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Dust Collection

Leo Voisine

Leo Voisine

Member
Messages
6,305
Location
East Freeetown, Massachusetts
I have a HF 2 hp dust collector. Over the years I have SLOWLY been trying to make it better. Air leaks crappy gates and all sorts of stuff leaves it a bit lacking.

A month or so ago I got sick of cleaning out my jointer, gap in one connection, several 90 degree bends, cheap plastic gate that would not close.

So I made a dust gate out of 1/4 ply. I think I posted about that. I moved my jointer, got rid of the 90's got rid of one plastic gate and added my new plywood gate. WOW what a difference!!
I jointed and thickness planned a good size pile of Cherry for 4 cabinet doors and the jointer did NOT clog. That was a small efficiency upgrade with a large impact.

So in between working on making my kitchen cabinets I laser cut to make 10 more new plywood gates.
I don't have any more of the cheap plastic gates but I do have several of the nicer metal gates. Now that the DC is not in my shop any longer I can hear the ait leaks in the metal gates. They will all get replaced with my new wood gates.

I just learned about ([3403-022] Turbo Fan for WEN 3403). It is a larger different design impeller replacement for the HF DC. For $50 I ordered one for my system.

I don't have a lot of time to being spent on DC so I do it in little chunks at a time. I am just a hobby shop, so I don't depend on it for business. Yes I do make and sell out of my shop but I don't make a living out of it.

FUTURE UPGRADES
Cyclone - I have the Dust Deputy sitting there waiting
Make and install the plywood gates.
Need more intel on best way to exhaust from cyclone --- DC is NOT in my shop so I don't think I need a hepa filter - maybe just direct to outside.
 
Nice. I’ll be interested in your opinion. I currently don’t have the HF unit in operation, but may want to consider it moving it over to the shop from the garage. The Penn version i have in the shop is similar in size, I’ll have to check the impeller size on it.
 
I built a Thein top hat type separator for my HF unit. I think the pressure loss is probably a bit less than a cyclone but still noticeable. The only problem I really had with it was sizing the separator slot, the smaller it is the more efficient it is but it also clogs worse so I kind of just incrementally opened it until it passed planer shavings.

I also replaced all the fan to top hat and junction downstream flex with 5” stove pipe. The smooth pipe definitely helped a lot vs flex.

I’ll be curious how the wen impeller replacement goes.
 
I also made a lot of my own gates.
BG-No-Shop (11).jpg
Not to pat myself on the back . . . I had plenty of help from the folks on here . . . careful planning on the duct path,
New Shop (346).jpg
the move to mostly 6" ports,
New Shop (454).jpg
and exhausting outside (no filter)
New Shop (442).jpg
are big contributors as to why my 2HP cyclone (about 1300 CFM) works as well as it does in my 1200 square foot shop. I built out the DC room, electrical and controls for an upgrade to a 5HP but, so far I am still getting by with the unit I have had since 2009. Way to squeeze a penny Glenn :D
 
@Leo Voisine - ;) They are just 1/4" MDF and PVC. The only reason they look pretty is that I had some mahogany scrap in the burn barrel to make end pieces out of. The only time I get dust outside is when I let the barrel get too full but, I do have a Grizzly G0440 cyclone in the path so spoil separation is pretty good.

I try to check the barrel every so often but . . . now and again I will be out behind the shop and notice a snow-dusting of sawdust on the ground. This lets me know I waited a little bit too long. The good things is that if I wait too long the spoil just blows past the collection barrel. The cone never fills up like with a filter. I would not want to exhaust outside if my neighbor had a fountain or other water fixture. That could lead to a conflict :D. Mine just blows out behind the shop building so no-harm, no-foul.
 
I have scrap Cherry from my kitchen cabinets. Just may do something with it.

