Strange oneida DC location ?

[lou sansone]

hello fellow ww's
I have been looking at a number of shops here @ the creek that have oneida DCs and it seems that all of them are mounted completly inside your shops. Why is that? I have a 3 hp unit that is mounted in what I think is the more traditional way. The cyclone is outside along with the 55 gal dust barrel and the return air is brought back inside my shop, so as not to heat the great new england outdoors. It seems much easier to empty the drum without making a cloud of dust in my shop. I made a simple "rain hat" for the outside unit and it has been working for 4 years now without any problem or corrosion. It saves on shop space and less noise in the shop. My neighbours are too far away to mind.

I was wondering if anyone has mounted the cyclone on the outside of the shop or is there some real good reason not to.

lou

[Jim Becker]

If I coulda, I woulda....but not possible with the "lay of the land" relative to my building. So I built a closet for the cyclone and compressor and designed it such that it's fairly quiet...only the hood noise is anoying on certain tools.

[Karl Laustrup]

Hey, Lou, could you post some pics of your installation, please?

I am just waiting for the weather to improve as I am planning on building a shed for my Onieda 2 HP commercial as well as my compressor. I too have figured I would route the return into the shop, so I would be interested in that installation also.

Hopefully the weather will cooperate and I can get started within the next few weeks.

TIA, and I'll probably have some questions for you.

[JayStPeter]

If I had a dedicated shop building that had a side hidden from view from the rest of the yard I would've. But, I would consider it an eyesore to have my cyclone hanging off the side of my house. It would locate the barrel around 6' above the floor of my shop. Plus, I soundproofed the shop to keep the noise in.

Jay

[Jim Dunn]

If I'da put a cyclone outside of my house the code enforcement officer, police, mayor, alderman and you get the picture. Wouldn't have worked in a suburban neighborhood.

[Michael Perata]

Lou

I installed my Oneida 2 HP unit in a small closet shed outside my garage. Since I live in the Bay Area, sucking heat out of the shop was not much of a concern so I let the unit vent to the outside.

BTW: I don't care what Oneida says, these ARE NOT quiet units.

[Bill Lewis]

If I had a dedicated building for a shop, I would consider a cyclone compressor shed. I don't think I'd let it just hand off the side of the building.

About the best I could do for my basement shop was locate the cyclone as close as possible to the outside entrance for easy barrel emptying.

[Frank Pellow]

It would be too loud and too cold outside.

[lou sansone]

dear all


I am getting a digital camera this week and will finally be able to send a decent picture of various things, like the DC installation. When I went about building my shop ( bout 5-6 years ago ) I tried to get as much info on how to do it. My hope was in posting this question to get some folks thinking about other ways to do things that they might not have thought of. I expected some of the responses to this post that have to do with code and such.

[Steven Wilson]

That's the way most cyclones are mounted (outside) and it's easy to pass the Fire Protection and UBC codes if you mount it outside. For a commercial establishment you don't need to install blast vents in your cyclone if you install it outside. For hobbiests in suburbia it's more discrete to install it inside.

[John Bush]

Hi Lou,
I'm in the process of designing an attached shed for a cyclone system also and would be interested in your design for the return air. I had planned on building an enclosure around the filter and then duct the return air back into the shop. Does the return air volume stir things up much? I'm planning on a 3hp unit and am wondering how to handle that volume of air. Also, the main and branch ducts will be ~9ft+ above the floor and I planned to use flex pipe as drops to the machines. Is that too much distance to lift the chips, or will I need to limit my WWing to balsa wood only;) . Thanks, John.

