DC sucking through a bag

[Bob Riefer]

This may be a frequently applied solution, but I haven't seen it yet, so maybe this will be helpful to others.

I built a thien baffle into the ring that came with my harbor freight 2hp dust collector. I could put that on top of a barrel, suck through the barrel, and then empty the barrel when it fills up.

But, I really wanted the ease of emptying a bag. Tie it up, toss it out. Nice and easy and clean.

To use a bag, my first inclination was to have the DC blow through the bag/baffle (as opposed to sucking through the barrel/baffle). Blowing through the bag keeps it from imploding on itself like you'd get if you tried to suck through the bag. But this made the footprint of the setup bigger than I wanted.

So, I instead built a stacked assembly and put a mesh fencing skeleton inside the bag. When the DC is turned on, the bag tries to implode and sucks tight to the skeleton cage. The dust falls into the bag same as it would into a barrel. When the bag is full, just shimmy the cage out and put it into the next bag. Tie up and toss it out.

Tests were a success. We doubled up the cage and it holds up to the suction easily.

Hope this is helpful to anyone.


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[David Thompson 27577]

I've heard of that same idea being implemented with a piece of formica instead of the fencing. The formica wants to spring flat, so it holds the bag against the insides of the barrel.

[Andrew Schlosser]

you could also build a ring that holds dowels vertically. ring runs around the perimeter of the top of the bag, dowels run from top to bottom of the bag. I like the fomica idea best, as it would slide out of the bag easily without catching.
I think they sell polyethylene sheets that you roll up and put in lawn clipping garbage bags to keep the bag standing up and open. It would serve the same purpose.

[Bob Riefer]

Thanks for the replies guys, I hadn't seen this done before but it sounds like there are multiple ways to do it. I'll let you know how easily the free fence cage shimmies out of the bag when I empty it the first time. I'm always looking for ways to use excess stuff I have laying around.

[Bob Riefer]

Here's a short video showing the solution in action in case anyone is interested

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MSOCePr35s