Dust collector bin size?

[Jaromir Svoboda]

Hi, what size bin should I order with new dust collector?
35 or 55 gallons?
I like to order Oneida 5hp Dust Gorilla Pro.
Thanks

[Carl Kona]

Jaromir,


First question, do you have the height to use the 55? What do you use now (if anything) and how much dust do you create? If you filled a 55 gallon drum could you move it and empty the bin. If you only filled the 55 2/3 full it would still be more than the 35. If you have the height, you will have more flexibility with the 55. I just purchased a used cyclone that came with a 55 and sold the bin because I did not have the height.

[Bill Adamsen]

Hi, what size bin should I order with new dust collector? 35 or 55 gallons

Planng certain (most) woods creates volumes of shavings fast. If planing or jointing, I would go with the largest container available that can be made airtight.

[Jaromir Svoboda]

I have 10' tall ceiling. I had Grizzly 2hp cyclone with 35 gallons bin and planer will fill it fast.
I'll go with 55 gallons.

[Jamie Buxton]

If you have a 55 gallon drum full of sawdust, how do you empty it? Can you pick it up?
I have a dust bin which holds about 35 gallons under my cyclone. I can pick it up to empty it, but I don't think I could do that with a 55 gallon bin.

[Bill Adamsen]

If you have a 55 gallon drum full of sawdust, how do you empty it? Can you pick it up?
I have a dust bin which holds about 35 gallons under my cyclone. I can pick it up to empty it, but I don't think I could do that with a 55 gallon bin.

Excellent point. My containers are about 5.8 cubic feet (20 in diameter and 32 inches deep) which calculates out to 43-1/2 gallons. Sometimes I roll with a hand cart, but I can lift and carry full. But I also wouldn't want it to be much heavier.

I would point out that if you are on the suction side (bottom of a cyclone) it is important that they be air-tight. I keep a spare empty so that I won't be tempted to overfill.

[Jim Becker]

If you have the headroom...55 gallon for sure. And you'll still fill that up pretty quickly while milling lumber at the jointer and planer! If you don't have the height for the 55 gallon, perhaps a dual 35 gallon will work.

[Martin Wasner]

Go as big as your limitations will allow, then justify what you can in space and dollars.

[Ben Rivel]

Man, cant imagine trying to lift and empty a full 55 gallon steel drum.

[Rod Sheridan]

I have a 35 gallon drum that I can barely lift when full of sawdust, planer shavings are no problem however 35 gallons of dust from particle board is heavy.........Rod.

[Darcy Warner]

Mine is 12 cu. Yards.

[Jim Becker]

Man, cant imagine trying to lift and empty a full 55 gallon steel drum.

Most folks use fiber or plastic drums, not steel. My 55 gallon fiber drum isn't "lightweight" when it's full, but it's not all that heavy, either. And I only need to actually lift it down one step from the shop and then just a few inches onto the bucket of my tractor. :)

[Bill Adamsen]

Mine is 12 cu. Yards.

Dust collector bin envy ...

[Martin Wasner]

Dust collector bin envy ...

I'm curious why so small. We make a relatively small amount of sawdust, we'd fill that in a busy month. If we were pounding stuff through a moulder hard, I don't think that'd make it to the end of the week.

[Bill Adamsen]

I'm curious why so small.
Twelve cubic yards is about all I produce in a year!

[Jim Becker]

Twelve cubic yards is about all I produce in a year!

I filled and dumped the 55 bin on my cyclone three times this week milling for my current project...the J/P is the "chief in charge" of filling up the bin!

[Bill Adamsen]

A twelve yard dumpster would be 56 of my large cardboard (44 gallon) bins. One on average a week ... that might happen. There are certainly weeks like yours but they are few and far between.

[Jim Becker]

Yea, that's correct, it's not an all the time thing...I milled about 100 board feet of VG Doug Fir this week which made for the increase in "bin filling". Even though I hope to be doing a lot more work in my shop going forward, there still remains the fact that in a one-person shop, the major chip and dust producing is cyclic toward the beginning of projects when material is prepped.

[Mark Blatter]

Man, cant imagine trying to lift and empty a full 55 gallon steel drum.


At my old shop we had two large DCs and could fill them in quick order. We had 55 gallon drums on both and always used two people to empty them into the garbage dumpster. One person could never, realistically empty them. Suggest using a 35 gal drum or at least a plastic 55 drum.

[Brian Henderson]

Go 55 if you have the space. I keep a dolly right next to the DC so that when I have to move it, it's easy to scoop up and take out.

[Jaromir Svoboda]

I ordered Oneida 5hp with 55 gallons fiber bin.

[Jim Becker]

I ordered Oneida 5hp with 55 gallons fiber bin.
Excellent choice and congratulations!

[Andrew Seemann]

If you have another 3 or 4 inches of height to spare after the 55 gallon drum, you can make a little rolling platform for the dustbin to sit on. I've got mine in a closet, so the rolling platform makes it much easier to get it out when it 3/4 full of sawdust.

Which brings me to my next piece of advice:

Biggest piece of advice is to monitor how full your drum is. When you are planing and the planer jams up, and you realize that the planer jammed because the cyclone stopped pulling, and you then realize the cyclone stopped pulling because both the cyclone and filter are jammed with chips, that is an awful sinking feeling. And a huge mess to clean up:)

[glenn bradley]

My back appreciates my decision to go with the 35 gallon every time I empty it. YMMV.

