Dust panic after reading Bill Pentz

[waynefingas]

This is my first post to FOG and I need some advice. I have just spent the last few days researching DC upgrades to cyclones after reading all of Pentz's material. Has anyone taken a single stage 2 HP DC and put a cyclone at the front end and a canister filter upgrade? I was hoping to just buy the Clearvue cyclone and add a canister filter and solve the majority of my fine dust problems. I am a hobby woodworker with a very small but well equipped shop. I only hook up one machine at a time and have relatively short runs (8 feet off main 10' run which is basically vertical because DC in loft) due the size of the shop and all equipment on rollers.

Bill's research seems to indicate that this flat out won't work, but I have a hard time accepting that 5HP and Clearvue is the only solution out there.

 

[Alan m]

hi there. welcome to the fog.
iv read most of bills stuff. he is a great man . i started building one of his cyclones but it got put on the back burner and is still waiting to be finished. .
personnaly i would put the cyclone downstairs or out side in its own little shed.
the cyclone only stops the chips hitting the filter. its the filter that cleans the air.
if you are out in the country with no one around you could vent the filter outside so that the finest particals blow away.

a cheaper alternitive (and easier to build ) is the thien baffel. iv a small one works great

 

[junk731]

This thread from another forum might help you a little. Like Alan said a high quality filter is what helps. The main problem with the single stage units is they plug filter so fast and only have there best filtration when almost plugged..

http://forum.canadianwoodworking.com/showthread.php?34690-Dust-Collector-Modification-w-pics

John

 

[bruegf]

I bought a 2hp dust collector a couple years ago and first thing I did was to replace the filter bag with a Wynn pleated filter.   The Wynn filter is a 0.5 micron pleated filter (instead of the 5.0 micron filter that came with the unit) that both increased filtering as well as dramatically increased airflow.  I then built a Thien baffle and put it in front of the dust collector.    I highly recommend both upgrades.    

My last project generated approx 16 gallons of sawdust from my table saw.   A quart of that ended up on the saw table and floor, and another cup made it into the dust collector bag.   The rest is sitting in the garbage can I used to build the thien baffle.

Total investment was around $300 for the dust collector, wynn filter, and materials to build the thien baffle.   It may not be as good as a 5hp industrial grade cyclone, but it works incredibly well.

You can find plans for a thien baffle at: http://www.cgallery.com/smf/index.php?board=1.0

Fred