Time for a Dust Collector

[Arlin Eastman]

I've just purchased a used (supposedly like new) Grizzly 3hp, 220-volt, 2-bag collector that I plan on converting to a cyclone some day. Paid $250.

I sure wish I could find one at that price for us.  I am going to get it but would much rather pay less so I can get other things for us as well.  Do they have anymore for that price?

[TDKPE]

What is "Static Pressure"?

Flow resistance.  The more you restrict the flow (increase flow resistance), the less air will be moved by the blower.

Here's a fan curve I found online, and is typical of home shop size dust collectors.  

   

Notice that at low resistance (SP) on the Y-axis, say 1" water gauge*, following across to where it intersects the curve, then drop down to the X-axis and read about 1550 CFM.  Restrict the flow at the inlet (or outlet, since this curve includes the filter) and you read higher on the Y-axis, look across to where it interects the curve, and drop down to the flow rate on the X-axis, and it will read lower, as you would expect.  Worst case is to plug the inlet, and flow will be zero CFM (X-axis), and max SP is about 12.6 inches WG.  That's the number that most DC manufacturers publish, but by itself is rather meaningless other than to suggest how the rest of the curve might look (a really high max SP usually means a strong curve).

I can't draw on this notebook, but you can imagine the duct curve to go with the fan curve.  Just draw a line across the graph at about the 7" SP mark on the Y-axis.  Then mirror the fan curve about that line, so the left end is at zero, and the right end is at about the 13" mark (just for illustrative purposes - actual curve depends on actual ducting), with the curve being concave, like half a bowl.  Where the duct curve intersects the fan curve will be the 'operating point' for that particular duct arrangement.  Open or close more blast gates, and the curve will shift, being squeezed left for more restrictive, and stretched right for less restrictive.  You can see that will less restrictive ducting, the operating point will be lower on the SP axis (Y), and higher on the flow rate axis (X), with the reverse being true with a more restrictive duct curve.

Some DC manufacturers actually publish performance curves, but most don't, and only report max SP.  High max SP usually corresponds to a large diameter blower wheel, and is suggestive of higher flow at a give SP than a blower with a lower max SP (and usually has a larger motor), but that's not an ironclad rule, as you can design a blower with extremely high max SP but very low air flow across the board (like a shop vac).

*Water gauge, or WG, is a measure of pressure difference in a U-tube partially filled with water, with one end connected to the duct, and the other either left open (atmospheric pressure), or to another duct location, like inlet and outlet of the blower.  The pressure and/or vacuum will pull the water in one direction so the two surfaces are no longer at the same elevation (level), and the difference in height measured in inches is 'inches water gauge'.   

   

You can make your own out of a piece of clear tube.

[Cian]

Muwaahaaahaaaahaaaaa

[ez-duzit]

...Do they have anymore for that price?

This was purchased from a private party through a c/l ad.

[JohnnyEgo]

I have a Laguna CFlux, and it serves my purposes. I will tell you the good and the bad as I see them. First the good: it sucks. It is also reasonably compact, easy to maneuver, and clears my garage door. Rolled up to my 16 inch jointer planer and connected with a short run of flex hose, it keeps pace pretty well. So if you aren't going to run pipe and need to move it from machine to machine, it works admirably for those purposes.

The bad: It's the loudest tool I probably own. Definitely a lot louder than my Jointer Planer. Probably louder than my shop vac. It comes in 11,000 pieces, and the assembly instructions make Ikea furniture manuals read like they were written by Hemmingway. When I saw how many protruding screws were necessary to assemble the waste barrel, I seriously thought about taking it back.

I tend to think of my C-Flux as more of a scaled up shop vac with better filtering then as a sort of integrated dust collection system. If I were to run pipe in my shop, I'd probably look for something else. But as a mobile dust collector, it has a lot going for it.

[vernonator]

I also have HF with whyn filter.  works quite well.  Have a 30 gal pre garbage can with thein baffle and it catches everything except fine dust from sanding on lathe.   Hard to beat price when on sale and 20% off.

Have this setup as well - HF/Wynn/Can w/Thien - it works GREAT in my basement shop. I also use a grizzly ceiling mount filter and there is virtually no dust on surfaces in the shop.

[Cabinet Monkey]

Unless you have extremely low ceilings there are better designed cyclones out there than Laguna - which are flawed.

They have great marketing and creature comforts along with a sexy package. But the separation isn't on par with a regular , or tall cyclone.

HEPA is again mostly marketing on a cyclone. Laguna's convinced a lot of folks it's needed. A better approaching is to get a pleated non HEPA filter that has more sq. in. of material than Laguna's and the to place scrubbers around the shop like JDS to filter what the cyclone does t get. Laguna's filters cake up faster to because of the HEPA and their cone's lack of separation in the first place. This just dumps more large particulate into the smaller pored filter which curbs performance and causes more cleaning.

[Mike in kc]

If you want a project, you could also "roll your own" cyclone in a weekend.   I built my cyclone about '01 or so using some plans from Wood Magazine from 1999/2001 or so.   The project was fairly popular at the time.   Around '04 or so I think, there were also tons of guys that bought the HF dust collector, it was quite a free for all here, on the old server. 

Many used the HF dust collector blower and motor.   I, being a bit OCD welded up my own impeller, made the blower housing, and used a 5 horse motor.   It really sucks.


The original Wood Mag plans, didn't include a Neutral vane in the cyclone so I incorporated one in mine.   I only use one machine at a time, as I presume most all of us do, and this unit has worked quite well.


The pic is a link.

[Kansas City Fireslayer]

You are officially an “old timer” here now, Mike....

[mdhills]

Mike,
Have you needed to clean out your filter?
Looks like there isn’t a collection pan; so do you take outside and blow out or what?