[Edwin Santos]

Am I the only one who has never lifted his 55 gallon drum even once because he uses heavy duty plastic bag liners? All I do is tie and lift out the full bag when I empty the thing. The full bag is still pretty heavy, but not nearly as heavy as the steel drum. Oh and get the bag hold down from Oneida which will prevent the bag from getting sucked up into the cyclone.

I can't imagine picking up the entire drum and dumping loose sawdust. A cloud of it must fly all over the place.

[Jim Becker]

I can't imagine picking up the entire drum and dumping loose sawdust. A cloud of it must fly all over the place.

I transport mine from the shop door via my tractor's front end loader and then easily dump the bin on the pile near our composting area. But to your point about dust clouds...I check the wind direction before I flip it over so it's not heading in my direction... :)

[Darcy Warner]

I'm curious why so small. We make a relatively small amount of sawdust, we'd fill that in a busy month. If we were pounding stuff through a moulder hard, I don't think that'd make it to the end of the week.

I am setting a dumpster under the bin and have a big gate to side out and dump.

It lets me be able to add a air lock and transfer blower to push it into a semi or something.

[Edwin Santos]

If it's useful to anyone, for $21.95 you can get 50 2mil heavy duty trash can liners in a 55 gallon size from Home Depot. These are what I use. Full bag pulled and tied goes out with the weekly trash.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Ultrasac-55-Gal-Drum-Liner-Trash-Bags-50-Count-HMD-792695/100200334
Probably other sources out there also. A box like this lasts me about two years, maybe a little more.
I don't mind admitting there's no way I could lift the steel can full of sawdust by myself.

[Hoang N Nguyen]

I use to dump my 55 gallon steel drum into a large plastic bag when full, it's do-able but gets old quick and is messy. I ended up getting the drum liner from Oneida along with the bag hold down. Remove the bag hold down once bin is full and pull the bag out. It's heavy but I have no problems pulling out a full bag from a 55 gallon drum and I'm only 5'-7" 140lb soaking wet.

[John C Bush]

My 2hp Griz cyclone is mounted to an outside wall within an enclosure with enough height~~10"~~ to fit a 55 gal drum beneath. I welded two 1/2" ID pipes across the bottom rim, found four old lawnmower wheels, attached them to 1/2" steel rod, inserted and pinned all in position with cotter pins, attached an old halter lead, and gotterdun. A wheeled platform would work as well but I pull the full drum down a small hill and across the yard so there is no worry of the barrel slipping off the platform, the larger--and free--wheels handle the rough lawn, and the "axel" assembly only added ~3" to the height. If I would just check the chip level more often....

[Tom Bain]

Yea, that's correct, it's not an all the time thing...I milled about 100 board feet of VG Doug Fir this week which made for the increase in "bin filling". Even though I hope to be doing a lot more work in my shop going forward, there still remains the fact that in a one-person shop, the major chip and dust producing is cyclic toward the beginning of projects when material is prepped.

Jim — A little off topic, but where did you source the VG Douglas Fir? I’ve been looking for a good source.

Thanks.

[Jim Becker]

Jim — A little off topic, but where did you source the VG Douglas Fir? I’ve been looking for a good source.

A local, family owned lumber yard has a "specialty" woods division. They were able to order it for me...and in both cases, it came in the next day from their supplier. $7.75 Bd Ft for 8/4, 6" wide. It came in 16' lengths which we cut in half (second load was cut slightly differently to match a component need) so I could fit on my trailer safely. Wherungs Specialty Woods was my local source.

[Alan Lightstone]

Am I the only one who has never lifted his 55 gallon drum even once because he uses heavy duty plastic bag liners? All I do is tie and lift out the full bag when I empty the thing. The full bag is still pretty heavy, but not nearly as heavy as the steel drum. Oh and get the bag hold down from Oneida which will prevent the bag from getting sucked up into the cyclone.

I can't imagine picking up the entire drum and dumping loose sawdust. A cloud of it must fly all over the place.

I haven't lifted mine once. I always use the 55 gal heavy duty plastic bags for my 35 gal fiber drum model. For my new workshop I'm thinking of switching to 55 gal drum. Oneida now sells a dolly that fits under their fiber drums, plus extender legs for the stand. Of course if you are wall mounting, just mount higher as required. I really like the dolly idea.

[John K Jordan]

I can't imagine picking up the entire drum and dumping loose sawdust. A cloud of it must fly all over the place.

I use a 30 gal metal can so I can lift it easily. I carry it outside and dolly or tractor or little UTV truck it into the woods to dump it. It does make a cloud of dust but I stand up wind.

I like to see the huge amount of very talcum-fine dust in the bin. I still can't believe how efficient the thing is.

JKJ

[Bob Falk]

Jim — A little off topic, but where did you source the VG Douglas Fir? I’ve been looking for a good source.

Thanks.

How much and what size are you looking for? I have some beautiful old growth VG clear DF bleacher seats (15', 20' lengths), 1-1/8" x 9". 10% MC. Only con are two bolt holes about every 4'. If you can work around that, you won't find nicer fir. Located Madison, WI.