sawdust collection system

[stoney]

I have a 6.5 hp 16 gallon shop vac I am using for sawdust collection,   I mounted a manifold on the wall with several blast gates to hook up to various tools. I have a small shop so I also have several tools mounted on turnovers to conserve space.   I use a 2 1/2 " flex hose that stretches out from 3' to about 16' to attach to the tools on the turnovers.

 

I am thinking about buying a wall hanging dust collector to use with a cyclone like a dust deputy.   I am also thinking of rather than using the filter bag piping the discharge out the back wall of my garage.   I live in the country with no close neighbors.   By using the dust deputy I would not be discharging large particle sawdust.  I realize I will be discharging some of my heat in the winter time but I generally don't operate the sawdust collection for long periods of time so that shouldn't be a big issue. 

 

I am thinking the collector would operate more efficiently and I wouldn't have a filter bag to service. All comments or ideas welcome.  

Edited February 26, 2017 by stoney

[heppnerguy]

I have to say that is sounds like a good idea. I too live along way from my neighbors, at least compared to a lot of people. My nearest neighbor is about 1/2 mile away. I kid that I could mow my lawn naked and no one would even see me. When I asked my wife what somebody would saw if they drove  by with me doing that and she immediately replied, "they would most likely say that they now know I must have married you for your money."  What the heck can that mean? I am living on Social Security. 

 

 

 

Dick

heppnerguy

[amazingkevin]

I have to say that is sounds like a good idea. I too live along way from my neighbors, at least compared to a lot of people. My nearest neighbor is about 1/2 mile away. I kid that I could mow my lawn naked and no one would even see me. When I asked my wife what somebody would saw if they drove  by with me doing that and she immediately replied, "they would most likely say that they now know I must have married you for your money."  What the heck can that mean? I am living on Social Security. 

 

 

 

Dick

heppnerguy

 

I have a 6.5 hp 16 gallon shop vac I am using for sawdust collection,   I mounted a manifold on the wall with several blast gates to hook up to various tools. I have a small shop so I also have several tools mounted on turnovers to conserve space.   I use a 2 1/2 " flex hose that stretches out from 3' to about 16' to attach to the tools on the turnovers.

 

I am thinking about buying a wall hanging dust collector to use with a cyclone like a dust deputy.   I am also thinking of rather than using a collector bag piping the discharge out the back wall of my garage.   I live in the country with no close neighbors.   By using the dust deputy I would not be discharging large particle sawdust.  I realize I will be discharging some of my heat in the winter time but I generally don't operate the sawdust collection for long periods of time so that shouldn't be a big issue. 

 

I am thinking the collector would operate more efficiently and I wouldn't have a collector bag to service. All comments or ideas welcome.  

Sounds like your on track for dust removal.that's how I'd like to do it! Show us your shop!

[Rob]

I have a 6.5 hp 16 gallon shop vac I am using for sawdust collection,   I mounted a manifold on the wall with several blast gates to hook up to various tools. I have a small shop so I also have several tools mounted on turnovers to conserve space.   I use a 2 1/2 " flex hose that stretches out from 3' to about 16' to attach to the tools on the turnovers.

 

I am thinking about buying a wall hanging dust collector to use with a cyclone like a dust deputy.   I am also thinking of rather than using a collector bag piping the discharge out the back wall of my garage.   I live in the country with no close neighbors.   By using the dust deputy I would not be discharging large particle sawdust.  I realize I will be discharging some of my heat in the winter time but I generally don't operate the sawdust collection for long periods of time so that shouldn't be a big issue. 

 

I am thinking the collector would operate more efficiently and I wouldn't have a collector bag to service. All comments or ideas welcome.  

Hi Al,

 

I bought a cyclone a while back but only recently got round to setting it set up.  The first time I used it I got 4 inches of sawdust in the cyclone bucket and barely a teaspoons worth in the shop vac.  If my experience is anything to go by, you will be venting almost nothing to the outside.  Cyclones rock!

 

 

Rob

[hawkeye10]

I have a 6.5 hp 16 gallon shop vac I am using for sawdust collection,   I mounted a manifold on the wall with several blast gates to hook up to various tools. I have a small shop so I also have several tools mounted on turnovers to conserve space.   I use a 2 1/2 " flex hose that stretches out from 3' to about 16' to attach to the tools on the turnovers.

 

I am thinking about buying a wall hanging dust collector to use with a cyclone like a dust deputy.   I am also thinking of rather than using a collector bag piping the discharge out the back wall of my garage.   I live in the country with no close neighbors.   By using the dust deputy I would not be discharging large particle sawdust.  I realize I will be discharging some of my heat in the winter time but I generally don't operate the sawdust collection for long periods of time so that shouldn't be a big issue. 

 

I am thinking the collector would operate more efficiently and I wouldn't have a collector bag to service. All comments or ideas welcome.  