[lou sansone]

Hi Lou,
I'm in the process of designing an attached shed for a cyclone system also and would be interested in your design for the return air. I had planned on building an enclosure around the filter and then duct the return air back into the shop. Does the return air volume stir things up much? I'm planning on a 3hp unit and am wondering how to handle that volume of air. Also, the main and branch ducts will be ~9ft+ above the floor and I planned to use flex pipe as drops to the machines. Is that too much distance to lift the chips, or will I need to limit my WWing to balsa wood only;) . Thanks, John.
hi john

I will be taking some pictures of the installation within the next day or so. I have 10' ceilings and my duct is also @ 9 feet. What I do is to try to bring the metal pipe pretty close to the machines and keep the flex to a minimum. I normally keep 2 or 3 blast gates open at a time because I am lazy and I really do not have any problem. I do close them all down when running my 37" widebelt because it really throws a lot of dust, and it is the longest run on the system. As far as stiring up the air as it returns I have not found a problem. The installation has the cyclone right on the outside wall and the return air comes right back in the shop and then goes through a silencer and finally the filter section. I have a 4' piece of 10" clear flex duct that connects the cyclone to the 55 gal barrel. I happen to have a window right next to the whole thing and can keep an eye on the flex duct to make sure that I don't fill up the cyclone. So far I have never done that. IMHO having the dust / chip barrel outside is the way to go. I can't imagin trying to empty it inside my shop and the dust storm that it would make. I would guess that those who keep the whole thing inside their shop probably wheel it out side to empty it.

[lou sansone]

good morning
finally got back to posting these photos ..
they should be self explanitory, but the clyclone is outside in photo 1
the filter in in the corner of my heated shop in photo 2 and the duct work exits and returns through the wall in photo 3. really not much heat loss and it makes emptying the barrel much easier. I can't imagin trying to do that in my shop. My wide belt sander gets used a lot and the dust bin has a good mixture of chips and very fine dust that would just get every place

enjoy
lou

[Matt Meiser]

I've thought about either moving mine outside or putting it in the unheated part of my shop, but the ductwork and wiring changes that would be necessary keep me from tackling it. Maybe some day.

[Stan Mijal]

Lou,

I noticed you have a muffler on your Oneida. Does it really cut the noise appreciably? (meaning, did you try it with and without the muffler)
2nd--Is that an Oneida muffler? I've seen some shop fabricated ones, but wonder how effective they are.

[Rennie Heuer]

My neighbors like me - I prefer to keep it that way!

If I could put it out side (available space, distant neighbors, code issues) I probably would.

[Jim Becker]

Lou,

I noticed you have a muffler on your Oneida. Does it really cut the noise appreciably? (meaning, did you try it with and without the muffler)
2nd--Is that an Oneida muffler? I've seen some shop fabricated ones, but wonder how effective they are.
Stan, the current versions of the Oneida filter have the muffler built-in near the top of the filter media.
-----

Lou, thanks for revisiting. I really wish I could have mounted mine outside, but my shop building is partially submerged into the hill and there is no place that it could have been mounted other than in the same area as the doors...and that isn't going to happen. So I built the closet and am pleased with it in many of the same ways you are with your exterior mount.

[lou sansone]

it is an Oneida muffler. I just keep in in place, it seems to work.

Closet or outside, all I say is get it out of the main room. I understand that many have limitations. I live in the last town in CT without zoning and so we can do what we want up here basically. Keep in mind that I am surrounded by a lot of farm land that is only hayed once a year. even the cows don't have an opportunity to file a complaint.

[Rick de Roque]

Lou,

What's that white stuff outside your shop? ;)

Rick

P.S. Nice DC setup.

[John Bush]

Hi Lou,
Thanks for the update. I finished the DC enclosure shed and use a window(added to match the design of the shop) to vent the exhaust outside. I think I can simply cut vents thru the wall and use registers to control air flow back into the shop. There is minimal motor and air flow noise in the shop but it seems that the wall the unit is mounted to is acting as a huge subwoofer and fills the shop with harmonic reasonance that is loud. I used rubber shims between the brackets and the wall, but doubt that helps much. Do you notice "extra" noise from your unit transmitted thru the wall also? I'm considering building a rack to make the unit free standing. Thanks, JCB.

[Chris McKimson]

I did it to irritate my wife. Hey, two birds with one stone. :D

Chris

[glenn bradley]

Great setup Lou. My Dad is lucky enough to have room off the garage where he built a small shed for the cyclone so the noise won't bug the neighbors. With the slope of the land my house sits on, the pad outside my garage is just about even with the living room windows of my neighbor only 30 feet away so, no go for me.