Cyclone chip bins.anyone use plastic 55 gal?

[Jim O'Dell]

I'm in the mode of thinking what to use for my chip/dust collection bin under my Clear Vue Cyclone. I want something as light as possible, and was thinking about a plastic 55 gallon barrel. Has anyone used these? If so, how did you seal the top of it? I'm wondering if the removable steel barrel lids with the lever lock seals will work on the plastic barrel, or if the plastic is a different size than the steel barrels. I could use a large Rubbermaid plastic trash can, but I'm not sure how well I can seal the lid and still remove for dumping.
As always, thanks for any info you might have. Jim.

[Jim Becker]

You want a bin that "locks". Many of the plastic ones will work with the same latching tops as the fiber bin. The seal on the top is not optional...it has to be full and complete or you'll get blow-by on the system.

[Chris Fite]

Although my gorilla came with a 35 gallon fiber drum, I have a 55 gallon plastic drum that I intend to modify for this purpose. I have learned that the top to the 35 gallon drum won't fit the 55 gallon drum. I foresee having to mount a piece of duct to the top of the 55 gallon drum to connect the flexible hose from the cyclone. My 55 gallon drum has a locking mechanism the same as the fiber drum from Oneida, just a slightly different size. The plastic drum is much lighter than the metal ones. I will have some sort of wheels for it to move it out of the shop to the handtruck to dump.

[Jamie Buxton]

When I first set up my Woodsucker, I tried to use a plastic 35 gallon trash barrel which I had around. The negative pressure in the cyclone collapsed it. Probably an industrial 55-gal drum would survive, but I knocked a bin together from plywood.

[J.R. Rutter]

Yes, I use a plastic 55-gal drum for my cyclone. Used a jigsaw to cut open the top, leaving about 1" residual rim sticking out on the inside (keeps it round, DAMHIKT). No mechanical closure for me. I used a piece of closed cell foam about 1/2" thick as a seal. The suction pulls it up tight with no leaks. I made a mark on the drum to register it in the same posiiton, as the seal has set to the slightly out-of round rim of the drum. My drum is white, and I put a backlight behind it to illuminate the empty space above the chips. No light = full drum.

[Jim O'Dell]

Thanks! some good info here.
Jim B. Thanks for the confirmation on the seal. I knew is was important.
Chris and J. R. Do you have pictures of yours?? I'd love to get a visual. I'd love to see the locking mechanism on yours Chris. The plastic ones we have cleaning chemicals in at the shop are not open on top except for some 3" threaded plugs, and therefore don't have the locking top. Some of the metal ones do.
J. R., your solution sounds intriguing. I'd like to do something without the lip if possible. I'm hoping I can implement a way to hold a plastic bag inside for easy clean out. I've heard of using a vacuum pump into the barrel to keep the bag from being sucked up into the cyclone, but I'm hoping for a simpler solution like a thin plastic sheet that would coil up, insert into the bag inside the barrel, then uncoil to keep the bag in place against the inside of the barrel. This idea will take some trial and error to perfect. Hopefully more trial than error!!
Jamie, thanks for the heads up on the plastic trash can...I hadn't thought about it collapsing, and it was going to be my second choice. Guess the first choice better work! Interesting about building one out of plywood. It would be easy to build in a plexiglass panel to be able to view how full it gets. How do you dump the contents? This idea could move into choice #2.
Thanks again and I hope everyone has a good weekend. Jim.

[Mike Weaver]

T
<snip>
I'm hoping I can implement a way to hold a plastic bag inside for easy clean out. I've heard of using a vacuum pump into the barrel to keep the bag from being sucked up into the cyclone, but I'm hoping for a simpler solution like a thin plastic sheet that would coil up, insert into the bag inside the barrel, then uncoil to keep the bag in place against the inside of the barrel. This idea will take some trial and error to perfect. Hopefully more trial than error!!


Jim,
Let us know what you come up with - I was wondering if you can still get those "sleds in a coil" that are really sheets of thick poly all coiled up and you unroll them to sled on the snow on. I was thinking that a piece of that *might* do the trick for mine.

Anyway, I can't seem to get the last couple of hours to get my Pentz system assembled, much less have the luxury of using it.

Cheers,
-Mike
PS I got a couple of fiber barrels practically given to me, so I'll be using fiber,not plastic.

[Jim O'Dell]

Mike, we don't get no snow here!! At least not much. I can sorta visualize what you are talking about on the sled, but there's no way any retailer here would invest in something like that for sale. Talk about dead inventory. We just use cardboard boxes when it ices over, or old car hoods on the snow. (Don't laugh, several of the guys did just that a few years ago at work, car dealership. We have a short but steep hill, followed by 2 blocks of gently sloping run that splits the dealership. Dead ends into a street at the back of the property.)
Great deal on the fiber barrels. What do the fiber barrels get used for in the normal world? I have seen some, but can't for the life of me remember where. Dry food transport maybe? Oh, now I remember. I've seen hard candy stored in them in the old fallout shelters back home. My dad helped in cleaning out a few. Candy was still good! But these were probably 5 gal ones. Who would use the bigger ones? Thanks. Jim.

[J.R. Rutter]

Here is a link to an outdated, but similar picture of my 2 HP cyclone.

http://www.nas.com/~harmonic/shop/cyclone.JPG

For using a plastic bag, you could run a plastic tube from any low pressure (suction) area of the cyclone to the barrel via a fitting through the barrel wall. Then run it down to the bottom of the barrel under a block of wood or some other spacer. When you turn on the cyclone, the pressure would equalize under the bag and allow it to fill. Maybe?

