Dust collection

[Josh Kocher]

If I was looking to save a few bucks on a Dust Deputy, I'd buy a used one. They are available on kijiji/craigslist all the time...

A piece of plastic works just as well used as new...

[Robert Willing]

maybe where you live but not in northern wisconsin or the up of michigan.

[Charles Lent]

I collapsed the first bucket under my Dust Deputy too. Then I found that the "Firehouse Subs" stores were selling used 5 gallon pickle buckets for $2 each (which is then donated to the local fire company). These buckets are much stronger than those available from the big box stores, and my pickle bucket didn't collapse when using my Shop Vac as a vacuum source. However, when I switched to using a re-purposed whole house central vacuum unit for my shop vacuum source, my Firehouse Subs bucket collapsed the first time that the inlet hose got accidentally restricted.

To solve this problem I realized that the Firehouse Subs pickle buckets have reinforcing ribs around the top third of each bucket, so I stacked three buckets together, giving me reinforcing ribs and triple wall thickness for the full height of the top bucket. I put the Dust Deputy on the lid of the top bucket of the three. This was the perfect solution to solve the collapsing problem, except the pickle buckets gave my shop a distinct smell of dill pickles for about the first month of use. I've tried several methods of getting rid of the pickle smell from these buckets and it seems that only leaving them open and in direct Sunlight for about a month, or a month or so in use as the receiving bucket under a Dust Deputy are the only methods that have really worked. The smell does eventually go away, but these are the only methods that worked for me.

I have since replaced my Firehouse pickle buckets with a 20 gal steel barrel and a shop made lid, made from 2 layers of 3/4 cabinet birch plywood. The bottom layer just fits the inside diameter of the barrel and the top layer is slightly larger than the barrel, with caulking between the layers and about a dozen wood screws to hold them tightly together. I applied closed cell foam Weatherstrip to the underside of the edge of the top layer to act as the seal between the top edge of the barrel top lip and the lid. The lid and attached Dust Deputy just sit on the top of the barrel with no clamps or other mechanical fasteners. The vacuum pulls the joint to the barrel tight when the vacuum system is in use. I used a smoke spray like used to test smoke detectors, sprayed near this seal with the vacuum running to see if I had any leaks, and I didn't find any.

I use my vacuum system to collect the sawdust from all of my lower producing shop sawdust creating tools, vacuuming the shop floor, and cleaning my cars and trucks. My heavy sawdust producers like my Unisaw, jointer, and planer are not connected to this system. It is primarily used for my scroll saws, drill presses, belt sanders, pad sanders, routers, etc. of which only one tool is connected at a time. My shop is small, so I don't have the room for a bigger dust collector system. In the several years of use of this system I have dumped the 5 gal bucket 4 times and the grease barrel once. So far, each time that I have dumped the Dust Deputy receiver bucket I have looked in the central vacuum container and there has been nothing in it, except for a trace of micro fine dust on the container walls that I can only see by rubbing it with my finger. The fabric filter never collects anything and I am considering just removing it. The Dust Deputy seems to be removing 99.9% or more of it. The exhaust from my central vacuum unit is piped to the outdoors, so nothing collected ever gets back inside my shop or my lungs. The vacuum unit is in the attic of my shop with pipes inside the walls and ceiling. I have the original central vacuum inlet ports in the attic, shop walls, and one outside next to the passage door into the shop, so I can take the hose outside and vacuum my cars and trucks. Inside, the hose gets routed across the ceiling on large hooks to the tool being used and it's easy to just hold a loop of hose up to hook it in place or to remove it from the hooks. The only time that hose is ever on the floor is when I'm vacuuming the floor.

Charley

[Robert Engel]

Robert,

I can't imagine a shop vac collapsing a 5 gal bucket. Those must be cheap buckets.

[Lane Hardy]

I have that exact Cyclone, and it works very well, I used it with a small shop vac brand vac,
The ports are metric and an odd size at that. I made adapters from PVC pipe. I mounted the unit
on a piece of three-quarter inch birch plywood with a grove cut in the ply with my router that would fit a 5 gallon bucket.

The key to make this or any Cyclone is a good seal on the bucket, any leaks will kill the efficiency.
I no longer us it since I have D.C. System with a Supper Dust Deputy and a Wynn filter.

for the $16.oo dollars you can't beat it for a small shop vac, I built a home brew Cyclone from 10 inch HVAC duct that was in my attic after we installed a new HVAC system. It was crude looking but worked very well, and the filter in the shop vac
is clean I still use this rig to clean the shop floor and cuttings from my drill press.
I think the success of this Cyclone is that is very tall. I built it as an experiment and it worked so well I used it on my
table saw for several years and my jointer and a planer.



The $16.00 Cyclone was gift from points earned from other purchases, so it was free for me.
It is small only 12 inches tall. Does it work yes! Does it work as well as a Dust Deputy I am not sure I only have a SDD
and my home brew Cyclone. I believe any Cyclone like this is better than any Thein Baffle at removing the fine saw dust. ( sorry Phil)

[Joe Jensen]

This advertisement serves to show just how grossly overpriced the Oneida piece is, whether it works as well or not. Molded plastic is cheap, no matter where it is made.

Items are worth what people will pay for them. It's called value based pricing. Violating patents is cheating in my not so humble opinion. Buy the cheap crap from China all you want, but don't then dare whine about how US companies move all the jobs and manufacturing offshore. Way too many Americans only want to pay the lowest price and then the next moment complain about how the greedy companies move manufacturing to cheaper places.