cyclone chip capacity a nuisance!!!

[chris del]

I have 100" high ceilings in my shop so when I purchased my 3hp oneida super gorillia a couple of years ago I was stuck with getting the 35 gallon dust drum. After using it a while I must say that a 35 gallon capicity dust drum for a woodworking shop is absolutely useless!
I can fill that thing in 30 minutes when using my jointer or 20" planer.
One Idea I have is to cut a hole in the ceiling and have the motor site between the joists and replacing my 35 gallon with a 55 gallon drum.....
Any other ideas would be appreciated.

Cheers.

Chris

[Thomas Bennett]

I had(have?) the same problem with a big Torit collector. I cut a hole into the ceiling, betwwen two floor joists . The motor was then sticking up about a foot into the second story. I found a plastic garbage can fit perfectly over the motor allowing plenty of air to keep it cool. I still empty a 55 gallon drum with 10-15 minutes of planing. I keep about 6 drums handy. I also have a Logosol molding machine with four chip collection outlets. It fills a 55 gallon drum really fast .

[Gary Benson]

Not to state the obvious, but it sounds like you would fill the 55 gallon drum in about an hour. Is a larger drum practical to empty? Seems like the larger the better until it is too large to manage. I am a weekend warrior in regards to woodworking, but my cyclone fills up pretty quickly when using my Jet combo machine, have to keep a pretty close eye on it. Look forward to others solutions.

[CPeter James]

I have the same setup and actually have mine up between the joists, but still have the 35 gall drum as I did not want to deal with the large one. I just bring my tractor with the load on it over to the shop door and dump in to that when I am planing a lot of boards.

CPeter

[Heather Thompson]

Chris,

If you fill a 35 gallon dust bin in 30 minutes, it would take 47 minutes to do a 55 by my math, seems you need a different approach. There was a post on here by a fellow that had a huge bin, cleaning requires a tractor, sounds like you need to re-think the overall approach. If this is a hobby shop it would sound like you are wasting lots of material, if you are a pro then sign a contract with a waste hauler or find a local animal owner that can use the material. I can fill my bin in 30 minutes also, but that is a rare occassion, handplanes do not work that fast, but much more peaceful! :) Tell use more about your shop!

Heather

[Brad Shipton]

I agree. I used a 45gal plastic drum, but I tried to fit a 75gal drum I found first (no luck). I would check out the plastic fabricators in your area. I found a good source intended for water storage. I found round ones and rectangular. They may even custom make you one. If you have the floor area a square box with rolling carts that fit inside might be an option.

Brad

[Thomas Pender]

I think it is tough enough to move the 35 gal drum when it is full - kind of like be careful of what you wish for or you may get it. I guess Ii do not use my Super Gorilla as much as you and do use hand planes for some removal (lots prettier anyway - my LV Bevel Up smoother makes cherry shine and oak looks fine too).

I would not put my motor between the joints, unless Oneida says it will not mess with airflow needed to cool it and there is also the issue of acoustic vibration between the joists which I bet no one has given much thought to. You would be surpised how damaging that kind of vibration is.

[Matt Meiser]

I use the bigger fiber drums with my cyclone. I don't fill it nearly that fast in my shop, but one thing that has made life a little easier was having two drums. When one is full, I swap them, snap a solid lid on the full one and empty when its convenient (usually when the second drum gets full.) Keeps me from emptying drums on dark rainy nights when I'm in a hurry most of the time.

[Tom Veatch]

...Is a larger drum practical to empty? ...

I use a 55 gal drum with plastic bag drum liners inside. When time comes to empty, tip it over onto its side and the bag slides right out. No problem at all - and this from a guy who has found that 3/4" plywood sheets have gotten much heavier over the last 40 years.

[Mike Wellner]

Check with your local Pepsi, they have these plastic drums, wide and 4' tall.

[Chris Padilla]

You can gain more headroom by moving the motor into the joist bay.

Another route is to fashion up a system where you can drive the impeller by mounting the motor on the side. Two pulleys and and a link belt and you also gain headroom.

I'm sure you'd feel better with the 55-gal drum as it wouldn't quite fill up as fast but is seems that you need a whole different approach versus us weekend warriors who aren't typically on a time crunch. Heather had some good ideas.

I have to mix my sawdust in with my lawn clippings in order to "hide it" from the green waste removal company otherwise it would take me a while to get rid of it tossing it into the trash.

[Brad Wood]

Just noticed this listed on CL today... I think it might solve your problem
http://portland.craigslist.org/mlt/tls/1057094926.html

[Keith Outten]

I had the same problem 20 years ago and got tired of having to stop so often to empty the stupid DC bags. I use a large chip box located outside my shop and I have the same setup at the CNU sign shop using a 300 gallon plywood box.