I'm putting the finishing touches on a 10 HP setup with double 55-gal drums and 2 Oneida filters. These filters are spendy, but very durable. Instead of the metal dust bin on the filters, I am now using a heavy plastic bag held on with a band clamp over some tape. Never have to choke on that fine dust again...

[Jamie Buxton]

Jamie, thanks for the heads up on the plastic trash can...I hadn't thought about it collapsing, and it was going to be my second choice. Guess the first choice better work! Interesting about building one out of plywood. It would be easy to build in a plexiglass panel to be able to view how full it gets. How do you dump the contents?

The bin is built out of plywood I had around -- mostly 1/2" baltic birch. The seal around the top is foam weatherstriping tape. There is an acrylic window about 2"x12" in the side, with the 12" direction vertical, to see whether the bin is full. You can pick the thing up to dump it, if that's what you want to do. Me, I package the sawdust in 35 gallon trash bags to give it to gardeners. To do that, I put a trash bag over the bin like I was putting a pillow case over a pillow. Then I invert the bin-plus-bag, reach inside the bag, and pull the bin out.

[Ralph Barhorst]

Couldn't you throw a couple of chunks of scrap 2x4s into the bottom of the plastic bag. They should hold the bag down. (I think, it should.):rolleyes:

[Jamie Buxton]

Couldn't you throw a couple of chunks of scrap 2x4s into the bottom of the plastic bag. They should hold the bag down. (I think, it should.):rolleyes:

I tried that, although I didn't work on it extensively. What I saw was that the bag still billowed up enough to clog the bottom of the cyclone, so that lots of sawdust didn't drop out of the airstream and instead continued on over to the cartridge filter.

[Mike Weaver]

Mike, we don't get no snow here!! At least not much. I can sorta visualize what you are talking about on the sled, but there's no way any retailer here would invest in something like that for sale. Talk about dead inventory. We just use cardboard boxes when it ices over, or old car hoods on the snow. (Don't laugh, several of the guys did just that a few years ago at work, car dealership. We have a short but steep hill, followed by 2 blocks of gently sloping run that splits the dealership. Dead ends into a street at the back of the property.)


Oops! :eek: I didn't realize your location... (he says sheepishly).



Great deal on the fiber barrels. What do the fiber barrels get used for in the normal world? I have seen some, but can't for the life of me remember where. Dry food transport maybe? Oh, now I remember. I've seen hard candy stored in them in the old fallout shelters back home. My dad helped in cleaning out a few. Candy was still good! But these were probably 5 gal ones. Who would use the bigger ones? Thanks. Jim.

Hmm, next time I'm in my basement, I'll have a look to see if there are any labels on them as I don't recall off the top of my head.

Cheers,
-Mike

[Jim O'Dell]

The bin is built out of plywood I had around -- mostly 1/2" baltic birch. The seal around the top is foam weatherstriping tape. There is an acrylic window about 2"x12" in the side, with the 12" direction vertical, to see whether the bin is full. You can pick the thing up to dump it, if that's what you want to do. Me, I package the sawdust in 35 gallon trash bags to give it to gardeners. To do that, I put a trash bag over the bin like I was putting a pillow case over a pillow. Then I invert the bin-plus-bag, reach inside the bag, and pull the bin out.


That's kinda the same idea I was thinking for using a sheet of plastic to coil up inside the bag, inside the barrel. Bag would get pulled out of barrel, plastic sheet would be pulled out of bag, tie bag off. Plastic sheet would have to be about 1/16", or slightly thicker. I think 1/8" would be too thick.
Thanks everyone. I'd still like to see a pic or two if you have some time. Jim.

[Jason Roehl]

First, a disclaimer: I don't own a cyclone, nor do I play one on TV. Errrr...something like that. But, bringing up the 55-gal drum got me to thinking. The biggest drawback to such an animal for most people is the height issue. Well, I live in farm country. How do farmers deal with moving particulate matter to a different height? Why, an auger, of course!. I just wonder if it would be possible to cobble together some sort of auger system that would allow you to keep the cyclone mounted lower, but move the dust and chips from a small collection bin below the cyclone to a larger container next to it, like a 55-gal drum. Who knows, maybe with the auger in there, the drum wouldn't even have to be sealed, but it might not hurt. I guess you could just have an HVAC fitting on the outlet of the auger, clamped inside a female fitting on the drum. Could even be a quick-release cam-clamp of some sort. Any tinkerers out there?

[Curt Harms]

First, a disclaimer: I don't own a cyclone, nor do I play one on TV. Errrr...something like that. But, bringing up the 55-gal drum got me to thinking. The biggest drawback to such an animal for most people is the height issue. Well, I live in farm country. How do farmers deal with moving particulate matter to a different height? Why, an auger, of course!. I just wonder if it would be possible to cobble together some sort of auger system that would allow you to keep the cyclone mounted lower, but move the dust and chips from a small collection bin below the cyclone to a larger container next to it, like a 55-gal drum. Who knows, maybe with the auger in there, the drum wouldn't even have to be sealed, but it might not hurt. I guess you could just have an HVAC fitting on the outlet of the auger, clamped inside a female fitting on the drum. Could even be a quick-release cam-clamp of some sort. Any tinkerers out there?

But I think you'd need some sort of air lock, or the entire auger and bin would have to be vacuum-tight. I don't have a cyclone, so I don't have first-hand knowledge-just doodlin' and waiting for some glue to dry.

Curt

[Jason Roehl]

Yeah, I was kind of assuming it would have to be air-tight somehow. I was just trying to see if anyone had actually played around with the idea, either mentally or physically.

[Gil Mitchell]

if i'm not mistaken onieda has a gadget called a bag holder or something similar from the pictures it looked like a small line runing from the main line to the bottom of the barrel so when you turn on the cyclone it creates a vacum in the drum and holds the bag in place