My GMC dust collector problem

A Friend gave me a 1hp single stage gmc dust collector. It came with no accessories. After some TLC i resurrected the collector. I mounted it to the wall of my shop and connected the outtake to a trash can. It worked fine till I notice saw dust was blowing out of the rim of the trash can. I engineered some fasteners and with the help of some door weatherproofing made the can air tight. Now no air leaks but dust collector has no suction. I ask why? Do I have to suck it up and buy the dust collection bag? or is their something I am missing?

Thanks, Stanley

It does have to breathe. If the end is airtight, can't pull in any air either so no suction. Welcome to the family by the way. So what I would suggest, take the tape back out of the lid, try your dust collector again and see if the suction improves.

Hi Stanley - welcome to the forum.

Jon is right. If the DC has nowhere to exhaust the air, it won't be able to pull any air in. And without a filter bag or canister, you will only be sucking up dust from one location and blowing it into another. If you look at other similar single stage dust collectors, you'll see many of them have a filter bag or canister on top and a non-porous bag or can on the bottom. That way the air has a way to escape (through the filter) and the sawdust has a place to settle (in the bag or can).

Hi,

To get air to go into a DC, or anything else, an equal volume of air must get out. You cannot put more air in than you can get out (except for an air compressor).

There are many options for the "air out" end of the DC system. If the air out end is in your shop you want to filter that air so it does not end up in your lungs (Translation: You don't want to go around having to carry a green oxygen bottle so you can breathe, get cancer like the smokers get, die young or any of that stuff).

There is a lot of information on dust collecting systems on the web. Just keep remembering that stuff on the web is not necessarily true. Also remember that manufacturers are not required to make healthy equipment. You should look for a way to filter at least 95% of the particles exiting your DC system, down to 1 micron. That is the filtration that is normally recommended to filter out the stuff that gets trapped in the alveoli of the lungs. One of our members is an expert on this subject, perhaps he will read this and chime in. There is a web site by a woodworker who developed lung problems. He did a lot of research. I think his name is Bill Pentz. There is a lot of technical info on the site, you will probably end up skimming a lot of it.

Enjoy,
JimB

I don't know if I am the expert JimB is suggesting, but I do have a web page where I tried to summarize the dust collection issues that have been debated over the years, and how I chose to solve them (too many different times).
See www.solowoodworker.com/tools/dust.html

Bill Pentz is certainly THE expert in the subject, but he is even worse than me - never use 100 words if 10,000 are available (whatever the subject).

The point given here by several is spot on. You can't pump a volume of air carrying dust into anything without having a way for the air to escape (and leave the dust behind). A filter of some sort to separate the dust from the air is required, but the simple filters are a pain to keep clean and efficient. And on it goes.

BTW, Welcome to the forum

Charlie Plesums said:

... You can't pump a volume of air carrying dust into anything without having a way for the air to escape (and leave the dust behind). A filter of some sort to separate the dust from the air is required, but the simple filters are a pain to keep clean and efficient. ...

Click to expand...

Of course, you can always pipe the output of the DC through a wall and just blow it outside - depending on neighbors!

But then you have to heat, cool, and filter the make-up air that comes back into the shop. Too often the shop is in a garage with a water heater, so the make-up air comes "down" the chimney, putting combustion gasses into the shop.

Thanks for the info. I was going to pipe it outside but my spouse vetoed that Idea. I broke down and ordered a 5 micron dust collection bag from Rockler. This is what I get for trying to save a few bucks.

You may be disappointed with the 5 micron bag, I found I had a lot of the finer dust settling everywhere with mine. I wound up replacing it with a 1 micron.