mini cyclone

[woodknack]

Well i have been looking for a dust collection system for awhile. Just money is tight right now! So I saw a post on this forum of a mini cyclone using a shop vac. heres the link.
http://bt3central.com/forum/topic.as...=,mini,cyclone

so I thru one together to try it out.




I put a lexon window on the top so I could see how full it was getting. The white stuff around the tubes is a glue i just happened to have. When it sets up it hardens into a foam like substance. I can cut that flush after its all setup enough.





The 2 black knobs screw into "T nuts" that is set in a board under the top plate so I can just unscrew it to take the top off and empty it!





I do have to say I am very impressed with how it works! I put a flash light on the top and watched it suck saw dust in. Just like a mini cyclone!! Hence the name.lol. I have it hooked to a 5.5 hp shop vac, I put a HEPA filter in the vac to make sure I was getting all I could out of this system. Ive put a bunch of saw dust in tru the tube and there was nothing on the bottom of the vac when I opened it!! This thing is unreal. Im going to make a plat form that they both sit on and the vac will have a dog house over it insulted with ceiling tiles that I have laying around. also I'll have a vent on one side of the dog house that will also have so sort of filter over it. The ideas are just flowing in my head..lol... I only have a small shop so this should serve me just fine for the time being. I was using nothing before!! Except my shop vac on my bt3100.
Here is a couple pics of new doors I put on my small shop. Shes coming along slow but steady..
http://bt3central.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=26733

[lrogers]

You'll be surprised at how much stuff that will collect.

[WEG]

Hi Woodknack;
That's GREAT! Thank you very much for posting the pics. I'm going to give it a try as well. Did you just use a straight section angled for the input or is there an elbow or something inside?
WEG

[pierhogunn]

measured drawings look like they are in order!!!!

I like that setup, will probably have to make one for my new shop.

Dan

[woodknack]

I'll post a picture of the bottom of the lid in the morning. I just used a straight tube and angled it.

[thestinker]

Which end hooks up to what. The angled piece to the vac and the strait piece to the saw, or the other way around?

[woodknack]

The other way around. Straight piece to vac, angled to what ever you want to suck up. Like this.




Here is a view of the bottom of the cover. Don't mind my glue job, I know it looks sloppy but you dont see that from under the cover!! lol..





Here you can see how the saw dust is stuck to the sides in a swirl affect.




And here looking down in the tube. as you can see how everything is swirled to the bottom. Pretty neat A?





Heres what I dumped out of the TUBE not the vac!





Heres what the inside of the VAC looked like when I got done. Just fine dust clinging to the sides. Im impressed with the setup so far. Oh Ya that is a pair of cut panty hose over the filter. Now I have to buy my wife a new pair this weekend..lol If I put a vacume bag in the vac I bet the inside of the vac would be even cleaner and also you would get a longer life out of your filter. But like I said I happy with it so far..

[thestinker]

Well, looks like that will be my next project. My shop vac gets clogged easy, so that looks like that might help that problem. I had seen them, but didn't know they were that simple to build.

Riley

[Kiwi Dust Mite]

If you get dust in your vacuum cleaner then you have not quite got it set up right. I built a minicyclone solely for my electric sanders and router table. http://community.webshots.com/user/gremlin128 for piccy or two.

Now the design of the mini cyclone is from Bill pentz site. It is well worth the time spent here as I learnt a great deal about dust and the collection of said dust. When I use mine it leaves no dust at all in the collection bag in the vacuum cleaner.

It did at first until I discovered I had the inlet angle pointing in the wrong direction. I had it firing directly into the middle of the cyclone instead of out to the edge at about 60 degress. It shows this on the website. http://billpentz.com//woodworking/cyclone/index.cfm

Anyways, congrats on taking the plunge and making one. I didnt know how dusty my sanders were until I put in dust extraction. Boy what a difference!!

Cheers ...

[woodknack]

I have the tube at 60 degrees. Im sure I do not have everything exactly right. Like I said I just through it together fast to try it. Even though it may not be 100 percent right it will sure do the job 10 time better then just the vac alone.If I suck up what I have in the tube with just the vac, I would have surely covered the filter of the vac and it would have ran like sh_ _! So this is still a big improvement. Im thinking of making another one with a true cyclone top on it. But all in all its a fun project to play around with. I found alot of info in this forum under search "mini Cylone".

[dlminehart]

A couple speculations on improving what looks like a really nice design: I'd think that the best configuration would be for the output tube to be centered over the middle of the cyclone rather than along an edge, since the "tornado" effect leaves the center with the least dust. One would also want the input tube sticking down considerably past the output, to make sure that the incoming (especially lighter) dust keeps rotating downward rather than being pulled up to the output.

[mcmulm01]

Have you hook this up to your tablesaw or any other power tools? If so how did it work?

[axio]

Sorry for my ignorance on this topic, but what is the advantage of doing this? I can see the advantage of not having your vac filter get clogged up and lose suction, but is there any other advantage?

Will this method increase the power of the vacuum at the other end of the tube, for example, at the SharkGuard dust collection port?

[Kiwi Dust Mite]

quote:Originally posted by axio

Sorry for my ignorance on this topic, but what is the advantage of doing this? I can see the advantage of not having your vac filter get clogged up and lose suction, but is there any other advantage?

Will this method increase the power of the vacuum at the other end of the tube, for example, at the SharkGuard dust collection port?

Yes there is an advantage.
Firstly depending on how big your receiver is it means a lot less trips to the garbage pile or whatever rubbish disposal you have.

Secondly you get NO I repeat NO 5 micron or smaller dust particles running around loose in the workshop. As Bill Pentz explains this is really important.

I cant stress enough about visiting his site. Some of you may find that your allergies are caused by your WW passion as were mine. And the website offers a cheap and viable way to fix this problem. A cyclone coupled with an effiecent air filtration system in a small workshop can have major health benefits.

To increase any suction to the Sharkguard or any other appliance you use, will require a larger vacuum unit, or one solely dedicated to the cyclone as I have done. The cylone by its very nature will reduce a small amount of the availble air through-put.

[Kiwi Dust Mite]

Just as a footnote to my post above, New Zealand has the highest rate of asthma anywhere in the world, Its at a rate of 1 in 4.

We also have an extremely high rate of allergies.

It is part our natural environment, (large tracts of bush & forest land) plus partly from our 21st century way of life.

Plus we tend to have a "She'll be right" attitude towards things unseen and not common on a daily basis. Hence our rising skin cancer rates as well because we love the sun,sand,and surf, and a our macho image

Its a fun place to live if all the things we like to do dont kill us first.