JCDC-2 CYCLONE DUST COLLECTOR

[dg152]

Have any of you had any experience with this dust collector?  I'm thinking about upgrading to a 2 HP cyclone style dust collection system and this model seems to float to the top for a variety of reasons.

Is there another brand the same size I should be looking at?

Has anyone heard when JET will be running their usual winter/spring sale?

Doug

[Carl10]

dg152,

Is there a reason you are looking at the short cyclones? They are compact but perform poorly as a tradeoff for their size. I am sure there are plenty of people ready to provide subjective opinions about their short cyclone, but you can't change the physics of taller cyclones providing better separation (resulting in less filter cleaning and better airflow). The Jet, old JDS and old Laguna cyclones are all the same with different colors/badges. JDS upgraded their units from the current Jet design but then stopped selling cyclones. Laguna significantly upgraded their units both with power and separation and would be the brand to get if I was forced into a short cyclone. If height is not an issue then I would not even consider the shorter units and look at Oneida, Grizzly or Clearvue and get much more bang for your buck.

Hope that helps. Let us know what you do.

Carl

[TDKPE]

If I were buying a factory made cyclone system, I'd start at 3 hp.  You can always choke the flow down if you need to, but you can't increase it beyond its best (for a given duct/machine configuration), and it rarely hurts to have as much air movement as you can to keep the fine dust out of your breathing air.  And a blower motor that's underloaded won't draw as much power as when its loaded heavier, so there's not a lot of downside to an oversized unit other than first cost.

[dg152]

Carl and TDKPE, thanks for your replies. You've certainly given me something to think about. After reading some of the talk on Sawmill Creek it sounds like your opinions are right on target.

Here are the reasons I want to replace my Delta 50-850 1-stage dust collector with a cyclone:
- I hate having to empty the bags on the Delta. Even when they get to be 3/4 full they're still a job to detach, remove and empty. I take the wood chips/dust to a friend's house who puts the stuff in his chicken house. It appears that I can put standard 30-gallon trash bags in the collection drums of some of the models I'm considering which should make it easier to carry off to my friend's house.
- More power. The cyclone collectors have more CFM capacity than my current Delta. This should result in cleaner equipment and lines.
- Cleaner air. My Delta is equipped with the original fabric bag filter which filters out dust any larger than 30 microns. That still leaves a lot of dust floating around in the air. I'm counting on a new cyclone collector to filter out most of that dust. All the collectors I'm looking at are supposed to be good down to 1 micron.

Those are the major reasons I'm considering the expense (geez, these things aren't cheap!) of upgrading. And, against your better judgement, Carl, I'll probably go with the short cyclone simply because of height restrictions. But I'd go into the purchase with the understanding that short cyclones are less effective than the tall ones.

Based on your comments I've expanded from just the 2 HP models to 3 HP, as well. I'm considering Baileigh, Jet, and Laguna. Oneida and Clearvue are obviously top of the line but simply out of my budget.

Please feel free to follow up with any other additional thoughts. I'm still researching.

Doug

[Carl10]

dg152,

You have good reasons for going with a cyclone. To get that improvement of CFM at each of your machines, the first thing is to calculate how big of a machine you need. Start here:
https://www.woodmagazine.com/figure-dust...he-numbers (or use Bill Pentz Excel SP calculator)
The machine CFMs listed are minimums to get chip collection. You will be better served to plan on 600-800CFM at each machine. You will quickly see 4" PVC is a waste of performance because it limits flow and eats up static pressure very fast. Once you have the static pressure for your setup (everyone will be different) then you can find a machine that will provide your 800CFM at your static pressure. I have a small cyclone with 8' of straight pipe with a wide 90 drop to my machines and I measure 5" of SP through 5" duct.

With short cyclones, the Laguna is significantly better than the other two. As I said Jet, the old Laguna and the Baleigh are all the same (just different colors) They are all made in Asia in the same plant with different colors or buttons. Check out this video comparing the New Laguna to the old design.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwmzEXeiJp4&t=2s
Aside from the airflow improvement separation is much better, but still not great. Remember he is only picking up 5 gallons, not 30. The other issue which I called him out on, was the feed rate seemed slow and inconsistent. Also, Laguna had complaints about the new design and really poor separation so they came up with a plate that is added to the bottom outlet that fixes the issue (to short cyclone standards). You need to ask for it as it is not included.

If I had height restrictions I would pass on the short cyclones and get a 3HP single stage married to a Super Dust Deputy XL. I say this based on reviews and real user comments about performance of both the Laguna and the SDD. The SDD will require a little more time because you will have to fabricate a stand and lid, but they both take time to assemble. Here is a guy that did this setup:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpO4q_s1MIQ

Hope this helps, Let us know what you do.

Carl