Meet the new sucker

[mreza Salav]

After getting tired of cleaning the shop-vac filters I decided to build a mini-cyclone for it. The clear-vu version is $200USD plus shipping and it wouldn't fit my smaller vac.
I thought it would be a good practice to see if I want to build the large one for a dust collection.

I used the Bill Pentz design. It's scaled down by 1/3. Got a small sheet of metal and off I went. Here are all the pieces cut.

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Forgot to take pictures after each step. Here is the picture of cyclone finished with a layer of paint on it. It has an air ramp in the cylinder with 3" diam.

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I used 1/2" MDF to build the structures holding the motor and cyclone.
Here are the finished photo installed.

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(rest in the next post...)

[mreza Salav]

Here are a couple of photos of the locking mechanism I built
and also with the motor taken out. I can take the motor and cyclone structre out in seconds and turn the vac into its original configuration if needed.

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Started cleaning the shop to see how it works. It sucks very well!!
Let's take a look at the bucket:

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and see what is gone into the filter compartment:

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Yup, next to nothing! http://forum.canadianwoodworking.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

The total cost was around $20!!

[J.R. Rutter]

That is excellent! Nice job.

[Joe Dowdy]

man thats pretty slick,

[keith ouellette]

That is very cool.

did you have a templet to scale down or did you draft it yourself?

[mreza Salav]

Thanks all.


That is very cool.

did you have a templet to scale down or did you draft it yourself?

There is a spread sheet on Bill Pentz website. I used it. It's a 1/3 scaled down of the big one (it's 6" diam).

[Paul Greathouse]

I'm not familiar with the Rigid Vac, (I own a couple of Shop Vac brand Vacs) so I'm not sure what type of hold-downs the motor/lid have.

I'm curious, how does the motor/lid attach to the box that it is mounted to. With the side mount it seems that it would be a challenge to keep it in place.

[mreza Salav]

I'm not familiar with the Rigid Vac, (I own a couple of Shop Vac brand Vacs) so I'm not sure what type of hold-downs the motor/lid have.

I'm curious, how does the motor/lid attach to the box that it is mounted to. With the side mount it seems that it would be a challenge to keep it in place.

It's kind of hard to explain it. So I've included a close-up photo of my setup so that you can see. It simply "clicks" in place and the nudge holds the motor housing in place.

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[Brent Smith]

I do like new ideas, and this is an interesting one. I may just try this out on an old Craftsman vac I have sitting around doing nothing. Thanks for the post Mo.

[Pete Hay]

Very impressive craftmanship, Mreza.

[Dewey Torres]

I have that same vac. Does the added height make it tipsy? Seems like mine tips over at will even without all the extra top heaviness.:confused:

[John Messinger]

That really sucks! :p I want one!

[Sonny Edmonds]

Well now, that is as cute as a bugs ear!
I love to see shop tooling creativity!
Nice job, great idear! :D

[mreza Salav]

I have that same vac. Does the added height make it tipsy? Seems like mine tips over at will even without all the extra top heaviness.:confused:

Haven't used it much to see if it is stable or not, but the added weight is mostly on the back of where the hose is connected. So that sort of prevents it from tipping when I pull it.
One thing though that I didn't pay enough attention: there is a loose lid inside the motor housing (if you remove the filter) that needs to be down (when the motor is in the vertical position). If that is pushed up it won't suck. The gravity holds it down in the vertical position but in horizontal mode if it is tilted to the side a bit it may go "up" and the suction stops. So perhaps I should make the motor housing a bit tilted.

[Dewey Torres]

Haven't used it much to see if it is stable or not, but the added weight is mostly on the back of where the hose is connected. So that sort of prevents it from tipping when I pull it.
One thing though that I didn't pay enough attention: there is a loose lid inside the motor housing (if you remove the filter) that needs to be down (when the motor is in the vertical position). If that is pushed up it won't suck. The gravity holds it down in the vertical position but in horizontal mode if it is tilted to the side a bit it may go "up" and the suction stops. So perhaps I should make the motor housing a bit tilted.

Interesting.... I will have to go look at that.

[John Schreiber]

. . . The total cost was around $20!!

Did you already have experience with sheet metal work? How much time did it take?

[mreza Salav]

Did you already have experience with sheet metal work? How much time did it take?

I should say almost none. Soldering (using a gun) wasn't bad. You must make sure you use acid core solder. Also make sure there is no oil or other residue on the metal before soldering.
I didn't count how many hours as it was an hour here or there in between other things; plus half the time calculating measurements and thinking how to mount things and what to use. If I want to do it again it is doable in a weekend I'd say.

[Al Barale]

Nice one mreza Salav it looks really good, I am also in the process of building a mini cyclone.

[gary Zimmel]

Great job Mo.

Looks like that is going to come in very handy.

Now that you have a small one out of the way how about a full size one

[mreza Salav]

Thanks all.

Yes Gary, I will likely build the large one too.

[Chris Padilla]

This is SO COOL, Mreza!!

I actually built the large BP version so this one should be a piece of cake, right?! :D

However, I used a pre-cut kit but I think I could manage with the smaller one. $20 + time sounds good. :) Thanks a lot for sharing.

[Gary Redden]

Kind of looks like this one from Clear Vue
http://www.clearvuecyclones.com/Shop%20Vac%20Pictures/Ridgid%20Conversion%20Lid%20026.jpg

[mreza Salav]

Kind of looks like this one from Clear Vue


Yes, I got the idea from this; as I said in my first post:
"The clear-vu version is $200USD plus shipping and it wouldn't fit my smaller vac."

[Gary Redden]

and all I said was it kind of looked like it. geez...

[mreza Salav]

No hard feeling Gary,
Just wanted to clarify I am not trying to get too much credit for the design where it's not due.

[Steve Leverich]

That "loose lid" is the float for wet pickup - it keeps water from getting into the motor, etc, when you get the cannister full.

If you're only going to use the vac with DRY stuff, you can just use a plastic tie wrap across the bars of the "cage" to keep the float from moving up and stopping flow - all that's necessary is that the float isn't allowed to move toward the vacuum motor, so it's not necessary to get the tie very tight as long as it's trapped by the cage bars to keep the tie from falling out... Steve

[Bill Blackburn]

Nice. Mucho nice. I'd love to attempt one someday. Won't after seeing this one either - be to ashamed:(

[Alan Schaffter]

One note about reproducing the BP design to make a mini cyclone (and a large cyclone for that matter) is that the dimensions for the spiral inlet ramp are a mathematical approximation. You can't generate a helix shape from flat material. It doesn't require too much effort, but you must warp the plastic or metal to achieve the helix shape. In case inquiring minds want to know.

[Aaron Wingert]

Neat modification! I looked on the Clearvue site and found that he no longer offers the $200 version.
http://www.clearvuecyclones.com/Ridgid_Conversion.htm

[Joe A Faulkner]

Nice Job! I take it you are now ready to build the full scale version, yes?

[mreza Salav]

not sure as there doesn't seem to be a lot of saving (material cost could be close to the price of getting one from Grizzly).