Duct Collection and hand Plane Shavings

[Matthew Springer]

I know, I know, non overlapping magisteria.

I am looking at upgrading my DC ahead of buying some bigger machines but I still really like the ability to vacuum up all the shavings produced by the handplanes. Currently I have a 2HP single stage with a cyclone/trashcan separator lid and 4" hoses. It works ok but it tends to clog up a lot on the super thin plane shavings which seem to bypass the separator and get clogged in the impeller. I'm designing more or less form scratch so can go with 6" ducts, 4" ports and a full cyclone. (was thinking about a v3000).

Short of setting the cutting depth of the #3 thicker, has anyone found a way to tweak a regular cyclone for ht shavings? Do I want to roll my own and go Thiel? I can potentially maintain two systems but that seems like a lot of work.

Any ideas?

[Ben Rivel]

Dont know from personal use, but I have read that a lot of people just use a shop-vac with a 2.5" hose to collect hand plane shavings and use the dust collector for the larger machines.

[glenn bradley]

Hand plane shavings are too easy to sweep up with a broom and pan. I'm done before I could even get a vac hose in my hand and I don't have to empty the bin. Less overall labor IMHO ;-)

[Ben Rivel]

Or that, yea, just sweep them.

[Art Mann]

Let me assure you that a trash can lid is not a cyclone and doesn't behave like one. I threw mine away because it was so ineffective. I bought the wildly overpriced Oneida Super Dust Deputy and it works so much better.

[Jim Dwight]

My old 1hp DC and my shop vacuum haven't done well getting hand plane shavings so I sweep them.

[Jeff Bartley]

I sweep up my plane shavings and use them to light the grill.......win-win!

[Andy Giddings]

+1 on Art's comments - you are going to lose a lot of air flow regardless of the separation efficiency with the trash can lid and 4 inch hose of any significant length

[Wes Ramsey]

I've got a simple 2hp Grizzly DC with about 15' of 4" flex hose and an in-line 55gal drum with 90 degree elbows inside the lid as a semi-cyclone/separator. I suck up everything I can - lathe shavings, hand plane shavings, fine dust, cat hair, whatever with my DC. It does a fine job of collecting dust and chips at my tools and sucking up everything off the floor. Occasionally some shavings or a leaf will make it through the barrel and hang up in the blower, but it doesn't happen often. When the barrel is about 3/4 full I dump it in the woods behind the shop. I'm sure true cyclones are great and all, but I'm pretty impressed by my setup and don't see how it could work any better.

[Jim Becker]

As long as you are using pre-separation, you can put a floor sweep (or two) in your shop to help with cleanup of hand-plane shavings, router debris, etc. A floor sweep should never be used with a single stage DC, however, as there is risk of sparking if something metal gets picked up and hits the steel impeller.

My floor sweeps are the "best thing since sliced bread" for overall shop cleanup. ;)

[dan petroski]

SWEEP ??? Just push them in front of the lathe. Nothing better to stand on than 2 inches of shavings. Besides the CAT loves it.6:D