The new chip box I am working on for my home shop is 3000 gallons and my DC will be mounted outside on the side of the new box :)
I decided to wait for warmer weather to finish building the top for the new 3000 gallon steel tank and weld the mounting frame for the dust collector. I am looking forward to less noise, less frequent effluent dumps and the fact that I haven't had a bag or filter in twenty years :)

[Juan Lauchu]

Have you consider using an upside down "Y" from the cyclone unit into two 35gal drums? I saw this in their catalog as I am looking to purchase a unit myself. Just a thought...

[Rob Damon]

I haven't got my shop finished or a cycloned purchased (next 30-60 days), but I was looking at using my Jet DC-1100 as a "tranfer pump" to take the chips from the 55 gal drum and blow it out to the compost/trash pile behind my new shop.

I might try to setup a level gauge of sorts, so when the 55 gal drum gets 80 percent full, it will kick on the Jet DC and suck the drum empty and blow the chips into the compost/trash pile outside. That way I can maintain a closed system with the cyclone dust collector to maintain heating in the winter and cooling in the summer.

I just figure I will cut a 6" diameter hole in the bottom side of the 55 gallon drum and attach it directly to the input of the Jet Dc and then run 6" pvc from the output to the compost pile outside.

The compost pile in back is just for trash that gets taken to the landfill every few months, so I don't have to worry about nasty wood type chips contaminating my garden.

That way I should never have to worry about emptying the 55 gallon drum of chips.:)

Rob

[Tom Veatch]

Don't forget that the dust bin will be a negative pressure area (pressure less than atmospheric) when the cyclone operates. If you don't prevent backflow through the hole in the bottom side of the 55 gallon drum, your cyclone will essentially be useless. The cyclone will simply dump alll the chips into your cyclone filters just like a single stage DC.

Other than that, it's probably a workable solution and a good, well sealed blastgate between the 55 gal drum and the Jet DC would solve the backflow problem. You would need to automate the opening of that blastgate to coordinate with the Jet DC operation if you really want unattended operation. Perhaps a flapper/check valve type of gate?

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi Rob, the cyclone collection drum has to be air tight, so you'll need some method of sealing the intake to your Jet collector.

The second issue may be what kind of capacity the Jet has, you can get some pretty large amounts of dust in one shot, something the collector will have a hard time handling, not to mention wood blocks that may be in the cyclone.

One place I worked at had an enclosed auger that fed the chips out to a large pile. I don't know if you could find one of those at a surplus place?

Regards, Rod.

[Jim Becker]

I have the motor of my 2hp commercial stuck up between the ceiling joists for added headroom. With my 96" ceiling height, I can still have a 55 gallon bin. You may be able to do that with the 3hp unit since you have a few more inches available. Alternatively, you can either us dual 35 gallon bins with a wye or build a larger rectangular bin. Just make sure it seals COMPLETELY...no leaks, no matter how small, are acceptable or you'll get blow-by.

[Perry Holbrook]

If you want to transfer the chips from the bottom of a cyclone with another fan to a collection area, the best way to do that is by installing a rotary air lock to the bottom of the cyclone. Think of it like a revolviing door on its side, it keeps an air lock on the top side while letting the chips fall out the bottom.

Large furniture plants use them to transfer the chips with a blower to large bins. These large bins, have screw conveyors in the bottom, feeding boiler fuel feeding systems.

I've looked for smaller versions for shop use, but so far no luck.

Perry

[Perry Holbrook]

For those of you that have cyclones in the shop, with dust bins that require you to transfer the chips, rather than the chips going directly into a bag. A question. How do you control the dust you create while making the transfer? When I do it, I get more dust on me and in my mask, than working in the shop all day.

Seems silly to go to great links to capture the dust, then releasing it with a transfer.

Just wondering.

Perry

[Burt Alcantara]

I have an 82" ceiling with my ClearVue 1400. All I could get under it was a 10 gal can. I built a rectangular box that held 25 gal and stuck it under the cyclone. It was not centered. The debris chute went into the rear of the box. It worked very well filling the entire box with no user intervention. I considered making a much larger box but the problem was emptying the box. I had to dig the chips and dust out and dump it into a 45 gal plastic bag.

In the end I moved it to a different room and managed to get a 20 gal can under it. Note that its primary use is for dust collection at the lathe so most of the debris is dust. I don't have to empty it very often.

If you can figure out how to empty a box, you could build it to any size. Kinda depends what you want to empty it into. You could put it on wheels and just wheel it to the curb.

Just an idea.
Burt

[Rob Cunningham]

Perry,
My chip drums are 35 gals. To empty them I put a 55 gal plastic bag over the top and turn it over. This creates a suction effect and seems to keep the dust in the bag.

[Chip Lindley]

In all *practicality* unless you care to build a *SILO* addition onto your shop, rolling out a full 55gal drum and attaching another one every half hour or so is Mucho Betta than shovelling shavings and vacuuming every surface of the shop!

Cut a hole between ceiling joists and poke that motor up higher to allow a 55gal beneath the cyclone!! Those blue plastic barrels are plentiful, cheap enough and last forever!

Um....*accoustic vibration*?? Is that anything like my wife's VOICE? It destroyed my hearing YEARS ago! heh heh heh!