Another Cyclone Option

[Mark J Bachler]

I have a older 220v 3 hp 1900CFM Powermatic Dust collector that I bought used cheap. Draws nicely. I wanted to use the motor & the impeller to make a cyclone. All the seperators I looked at were either poorly made or pretty spendy. I found these for $139 for the seperator & details on how to make a decent tower system. Thoughts??

http://www.cycloneseparator.com/201.html

Seems to be pretty well made for the money. No sales intent here just looking for opinions & comments.

[mike malone]

I have a older 220v 3 hp 1900CFM Powermatic Dust collector that I bought used cheap. Draws nicely. I wanted to use the motor & the impeller to make a cyclone. All the seperators I looked at were either .

hi mark
the gauge is a little thin compared to complete cyclones. Can you get specs using a unit like yours? BTW...There are better informed folks on SMC that may be able to shed some light for you. If it'll work, the price is right.
regards
mike

[Jeff Sudmeier]

This is a very neat idea. Someone a while back had made his own cyclone that was very similar to this one.

The metal guage on the new Oneida gorilla is 16 ga, on this one it is 24ga. It is not quite as heavy duty, but the price looks great!

[Bill Lewis]

Looks interesting. I think 24 ga. is the lightest gage metal that was recomended by the Wood Magazine cyclone plans. Plenty of people have built those, and they do work. The lighter gage will probably mean the unit will be noisey.

The tower shows it with a bunch of automotive filters that are stacked together. They might not be the most efficient way of filtering, but again, it would work. You could come up with a bag system if you can't find an efficient enough filter.

The 3 HP unit you have may, just may develop too much static pressure and could possibly collapse the unit, but I doubt it.

If I was on a tight budget, I would be very tempted to give it a try. It's so inexpensive that you have almost nothing to lose. There's nothing magical about cyclones. They all do basically the same thing, and do it pretty well.

[Mark J Bachler]

I just got an e-mail reply from this guy. All rivited & soldered seams. It'll take 1900 CFM with no problem. Wasn't Bill Pentz's kits 24 gauge? I'm sending for one & I'll let you know. I don't think these have the spiral air ramp inside.

[Scott Coffelt]

One thing that is nice about the cyclones (i.e., Onieda, Grizzly, BP's etc) is the high end filter. My concern with this set up is the fine dust that makes it past the bin and into the DC is what is really dangerous and the bags would not stop it from getting into the air, so in that case it's really no better than a DC itself.

Just my thoughts.

[Mark J Bachler]

Mine's going in a seperate building with filtered air returns. You can add whatever filter you want. Hes just selling the seperator. I'm just tired of messing around with the plastic bags full of sawdust.

[Bart Leetch]

I sent Gary a E-mail asking a few questions. I would be using this cyclone with my G1029 DC which already has the Grizzly big pleated filter.

I was thinking about mounting the bag rim over the impeller & motor & blocking off the bottom of the bag rim & mounting the cyclone where the bag rim was with a garbage can underneath it & plumbing the cyclone down to the impeller inlet.

I have a low ceiling & no wall space to mount the cyclone to.

[Jim Becker]

Oneida has very well built cyclone assemblies available to use with your own blower and has for years. Very heavy metal...equivalent to the packaged systems. Reasonably priced if you don't want to roll your own, quite literally.

[Mark J Bachler]

Oneida has very well built cyclone assemblies available to use with your own blower and has for years. Very heavy metal...equivalent to the packaged systems. Reasonably priced if you don't want to roll your own, quite literally.


Oneida's are nice for sure, but for twice the price?? These are fully assembled with riveted & soldered seams. I've been looking for a while & these looked like the best for the buck I've found yet.

I'll let you all know when it gets here.

[Scott Loven]

There is a review google about this unit. He also sells on ebay. He has gotten good feedback from the people who have purchased it from him.
Scott

[Jim Becker]

Oneida's are nice for sure, but for twice the price?? These are fully assembled with riveted & soldered seams. I've been looking for a while & these looked like the best for the buck I've found yet.

I'll let you all know when it gets here.


