What Does a Dust Collector Do? The motor and impeller sit atop a barrel. The best way to direct maximum airflow to the tool being used is to attach a blast gate to each hose. Amazon Music Stream millions of songs. Many manufacturers carry HEPA filter replacements on their websites.

He has a small shop and he developed over 50 iterations of his design, where he uses a baffle in addition to the usual chip separation design. His design is simple and saves a lot of vertical space in comparison to a cyclone. As for the Pentz Cyclone, this was invented by a man named Bill Pentz.

He had a conventional, tiny, store-bought cyclone and ended up in the hospital with allergic reactions and a pneumonia. His shop looked clean, however it had tons of airborne micro dust in the air, which ended up intoxicating him. Being a specialist in air filtration in his day job, Pentz came out of his retirement and developed his own cyclone.

It is the best cyclone available in the market… And you need at least 32 by 48 inches of floor space in your shop. Not to mention its inch height. While this is the most effective solution available, it demands a lot of space too. While you can buy other smaller cyclones, most of them lack filtering, airflow, and offer poorer dust separation.

While Bill Pentz has made his design freely available in his website, his design demands more space, more volume, and a 3. That is overkill for my amount of woodworking, and certainly forbidden in my tiny shop. The multitude of dust port sizes and shapes, especially for the smaller tools and the lack of hose diameter standards means each dust-collection port has its own, unique dimension.

Whether you buy something or make your own port adapters, make sure you have a very simple way to use your dust-collection and it will become a no-brainer to unplug the previous machine and plug the next one into your dust collection system. This is the most efficient way you can ensure your shop always stays as clean as possible, without even cleaning it in the first place. A good ambient air cleaner ensures that airborne dust gets trapped in its filters, instead of landing on workpieces, power tools, or even intoxicating your lungs.

Ideally you want to hang one of these units in a way that creates a circular motion, where the air flows throughout your entire shop. If you also place it near the tools that make the most unfiltered amounts of dust, you ensure better performance and less dust circulating in the air. Exhaling always releases moisture, which contaminates the filter and makes the mask drop its effectiveness much faster.

This will also help avoid that annoying fog in your safety glasses. Also, avoid disposable masks - these do not seal properly around your mouth and nose. You should prefer masks with a rubberized face gasket. Folks with beards should consider a helmet respirator, which blow filtered air inside a visor and is powered by batteries.

And remember: if all else fails, you can always use a broom to catch that dust in the morning after! Shops make dust — on your clothes, on your carpets, and in your lungs. It has a plastic gasket and a threaded nut that make a good connection to the vacuum pipe. You can then attach any combination of plastic pipe fittings that works on your machine. Screw a radiator hose clamp to a 1x3 board, and clamp the board to your workbench.

I nailed together this vacuum box to give my lungs and eyes a break! In the center of one side, make a port for your vacuum nozzle. A PVC expansion adapter works well, or cut a hole that accepts your nozzle in a tight pressure fit. Tape the bag around your arm, or use a rubber band.

The principles for cutting, joining, and supporting are the same. All you will need extra are dust ports, in order to close some parts of the system and open others.

Dust Collection at the Source The heart of any effective dust collection system is to capture as much dust possible at its source, and then not reintroduce it later in your shop - by filtering it and keeping it inside a sealed container. Air Cleaner A good ambient air cleaner ensures that airborne dust gets trapped in its filters, instead of landing on workpieces, power tools, or even intoxicating your lungs.

Precision Dust Control Cut down on sanding dust with this tip. I also used the 1-hp collector with a PVC duct system 4-in. At that distance, because of increased resistance, the air volume drops to under cfm, less than recommended for woodworking tools. In reality, however, one can live with that. When I hooked up the 1-hp collector to a newly installed metal duct system, with my tools in the same configuration as before, I was really surprised.

The air volume was back up to cfm, very acceptable. Then I hooked up my old 1-hp collector, which is outfitted with oversized felt bags available from Oneida Air Systems that improve airflow and capture fine dust , and I measured almost cfm.

Hooked up to a 6-ft. Cyclones and two-stage collectors have slightly more internal air resistance; hence the lower cfm reading. Performance ranged from good to so-so, depending on how much sawdust was being spit out by my tools. The best way to direct maximum airflow to the tool being used is to attach a blast gate to each hose. Hooked up to a PVC duct system a run of about 25 ft.