Al I don't believe a wall mounted dust collector will be big enough to run to different tools. Every time you do any thing to any type of dust collector it hurts it's performance. I have a Grizzly like the one in the link I posted below and I either move the tool to the dust collector or move the dust collector to the tool. Either way I am only sucking air through 10' or less of hose. After saying all this I wish I had a bigger dust collector but I don't have 220 in my shop.

 

http://www.grizzly.com/products/1-1-2-HP-Dust-Collector/G1028Z2

[stoney]

Hi Al,

 

I bought a cyclone a while back but only recently got round to setting it set up.  The first time I used it I got 4 inches of sawdust in the cyclone bucket and barely a teaspoons worth in the shop vac.  If my experience is anything to go by, you will be venting almost nothing to the outside.  Cyclones rock!

 

cyclone.png

 

Rob

 

 

Yeah Rob that is what I thought too.   About the only discharge would be from sanding as I have a downdraft table and a connection to my sanders,

[stoney]

Al I don't believe a wall mounted dust collector will be big enough to run to different tools. Every time you do any thing to any type of dust collector it hurts it's performance. I have a Grizzly like the one in the link I posted below and I either move the tool to the dust collector or move the dust collector to the tool. Either way I am only sucking air through 10' or less of hose. After saying all this I wish I had a bigger dust collector but I don't have 220 in my shop.

 

http://www.grizzly.com/products/1-1-2-HP-Dust-Collector/G1028Z2

 

This is why I started this post Don.   I hope more members respond because I won't do the project if it isn't going to work properly.    I don't know much about this subject and am hoping to learn from others experiences.  

 

One thought I had was by eliminating the filter bag I would cut down on resistance to air movement.   Like I said I have blast gates and only have one tool connected at a time.

[hawkeye10]

This is why I started this post Don.   I hope more members respond because I won't do the project if it isn't going to work properly.    I don't know much about this subject and am hoping to learn from others experiences.  

 

One thought I had was by eliminating the filter bag I would cut down on resistance to air movement.   Like I said I have blast gates and only have one tool connected at a time.

Al if you aren't a member of the Router Forum you need to join it. There is a lot of information about dust control and the members are more than happy to answer all your questions. The people are like the ones here. All are willing to help. There are a lot more members so you get more opinions.

 

http://www.routerforums.com/forum.php

[Rolf]

LOL Dick, I couldn't do that in my neighbor hood. My 1/3 acre is big compared to my neighbors. The multi million properties are about 1/2 mile south.

 

Stoney I would imagine the shop vac is noisy as heck. I have a Jet Vortec in my basement that is connected by 4" pipe with a drop and a gate at each machine. I use a remote to turn it on and off. 

 

With what you are thinking I would still collect the fine dust. It will get on every thing and if damp will make a tough mess to clean up. I would put it in a small enclosure out side. 

 

Some thing to consider depending on where you shop is. If I vented my Jet outside I will be pulling 1100CFM out of my basement. If that is not made up I create a negative pressure that will cause my furnace to dump CO back into my basement. I have already done that with an AC unit that was vented outside. Glad I had a good detector.

[Dan]

I think Rolf nailed it. Also, if you don't have the proper venting the efficiency of dust removal will decrease. As was mentioned earlier, with just a tiny bit of dust you won't have to empty the bag very often.

Edited February 27, 2017 by Dan

[stoney]

LOL Dick, I couldn't do that in my neighbor hood. My 1/3 acre is big compared to my neighbors. The multi million properties are about 1/2 mile south.

 

Stoney I would imagine the shop vac is noisy as heck. I have a Jet Vortec in my basement that is connected by 4" pipe with a drop and a gate at each machine. I use a remote to turn it on and off. 

 

With what you are thinking I would still collect the fine dust. It will get on every thing and if damp will make a tough mess to clean up. I would put it in a small enclosure out side. 

 

Some thing to consider depending on where you shop is. If I vented my Jet outside I will be pulling 1100CFM out of my basement. If that is not made up I create a negative pressure that will cause my furnace to dump CO back into my basement. I have already done that with an AC unit that was vented outside. Glad I had a good detector.

 

Thanks Rolf I hadn't considered the negative pressure aspect.  I sure don't want to get overcome with carbon monoxide.   Yes the shop vac is quite noisy even though it does have a muffler.  I do use hearing protection though.

Edited February 26, 2017 by stoney

[stoney]

I think Dick nailed it. Also, if you don't have the proper venting the efficiency of dust removal will decrease. As was mentioned earlier, with just a tiny bit of dust you won't have to empty the bag very often.

 

You are right Dan.   As of now the shop vac does a fairly good job but the filter does get clogged and it is very noisy.   I know nothing about static pressure, CFM ratings, air flow, and negative pressure.   I'm just trying to find out if a combination of a 1HP single stage wall mount dust collector in conjunction with a cyclone collector like a Dust Deputy will work as well or better than what I'm using now.  