It will be interesting to hear your thoughts, but some of the price difference is in the material...these are 24 gauge steel, just a little heavier than the 25 guage stove pipe we typically use for ducting when we use metal snap-lock for dust collection. I'm not suggesting that as a negative; just that it's quite different from the welded units that Oneida and other vendors sell.

[Dev Emch]

I found a design made by a Jessie James type guy. A buddy had one made and it is unreal! But life is a mixed blessing and when I wanted to order one, i learned he had died in an automobile accident. Could have been a motorcycle accident but the details were lacking and of no relavance to me.

In looking at how it was built, I realized that this was an excellent project for myself. So I am building my own.

What I found was that the metal for the cyclones on the market are too thin. He had used 12 gage steel for the cylindrical part of the cyclone and 14 gage steel for the cone. The top section contains the blower stage and a 5 HP baldor motor. Each of the stages had a rolled angle iron flange which bolts together with many bolts. It actually looks cool as the bolts are stainless steel and the finish was powder coat blue.

I did have a chance to ask him earlier on why he did it this way. The terse responses are worth noting. 1). The thickest metal is in the cylindrical portion of the cyclone because that is where the heavy items are first thrown against the side at full speed. In time, it can wear a hole in the side of the collector. So that is why the collector was built using three stages which bolt together. Its easier to just tig everyting into one item, so this was not done to save on labor. The cone section was built with a lighter gage because a heavy gage is not needed here and his sheet metal roller machine has issues rolling a cone from 12 gage metal. He used a wooden form to form up the 12 gage into a cylinder before tig welding the seam and the rolled angle iron flanges. He had the aluminium impeller cast by a local foundary and then balanced. The only items he did not make were the motor and its electrics. The bag house contains three cloth bags and is L shaped to fit into the unuesed corner of the shop. It does a wonderful job.

[Terry Hatfield]

I don't think the 24ga. is an issue. Mine's 24 gauge. I've had it apart about 50 times and all I ever saw was some dulling of the glavanization at the inital contact point. I'd guess that it would be a really long time before wear through was a problem.

Is your impeller 14" diameter red primered steel Mark??? If so I think it's the same as the Jet impeller I tested. It made 1458 cfm on my cyclone. Plenty for just about any hobby shop. You should look into getting one of the Wynn's filters. I have been very pleased with mine. I have the 9L300BL. It's $63. Here's the link...

http://www.wynnenv.com/cartridge_filters.htm

Terry

[Allan Johanson]

I'm with you, Terry. I made my cyclone from 22ga metal. At my pace it'll wear out in 50 years. :p

I'm not going to worry about it.

Cheers,

Allan

[Jim Becker]

I don't think the 24ga. is an issue. Mine's 24 gauge. I've had it apart about 50 times and all I ever saw was some dulling of the glavanization at the inital contact point. I'd guess that it would be a really long time before wear through was a problem.

No question, this is true. My original point on this was purely accounting for the cost difference that Mark cited. The heavier material is more costly and requires more work/tooling to fabricate.

[Mark J Bachler]

I don't think the 24ga. is an issue. Mine's 24 gauge. I've had it apart about 50 times and all I ever saw was some dulling of the glavanization at the inital contact point. I'd guess that it would be a really long time before wear through was a problem.

Is your impeller 14" diameter red primered steel Mark??? If so I think it's the same as the Jet impeller I tested. It made 1458 cfm on my cyclone. Plenty for just about any hobby shop. You should look into getting one of the Wynn's filters. I have been very pleased with mine. I have the 9L300BL. It's $63. Here's the link...

http://www.wynnenv.com/cartridge_filters.htm

Terry


Thanks Terry for the info. I'll check into it. Yea the impeller is 14" with a 3 hp 220 motor. Probably made in the late 80's.

[Chris Padilla]

When building Bill Pentz/Clarke Echols' kit, then had me smear some polyurethane caulking at the point where chips enter the cyclone body. I have a lot of pics here: http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=9933

[Rich Konopka]

Hey Mark, How about this?

Oneida (http://synergy.oneida-air.com/public/docs/BDDocument.asp?Action=View&ID=%7BA89A672D-A96B-4F55-BFE5-8A731EACDB91%7D&ReturnTo=BDFPView%2Easp%3FLayout%3DPUBNEWS)