Taking care of dust in the shop

[Paul Montgomery]

I recently found a cyclone dust separater for my vac that really works great. For $40 it came with the extra required hose and just needs a 5 gallon bucket. Before I was always emptying the vac and cleaning the vac. Now I just empty the bucket. Seems to work great.

https://youtu.be/4LoSsIV37hM

[Bob Hammond]

Here are a few reviews from users. I don't know if some minor modifications can deal with the complaints in the reviews, but I'll have a look.

My shopbuilt wallmounted mini-cyclone system is still working perfectly, but it would be nice to have one that is portable.

https://www.lumberjocks.com/reviews/11378

[JC Whitney]

Paul - That youtube link includes a clever little DIY shopvac filter cleaner... why the heck didn't I ever think of that?
Thanks for posting.

[Paul Montgomery]

You don't HAVE to have a clear top on the filter cleaner, but watching the dust fly out of the box and into the vac hose makes me feel good

[Clay Schaeffer]

Nice setup!
Someone gave me a similar but larger device for using on a trash can with a dust collector. I like the filter cleaner box. It looks like it does a great job cleaning the filter.

[Eric Baack]

I build a thein dust separator and it works amazing. It's built into a 50 gallon drum that I acquired. I use it primarily on my CNC but sometimes drag it around the garage to use with other tools as well.


http://www.jpthien.com/cy.htm

[Bob Orr]

[quote="Eric Baack"]I build a thein dust separator and it works amazing. It's built into a 50 gallon drum that I acquired. I use it primarily on my CNC but sometimes drag it around the garage to use with other tools as well.


+1 I made one too and it works great and is very compact.

[Bob Hammond]

is the Thien design scalable various diameters? What might be the minimum and maximum diameters, and how wide would the circumferential slot be?

[Eric Baack]

some people do that with a bucket as well, it is very scalable. I want to get a blower to put on top of mine so I can use it without the shop vac. I need to add an exhaust pass through in the wall so I can pump the air outside as well.

[Barry Daniels]

I added a Thien to my Grizzley dust collector, between the filter and the machine. I think it helped the efficiency of the collector by sending less dust to the filter.

[David King]

I can't recommend enough the dust deputy line from Oneida-air.com . These are true cyclonic separators in 4 sizes that really separate out 99% of dust into the bucket and don't keep recirculating the fines until they get stuck in the filter. Basically for $10 more you'll get way better separation. I use mine 8 hours a day and it even works for sanding joint compound and cleaning the filter once at the end of the day.

[Bob Gramann]

I had a Dust Deputy that I used with my Ridgid vacuum (and a HEPA filter). I supported it on top of the vacuum with a bracket that I made. It worked very well. But, I eventually tired of the bulk and clumsiness of the vacuum in my shop, so I tried using vacuum bags instead. The bag/HEPA filter combination works very well. The bag keeps the coarse dust from blocking the filter. Every few months, I replace the bag and vacuum the filter clean. It's a lot easier than having the bulky vacuum in my shop. if some lives near me and wants a Dust Deputy heap, I have a deal for you.

I rebuilt my dust collector with a big cyclone from Oneida. That works very well and is worth the space it takes up.

[Bob Hammond]

my shopbuilt wall-mounted system has worked very well indeed with no appreciable collection of dust in the upper grey bucket where the HEPA filter is (see pic, also a construction thread from a few years ago). However, I later built a movable version on a furniture dolly that is a bit too clumsy to move around the tight spaces of my place. I'm thinking of building one with the Thien separator, but I'd really like to manufacture several mini- micro- separators for each machine.

[Bob Hammond]

I bought a Dust Stopper, and it's fundamentally a Thien-type separator. The slot for the dust fallout starts with a hole about 2 inches diameter that tapers into the slot that is about 9/16" wide. The baffle for the exhaust port is a small section of a circle, about a 1' arc of the 1-1/4" port. The plastic seems to be stiffer than a standard 5 gal bucket and feels like it would break if it got whacked. The lower profile is good, and i think it could support a bucket-head vac such as in my picture above, and this would eliminate the airflow resistance of an intermediate hose. To avoid a top-heavy situation, i would screw the collection bucket down to a furniture dolly and maybe put a brick in the bottom of the bucket.

After looking it over, I think it would be good for machines that produce smaller particles such as table & band saws, and routers. i think it maybe ok for jointers and planers. But for those who use handplanes that create large shavings, or who may have larger debris such as an occasional paper towel, may find that the debris won't fall through the slot into the collection bucket. I would equip the vac with a HEPA filter, for sure.

[Bob Orr]

is the Thien design scaleable various diameters? What might be the minimum and maximum diameters, and how wide would the circumferential slot be?

Yes it is adaptable. Google it and you will find instruction online and a youtube video. I scaled mine to fit a large plastic refuse bin I already had. The gap is about 2/3rds the circumference and you have to place the gap away from the inlet. The suction was so strong that the bin was succking in at the sides so I made a wooden framework that sits inside it to stop it collapsing inwards. If doing itt again I would use a metal bin! Bob