More Dust Collector Pictures

[Ken Garlock]

The dust collector project is essentially at its end, at least for this phase. So here are some pictures of the final product. I have posted pictures of the cyclone in the past, so I won't bore you with repeats of it.

First is two pictures of my jointer dust collection set up.

The next is of my cabinet saw DC connection. I enlarged the cabinet DC hole up to 6". The picture following is of the stub out for my router connection.

The next is the bandsaw DC interface.

The homebrew control system is in the next message.

[Ken Garlock]

The first picture is of the controller board(3/4 MDF) mounted in place and ready to use. Note the twist lock connector in lower right. All orange wiring is 240V 10 gauge. The white wire coming down to the controller, center, top, is the low voltage wiring to each power tool.

Picture two is same controller with the plastic cover removed.
From the left, first is a small 12V power supply that provides the needed control voltage.
Next is the two 50 Amp. 250V Solid State Relays, one relay for each hot leg of the 240V line. The relays are mounted on 3" high heat sinks.

Last picture is the actual sensor module. It is a current sensing relay that will fit inside an electrical junction box. One lead of the tool supply line is threaded through the hole. Inside the sensor is a large number of turns of fine wire that surround the lead hole, a rectifier, and a NPN transistor. When the tool is turned on. a small voltage is induced in the coil, which is in turn rectified. the rectified voltage is used to trigger the transistor into conduction. That completes the circuit allowing 12V to enter the control terminals of the solid state relays, thus turning on the cyclone. Turn off the tool, no current flow in the lead through the sensor, the transistor stops conduction, no voltage on the solid state relays, and the cyclone shuts down.

That is 1/2" bandsaw blade, and a hank of 10 gauge wire for size comparison.

[lou sansone]

nice install .... glad to see you used those heat sinks. SS realys are pretty good.

[Jim Dunn]

Ken pretty cool way to get those hoses out of the way. And a real neat method to fire the cyclone. But what about blast gates? Is the cyclone large enough to provide suction to all tools without them?

Now tell me what language are you speaking in the last paragraph? Is it some lost language or is it Latin:)

[Ken Garlock]

Ken pretty cool way to get those hoses out of the way. And a real neat method to fire the cyclone. But what about blast gates? Is the cyclone large enough to provide suction to all tools without them?

Now tell me what language are you speaking in the last paragraph? Is it some lost language or is it Latin:)

Latin, no it is not Latin. I had a hard time passing one year of freshman Latin in high school :rolleyes: It is just a bunch of electronics terms; you know the old saying, if you dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with BS. ;)

It was very observant of you to notice the lack of blast gates. Actually there is one damper-style gate on the connection to the jointer. It seems to do a good job so long as I remember to turn open and then closed. I will probably add another damper-style to the band saw at the point the flex hose attaches to the PVC.

The blast gate is a problem that I have been pondering for quite some time. After I see how this setup works, I will have a better idea on what I need. I have several websites with electrical blast gates, homebrew and commerical. I like the idea of the damper since it is simple to implement with a section of PVC and a disk of 12 ga. steel epoxyed to a 1/8" rod extending through the PVC. Yes, the purest will complain about wood chips catching in the pivot points of the damper. I guess I need to see evidence of that happening.

I have also considered using stepper motors and flexible wire to move the traditional blast gate slider. That gets into stepper controllers, something I have no knowledge thereof.

For the time being, what you see is what I got. The next thing is to build storage cabinets along the north wall. I didn't show you the clutter I am dodging on a daily basis. :eek:

[Jim Dunn]

Well I think you have me buffaloed, for sure;) Course the thread about air movement had me scratching my head too:)

I don't actually think you would have much trouble with chips causing trouble. I would think, and mind you I'm no expert, but a cyclone in the 1 1/2 to 2hp range should have enough air flow to overcome any leaks in the system. Even from a blast gate that is stuck part way open. If I have read the thread about air flow correctly, a 4" wood chip would still give you about 30-40% efficiency in a 6" diameter pipe. Let me know if this is any where near close, please.

