Bag Style DC Owners - Clean Your Bags

glenn bradley

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I have an old 1HP Delta Bag DC that used to take care of my whole shop. I would move it from machine to machine (I am amazed that I used to have the room to do that):rolleyes:. It is now dedicated to my jointer.
I improved the performance by adding an American Fabric Filter bag and converting the lower bag to a solid one. I just stuffed a lawn bag into the cloth lower bag and it’s lasted a decade.

I was well aware that the filter bag was due for cleaning. The give-away on baggers is that the bags blow up like balloons. I know that the original bags that come with baggers do this somewhat from day one but, that is because they are a fraction of the size they should be. If your bags are taught, they are impeding airflow. They should be semi-soft to the inquiring finger but, I digress . . . . Here's a calculator for surface area to airflow.

I had avoided cleaning the bag because I just knew it was going to be a monstrous undertaking. In fact the whole process only took about 40 minutes and was pretty easy. The bag used to be so inflated that I could nearly get a “boing” out of it if I smacked it. It now looks like this with the motor running:

DC Bag Cleaned.jpg

I removed the bag and used some spring clips to hold the opening shut. I shook it from top to bottom, removed the clips and dumped the spoil into the trash. I then turned the bag inside out and vacuumed it with a brush attachment. I turned it right side out, vacuumed again and re-installed the bag. The amount of airflow is dramatically increased. It seems that this little DC has nine lives and is now on number three :thumb:.
 
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I tried cleaning my bag once, and she got all upset with me when I forced her into the shower. Never again. Took weeks for the swelling in my face to go down. :rofl:
 
Before I got my Wynn filter even when my HF was brand new I remember the filter bag being so taught you could play it like a a drum. I always thought that it was supposed to be like that :eek:
 
You mean I wasn't supposed to print off that hardcopy and mail it to her!?!

No worries...I'm still safe. Because, you know...800 miles. :rofl:

Back on topic though, I never realized a filter bag shouldn't be taut like a drum. That's good info to have. :thumb: I had the same, albeit brief experience with the HF bag as Bob. I ordered my Wynn filter as soon as I got the DC, but I did fire it up with the bag just to see it run and feel the suction.
 
Back on topic though, I never realized a filter bag shouldn't be taut like a drum. That's good info to have. :thumb: I had the same, albeit brief experience with the HF bag as Bob. I ordered my Wynn filter as soon as I got the DC, but I did fire it up with the bag just to see it run and feel the suction.

I imagine that some back pressure is built into the designs. Now that mine has a nice new coat of "seasoning", it will just fully inflate. The bag does collapse back inward easily if you poke it with your finger whereas before, it was more like a balloon :D. With the singed felt bag, the filtering is optimal when seasoned. If left too long as I had done, the felt become permeated and if you whack the bag you will actually see a puff of dust escape. I noticed this condition an embarrassingly long time ago and just finally took care of it. The important message is that it was not a big deal like I had feared and the benefits are immediate :thumb:.
 
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