Don't Put Off DC Filter Maintenance

Here's a cautionary note for those of you out there who, like me, are using equipment you are not very familiar with....

I got an Oneida 3 HP cyclone a year and a half ago - love it. It really sucks, in a good way. I was always a little puzzled, though, that the huge canister filter hanging from it always looked lily white. I had emptied the trap at the bottom a few times and found a small amount of dust, but the filter just stayed as white as day one.

Well, I was doing some other maintenance in that area this morning and while I had things out of the way, I decided to take the filter off and give it a good inspection.

Wow:eek: :eek: :eek: The foam rubber filter inside the canister was caked. And the pleats in the filter were full.:doh: :doh:

So, per Oneida's instructions. I haul the thing outdoors and crank up the air hose. Talk about a dust storm. After working on it for about half an hour, I had a respectable small desert in the driveway. Tallest dune was about 3 inches.

So fellow newbies, clean that filter, and before you do, get a good mask and make sure there's plenty of hot water for the shower.:rolleyes:

Sure wish I hadn't let it go so long.:doh: :doh:
 
A little tip when cleaning your filters; stand the filter on end and put your shopvac hose inside the the filter and start it up. When, when you put the air to the outside of the filter the shopvac will suck up the vast majority of the dust and you won't have your head in a big cloud. Granted, it's not perfect and you should still wear a respirator, but it makes things a heck of a lot cleaner. Oh, make sure the shopvac exhaust is down wind too :), the very finest stuff will probably blow out through the exhaust unless you have an expensive HEPA filter in there. You might want to remove the HEPA and replace it with the OEM cheapy if you do so you don't kill the HEPA in the process.

Mike
 
Bummer on the filter plugging Jesse.

Dunes in New Mexico :huh: :rofl:

Sure glad I don't have filters too worry about.
 
Seems that your cyclone passes a LOT of the smallest dust to the filters.

Mine don't.

I use an air hose on the outside of my filter stack, banging it lightly with an 18" length of rubber hose, then leaving it over night, for the dust to settle into the clean out.

Here are some pics of the filters BEFORE I cleaned them as described.....the cyclone just does not allow much dust to get to the filter stack, it is that simple.:D

filters1.jpg filters2.jpg

Still fairly clean and blue after over 1500 liters of sawdust has gone through my cyclone.

Glad to see you found your clogged filters, Jesse, I bet your system REALLY sucks again eh!! :thumb:

If any of you have an AC in your shop, check the filters on those too!

Cheers!
 
Who needs filters when you can just shoot the dust through the wall and outside! :)

Actually, I may be in the market soon for a nice filter stack for my system. I haven't had filters for a while so I need to find a good source. Anyone have a recommendation?

marc
 
I just read this thread this evening - right after I finished cleaning the Wynn filter on my DC - I noticed that I was not getting satisfactory suction over the weekend so I pounded the thing a little and got better results. This evening I took it apart and started banging and coughing so I got out the shop vac (HEPA filter installed) turned on the compressor and went at it for an hour and a half - how proud I was that I thought of sticking the shop vac hose into the filter (this is all taking place in my garage!) Then I sit down to relax and spot this thread - should have peaked at it last night and saved my lungs the initial blast of dust.

I had to shake the shop vac a couple of times 'cause that filter was getting clogged too - so what do I do next? Get the wife's vac and clean out my shop vac?? Maybe I'll just ask the cleaning lady to empty my shop vac when she comes next week!:thumb:
 
Ray, just open the shop vac next to your DC hose, there problem solved :rofl::rofl::rofl:

Seriously, when you open your shop vac, something that helps a lot is a small spray bottle, have the kind that can "Mist" some water, open the shop vac, and mist the dust in there, just a light mist will keep a lot of the dust down.

Empty into a bag, and mist again, the dust will be kept way down.

But for sure do this outside.

Cheers!
 
I have the Delta DC with "the bags". I haven't ever cleaned them. Is there a "Painless Proceedure". PLEEEZZZZZZZZ

Nope, there is not :rofl:

Best to be done outside, in the driveway, away from any dark colored cars (unless you don't like the guy next door with his black car:rolleyes: ;) :D).

Lightly beat the top bag, don't go to town here, just lightly, to remove the worst caked on dust, the smaller stuff actually improved the filtering, but kills your air flow (nasty balancing act you have to play, one reason I went with a cyclone, after having a bag system).

Wear at least a dust mask.

Oh, is you system the kind with a cloth bag top and bottom?

If so, you have to empty the bottom bag, right? Yuck! :eek:

Let the DC sit a while after beating the top bag, this way the dust will settle a bit, then carefully remove the bottom bag, if you have an assistant around, arm them with a spray bottle, the kind that puts out a very fine mist, tell them to spray in the general direction of the opening of the bag, but don't over do it, you don't want mud, just to knock down the super fine dust.

Take the bag and put it into a large trash bag, upside down, while holding the cloth bag closed, get the trash bag around the cloth bag as well as you can, then slowly remove the upside down cloth bag from the trash bag, depositing the contents in to the trash bag, again, get your assistant to do some spraying, but in the end, it is a nasty, dirty, dusty job.

Good luck!:wave:
 
Who needs filters when you can just shoot the dust through the wall and outside! :)

:huh: I'm guessing you don't have your new AC unit running yet do you?
That'll end when you realize your nice cool air is being blown outdoors at 1000 CFM, only to be replace with hot air coming in from around your garage door.

It also doesn't make for good neighborly relations if you should be in close proximity. I would imagine one would have to be a few hundred feet away from the next house so the dust settles on something other then in thier pool, patio furniture, windows, car, etc.

FWIW, I use a Rigid shop vac with a hepa filter to vacuum out the DC filter cartridge. Used with the small round brush- works well, very little airborne dust. Or I just beat on the outside until most of the heavy stuff drops.
 
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