[Ken Garlock]

Well I think you have me buffaloed, for sure;) Course the thread about air movement had me scratching my head too:)

I don't actually think you would have much trouble with chips causing trouble. I would think, and mind you I'm no expert, but a cyclone in the 1 1/2 to 2hp range should have enough air flow to overcome any leaks in the system. Even from a blast gate that is stuck part way open. If I have read the thread about air flow correctly, a 4" wood chip would still give you about 30-40% efficiency in a 6" diameter pipe. Let me know if this is any where near close, please.

OH yes, I forgot to mention that the cyclone is the Bill Pentz 5hp "Willie Nelson" special -- it will suck the chrome off a trailer hitch. :cool: As I underatnd it, the biggest variable to watch is the air velocity in the pipe. Walk into a WCraft store and they will tell you that 400 cpm is sufficent. Bill Pentz' research indicates that you need more like 850 CFM to keep the very small particles in suspension. To get in the 850 cfm range, you need the 6" pipe. There is a bunch of fluid mechanics work that I don't understand involve in some of these conclusions.

Yes, Jim, I am depending on the power of the cyclone to make up for my various leaks, etc., at least for the short term.

[John Weber]

Ken,

Nice plan. It looks like you laid out everything very well. I did have a couple questions.

Shouldn't the controls be in a metal panel box, it would seem a shop gets dusty and that would not only be bad for the controls (settled dust acting as an insulator), but also could be dangerous. And second, I’m surprised you didn't add a receptacle for the motor or hard wired, rather then the twist lock extension cord.

Just what caught my eye.

John

[Jim Stastny]

Incredible job, Ken. For me a two staged dust collector means a broom and a dust pan.

[Ken Garlock]

Ken,

Nice plan. It looks like you laid out everything very well. I did have a couple questions.

Shouldn't the controls be in a metal panel box, it would seem a shop gets dusty and that would not only be bad for the controls (settled dust acting as an insulator), but also could be dangerous. And second, I’m surprised you didn't add a receptacle for the motor or hard wired, rather then the twist lock extension cord.

Just what caught my eye.

John

Hi John. Regarding the wiring, what you don't see is a 240V wall outlet behind the filter cabinet to the right. The twist lock plug is to make it easy to disable the power on the cyclone without having to move the filter cabinet.
On the cover, I purposely did not want a full box. I selected the "U" shaped cover to allow the free flow of air through the heat sinks. All 240v bare wire connetions are covered with a plastic cap on the top of the relays. No doubt I will have to toot the heatsinks with a blast from the air hose from time to time. :) There are no relay contacts to worry about, it is all transistors and triacs.

[Allan Johanson]

Hi Ken,

Looks good. The only concern I have is by having the tool turn on the cyclone. Somewhere in the depths of Leeson's web site I came across something that seemed - and I say "seemed" to say the Leeson motor for Bill's cyclone would only like to be turned on/off 20 times per hour max. A lesser quality motor would have a lower limit. I've heard stories of generic motors not liking to be turned on/off more than 4-6 times per hour.

A workout at the chop saw could easily exceed that.

You seem to be a handy guy...a way around this would be to modify your circuit to have a 5 minute delay after the tool goes off before shutting off the cyclone. Of course you could have an override switch that shuts it off right away, but under normal use this delay would ensure you'd have no more than 12 on/off cycles per hour.

I might get to this one day.

Cheers,

Allan

[Ken Garlock]

Hi Ken,

Looks good. The only concern I have is by having the tool turn on the cyclone. Somewhere in the depths of Leeson's web site I came across something that seemed - and I say "seemed" to say the Leeson motor for Bill's cyclone would only like to be turned on/off 20 times per hour max. A lesser quality motor would have a lower limit. I've heard stories of generic motors not liking to be turned on/off more than 4-6 times per hour.


Cheers,

Allan

Yes, Allan, I have heard about the frequent starting problem. In the back of my mind, and there is a lot of room there, I have a solution of inserting a little resistor- capacitor circuit to extend the time on each start/stop cycle. I was thinking of more like an extra minute or two. The cyclone does make a good amount of noise. I measured about 91 DB on a cheap Radio Shack audio meter. First off, I will see how my work pattern goes and then plan accordingly.

Glad you reminded me :)