Edited February 26, 2017 by stoney

[tonylumps]

Stoney you are on the right track. But the 13' hose is too long and with the Oneida you will not have to vent outside.I have an older Fein turbo vac with tool control and variable speed that i use with the Cyclone.I still use a filter and a paper filter bag in it.The paper bag keeps the main filter cleaner there is no loss of power at all.But the key to this is every large power tool I have is on wheels and that includes the dust collector. But i try to centralize the collector so the longest length of hose is about 6'.Now do not get me wrong.When I am turning a bowl on the lathe I still have to get out the the broom and giant dust pan.But turning pens.Router work,Surface planer and all saws are taken care of with the collector.I sand on my drill press and use a box fan with filter for that .And have a Wen Dust filter hanging from the ceiling running all the time I am in the shop.I still get residual dust all over So doing exotic woods  a dust mask is used.

[stoney]

Stoney you are on the right track. But the 13' hose is too long and with the Oneida you will not have to vent outside.I have an older Fein turbo vac with tool control and variable speed that i use with the Cyclone.I still use a filter and a paper filter bag in it.The paper bag keeps the main filter cleaner there is no loss of power at all.But the key to this is every large power tool I have is on wheels and that includes the dust collector. But i try to centralize the collector so the longest length of hose is about 6'.Now do not get me wrong.When I am turning a bowl on the lathe I still have to get out the the broom and giant dust pan.But turning pens.Router work,Surface planer and all saws are taken care of with the collector.I sand on my drill press and use a box fan with filter for that .And have a Wen Dust filter hanging from the ceiling running all the time I am in the shop.I still get residual dust all over So doing exotic woods  a dust mask is used.

 

 

As far as the 13' hose the only time it comes close to being stretched out that long is when I'm vacuuming the far end of the workshop floor.   My biggest issue is the lack of real estate.   I just don't have the room for my shop vac, a cyclone, and the required collector container.   The 16 gallon shop vac has plenty of power and good suction especially with a clean filter but with a cyclone I surely wouldn't need 16 gallons of capacity for the minimal amount of fine dust created. My workshop is only 10'x 20' and I have a table saw, miter saw, floor model drill press, band saw, scroll saw, 2 turnovers, a 4' wide cabinet, a small workbench, a rolling toolbox, shelves, lumber rack, some misc. items and 2 doorways.    I do have a space in one corner I could mount a small single stage wall mount dust collector with a cyclone and collector container below it on the floor.    If this  won't do the job I might be stuck with what I have now.         

Edited February 27, 2017 by stoney

[stoney]

Well I have been doing some more research on dust collection a have come to the conclusion a single stage wall mount dust collector in conjunction with a cyclone is not the answer to my small workshop.

 

I have discovered that the only thing a shop vac and a dust collector have in common is they both suck.   What and how they do it is very different indeed.  A shop vac can draw up to 90 inches of vacuum while a dust collector is limited to 10-15 inches.   A shop vac only draws about 100 cfm while a dust collector range is 600-2400 cfm.   What this all means is for my small shop what I think will work the best and most economical is the most powerful wall mount vacuum I can find connected to a cyclone.  

Edited February 28, 2017 by stoney

[Sycamore67]

I have a couple of comments about dust collectors.

 

I had a Jet Vortex Dust collector that was 1.5 HP.  Even though Jet rates them at 1200 cfm, that is complete nonsense.  If you get 600 cfm, you will be doing very good and through a 10 foot flex hose less.  The Dust Right at 3/4 HP says it will do 650 cfm...wrong.  I have a much larger system and have tested mine with proper instruments and only get about 700 cfm through a 4" flex hose to my table saw....I have a 5 hp cyclone unit and I have measured up to 1850 cfm.  (The reason that I have such a large dust collector is that I have other large equipment in my shop and have piped the shop with 6" PVC Duct.).  I also have done a lot of testing on my own system to quantify the system.

 

The vast majority of low end dust collectors are tested in strange conditions and the cfm specs way over rated.  It is unfortunate that companies over rate their machines.  What they typically do is take off any filter or bag filter and test right at the inlet of the machine.   If you do this with some dust collectors, you will burn out the motor.  Wood Magazine in March 2008 did some testing and provided good test data.

 

In addition, the Dust Right has a 30 micron bag on it and will not do much to protect you.  Remember that we want to collect as much of the fine dust down to under 10 microns.  

 

I think the idea of a 6.5 hp shop vac with a HEPA filter and dust deputy is a good idea and works well for many people.  The shop vacs only pull maybe 125 cfm but they have a vacuum level up to 10 times a dust collector.  They will be very good for a scroll saw and smaller power tools.  

 

I am a strong believer in good dust collection and the best you can get.  I use a shop vac system on my scroll saw and it does a very good job.