A two-stage unit such as the Oneida costs almost twice as much. Penn State Industries also sells a cyclone collector.

With two blast gates open, the air volume dropped and was insufficient to operate two big machines at once. More horsepower does mean more noise; both registered 85 decibels at 8 ft. The Delta comes wired for volts but can be switched over to volts. The Oneida comes without cable or switch. It can be wired to run on either current.

A 2-hp unit can sometimes handle two machines at once Hooked up to two 6-ft. When I connected the 2-hp units to the PVC duct system, they too were robbed of considerable power, but one machine could be operated at a time with satisfactory results. When connected to a metal duct system, the Jet collector really moved a lot of air, cfm at the tablesaw-jointer connection after about 25 ft.

With two blast gates open, the air volume was reduced to less than cfm, still acceptable for some operations. The Dust Boy produced slightly lower readings but still had more than enough power to run one tool at a time in any configuration.

If you regularly operate more than one machine simultaneously, it would be wise to look at 3-hp or bigger dust collectors. They cost more, however. Most 2-hp collectors come wired for volts.

The Dust Boy can be run at either volts or volts. On the matter of choosing a dust collector, a two-stage cyclone gets my top vote. A small cyclone collector takes up less room, is easy to empty and runs very clean. For example, on all of the single-stage units, even after running them for only an hour, fine dust appeared on the machine and in the area around it.

The Oneida cyclone, outfitted with an internal filter, rubber gaskets Small Workshop Dust Collection Questions and wide metal ring clamps, seals better. Two-stage units such as the Dust Boy Delta also makes a two-stage collector are also nice and compact. The Dust Boy takes up 6 sq. The Dust Boy as does the Oneida comes with a Leeson motor and cast-aluminum housing and impeller fan , and the sturdy plastic barrel holds a lot of debris, 55 gal. Before it can be emptied, however, the heavy motor and housing must be lifted off.

Removing the lower bag of a single-stage collector is an easy matter of loosening a band clamp. The real fun begins when you try to reattach it. The lower bag must be wrapped around the metal waist of the machine and held in place before the clamp can be cinched. Some manufacturers, such as Jet, add an elastic band inside the lower bag to facilitate reattachment somewhat.

The skirt and a standard gal. I just wish the skirt were made of felt rather than the more porous woven fabric.

This setup will reduce the air volume. When an ad says a collector is rated at 1, cfm, what does it mean? Not much, really. Cfm stands for cubic feet per minute, a measure of the volume of air moving past a point of reference.

The cfm figure needs to be put in the context of the amount of resistance, or friction, present called static pressure, or SP. Air moving through duct or hose encounters resistance, just as a person would slipping down a water slide. The more bends and bumps, the slower the ride or the lower the air velocity and volume.

Many manufacturers rate their machines without bags or duct attached. While trying out a number of dust collectors, I measured their performances under real working conditions, using flexible hose, PVC pipe or metal duct in my sq.

I also measured collectors hooked up to a straight piece of 6-in. Collectors ranging in size from 1 hp to 2 hp have impellers fans sized from 10 in. All things being equal motor speed and impeller design , a bigger impeller coupled with a bigger motor will move more air than a smaller pairing.

There are some differences among collectors; to learn more, ask a manufacturer for an impeller performance chart. As soon as any collector is hooked up in the shop, performance declines in relation to the length and type of hookup.

Materials that affect airflow. The metal elbow top , which is designed for central dust-collection systems, has a gentle sweep, which lowers resistance to airflow. Plastic PVC pipe has a tighter-radius bend and restricts airflow more. Ribbed flexible pipe also disturbs airflow, up to three times as much as metal. Hooked up to two 6-ft. With a larger upper bag, I found that the cfm readings were not compromised. But if you happen to vacuum up any offcuts, they will make quite a racket rattling around in a metal trash can.

Although many woodworkers, myself included, have used PVC drainpipe for duct without mishap, experts warn against using the material.

The connectors elbows and wyes restrict airflow, and the material builds up a static charge, which may cause a spark and set off an explosion. Running grounded copper wire inside the pipe reduces the hazard. Use PVC at your own risk. Metal duct and fittings are obviously better and will also last longer. Your collector will work Small Workshop Dust Collection Youtube more efficiently, and so will you. Quick View. Add to Cart.

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