later and it cut the noise down quite a bit. I revised the original post to tell everyone the Model # of filters Dave Wynn set me up with. If you have a different set-up in mine give him a call, it is his business. My garage is solid concrete with a patio on top, our house is on a hill and garage is at sidewalk elevation. So any help with noise also helps, and Dave also gave me a few pointers on noise control.Thanks, Bob

jimp · Feb 9, 2012

Thanks for the information. I would love to make my dust collector quieter, somehow.

ssnvet · Feb 10, 2012

nice job….

You may not have planned this intentionally, but the box at the top of your filters makes a divergent nozel and slows the air down prior to entering the filters. I think this is a good thing and that it will help take full advantage of the increased filter area, as you're not pushing the air through as hard and fast. I'll bet you the fillters perform better as a result. You certainly won't be chocking your system at the discharge end.

From what I've read, to collect and entrain the fine dust into your systems air stream you have to move a large volume of air (cfm) and that regardless of you blower ratings, you really need 6" main branches to do that. (just like you appear to have)

So I'm wondering, if guys typically step down to 4" blast gates an 4" flex lines for their machine hook ups, and if the machines are closed up tight so that the space for air movement is further restricted, will shutting all of the blast gates choke the system at the collection end and decrease the total cfm?

I'd recommend experimenting with leaving two gates open at a time and see if the air flow coming out of the blowers to the filter set up appears to increase when you do.

You've got a great set up. Just an idea that might help you maximize it.

toddc · Feb 10, 2012

Excellent work on the double filter chamber!
Your dust collection system has triggered my Pavlovian drool effect.

Bobsboxes · Feb 10, 2012

Thanks again for the imput.

SSNVET, all of the points that you made are correct. I get more cfm's with 2 gates open, with the exception of my bigger drops. I have a 7" main and 6" drops. I have 6" on my planer, table saw, and big drum sander. Putting the double filters on really reduced the back presure at filter. With the orignal Grizzly setup, with the plastic bag at bottom of filter, the bag was swelled to the point of bursting and did burst once. After cleaning up that mess, and my shop dog leaving me for the safer house inviroment, she still makes a wide path around the DC. That got me thinking about back presure and air flow.

Woodwrestler · Dec 1, 2012

Bob,

That looks to be a Grizzly G0440. I was looking at purchasing one of those and was curious how happy you are with the unit?

thx

Gary

Bobsboxes · Dec 1, 2012

Gary, I have used mine every day, for 5 months in the winter, for 5 years now. Not a single problem with the cyclone or motor. The filter always bothered me, as I have it in my heated garage, and no way to isolate it, so I put the best filters I could get on it and oversized them. My main run is about 25' of 7" duct then it y's out with 5" for another 15'. It has enough power to suck a small ring box lid I was working on a few days ago, out of my hand at disk sander and all the way to cyclone, I had to shut down cyclone and get lid out of waste barrel. I have never had a plugged pipe or any other problems. So far, I am very happy with it, my only ideas for you would be to buy a different brand with the new nano filters already on it. I used the factory filter for 3 sets of cabnets, and lots of mdf. But after reading bill Penz's site, I got worried about my heath. Hope this helps, Bob

Mike102886 · Dec 26, 2014

What do you put between the dust filter and the box at the bottom to seal it? Is there a rubber gasket or something like that?

Bobsboxes · Dec 26, 2014

Mike the filters are open on both ends and there is a flange on each end. I used two rings of adhesive weatherstripping foam. Hope that helps

Kentuk55 · Jan 14, 2016

Very impressive.

Cyclone and Gate Redo

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woodshaver

stefang

shipwright

SIMO

a1Jim

longgone

Bobsboxes

jimp

Bobsboxes

jimp

ssnvet

toddc

Bobsboxes

Woodwrestler

Bobsboxes

Mike102886

Bobsboxes

Kentuk55

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