The DC is kinda in the way where I put it. I router it to my garden room just outside my shop. I am doing a tiny step with it because I am trying to reorganize the garden room so I can make a temp spray room for the kitchen cabinets. Doing "some" upgrade to the DC is moving my closer to the DC completion and getting my garden room a bit more organized. A bit of Kaizen - a little at a time For now just upgrade the HF blower and take it off the base and mount it in a semi permanent place.

I don't have any issues with neighbors, they will never see some sawdust from the exhaust. I could just direct the entire system outside - but that would bother only me.
 
I have a dust collector to catch my jointer/thicnesser shavings, no hepa filter just a thick cloth bag, I wanted to build a cyclone, but after reading Bill Pentz page several times and checking the size of the cyclone I needed I gave up. First, in order to get good dust collection I will need a 5Hp motor which means I will have to get 380V to my shop, which means new contract and new wiring to the cyclone impeller. Second the ceiling of my shop is quite low, so even making the short option of the cyclone, the dust bin I could fit would be smaller than a normal paint bucket. Venting outside through the window is out of consideration as the window is below where LOML hangs the laundry to dry. So I have two mini cyclones one for the TS and another one for the band saw both conected to their respective vaccum cleaner. Apart from that I do as less sanding as possible and always outside if the weather allows for it.
 
FIVE hp is out of the question. 6" metal piping throughout is out of the question. We work with what we can. I have a 2hp Harbor Freight - I cannot get anything better. I did take the blower off the base, cleaned it up, remounted it onto a new base, removed the 11" impeller, waiting for the new WEN 12" impeller. I mounted the blower on the garden room wall in a temp but close location. Still using the HF dual bag as it is for now. Next upgrade will be adding the dust deputy cyclone, maybe in the summer.

Still a lot of room for improvement, but much better than it was.
 
WOW STRANGE

I ordered the impeller from WEN.

Tracking number says "label created" on 3-2-26
After that there is no activity
I sent email early yesterday --- no response
I called the phone number that they provided today - got a real person!
I think this ONE person is the only person in the country to handle the call AND support requests - (not really but he sounded like that).

Phone call to WEN
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Uhhh - oh yeah they'v had trouble getting UPS to pick up packages lately -- Uh hang on a sec --- uh did you already send an email. {Yes I did but there was no response.} Ohhh yeah I just didn't get back to you yet --- uh hold on --- ohhh yeah I really don't know whats going on - -- I have your number and I will call you when I figure it out.
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Hmmmmm - maybe the other half of the building was engulfed in FIRE and he just didn't know it and was wondering why everyone was RUNNING out the door and screaming.

OK?????? now what?

I may need to reinstall my old HF impeller to finish my doors?

I am gonna look around to see if I can get it from another source.
 
Toni Ciuraneta said:
I have a dust collector to catch my jointer/thicnesser shavings, no hepa filter just a thick cloth bag, I wanted to build a cyclone, but after reading Bill Pentz page several times and checking the size of the cyclone I needed I gave up. First, in order to get good dust collection I will need a 5Hp motor which means I will have to get 380V to my shop, which means new contract and new wiring to the cyclone impeller. Second the ceiling of my shop is quite low, so even making the short option of the cyclone, the dust bin I could fit would be smaller than a normal paint bucket. Venting outside through the window is out of consideration as the window is below where LOML hangs the laundry to dry. So I have two mini cyclones one for the TS and another one for the band saw both conected to their respective vaccum cleaner. Apart from that I do as less sanding as possible and always outside if the weather allows for it.
Click to expand...
Good morning! I’m reading your post and noticed you said 380volts. Not sure were you are but I have a Clear-view 5 hp cyclone and it takes 220v 30 amp breaker #10 wire. very simple and easy. It’s got so much suction. You could run two machines with the 6 inch glass gate open and have plenty of suction. in the past, I’ve had 2 hp 3 hp cyclones there’s no comparison and it does not take a lot of space if you have a 10 foot ceiling in your shop. I have a 55 gallon drum and with a Clear View there’s a system where it shuts the machine off to prevent from overfilling it.
 
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