Blue Tornado Cyclone Questions

[Steve Mellott]

I recently bought a "Blue Tornado" cyclone from a woodworking school that was going out of business. Apparently, these used to me made by a company in Kentucky. Does anyone own one of these or have any experience with one. I'd also love to find an owners manual if possible. The unit did not come with a filter (it was vented outside) so I also need to buy a properly sized filter. Thanks.

Steve

[Jeff Hamilton Jr.]

The Wynn's are great people with a great product. I've dealt with them a few times. Very customer service oriented and their product is top notch.

Here's the site: http://www.wynnenv.com/cartridge_filters.htm

Good luck.

[David Kumm]

I had an old Blue Tornado cyclone, 7" inlet, 8" outlet. They made many sizes and a pretty heavy unit. What size is yours and what size motor and impeller. The early versions were a little undersized as were most units in the 1990s. The guy that ran it got very ill. Accident or something that incapacitated him at a fairly young age. I tried to contact him about 2 years ago and his parents contacted me and believed the business would be closed. I have not followed up and have no recent info. I have some literature but there was no real manual. The size of the system will determine the filter area you need. Err on the side of too much rather than too little. 40-50 sq ft per hp is my non scientific rule of thumb. Although cartridges take up much less space, the tube filters if you have enough can do a great job and are much easier to clean. Your call. If you need further info feel free to PM me. Dave

[Steve Mellott]

Thanks for the responses. The unit I have has a 3 hp motor and a 13" impeller. It has the following piping diameters: 7" from the DC piping, 6" at the bottom of the cone to the dust bin, 8" at the top of the cone to the impeller, and 5.5" from the impeller to the filter. Everyhting seems to run fine. I need to determine whether I should buy a filter and try to use this unit or if I should just buy a new unit. Any thoughts? Thanks.

Steve

[David Kumm]

Steve, that is the unit I had. It depends on what type of machines and layout you need to determine if it will be adequate. The cyclone design is quite good and the 7" inlet, 8" outlet is a good size. I would try it with a 7" main, reducing to 6" after a couple of drops or around a corner. If it turns out that you believe it doesn't create enough CFM or measure it's actual output, you could buy a 14" impeller and housing from clearvue, attach your 3 hp motor and go. I would use either 4 8ft filter tubes at 12" diameter or a cartridge filter that has 100 sq ft. With the 13" impeller, which isn't backward inclined or have deep blades, you don't want to create any more SP than necessary. Use 8" pipe to the filters to help reduce resistance and long radius fittings. You don't want to create unnecessary SP when using the smaller impeller. Pretty good design though and a Leeson motor as I recall. The cyclone will handle a 15" impeller and 5 hp motor and was 16 gauge steel I believe. Dave Just remembered that although the cyclone has an 8" outlet, the fan housing outlet was more like 6". The model was the 103.

[Steve Mellott]

Once again - thanks for all the information. I'll start with the Blue Tornado and if it doesn't work, I can always switch it out. Thanks again.

Steve