MacIntyre Cyclone Separator Any Good?

[Ted Christiansen]

Hello,

My dad has a Jet cannister style (DC-1100??) chip collector, with a trash can type separator before it. The air goes too fast through the separator and all of the chips end up in the bottom bag of the DC. I thought a cyclone separator might solve this problem, like the one being sold by MacIntyre Associates for $169 (Google for MacIntyre cyclone separator).

Anybody have any experience with this unit?

Regards,

Ted Christiansen

[Jim Becker]

You should suggest to your dad that there may be an air leak between the "separator" top and the can. Even a minimal leak will cause blow-by like you describe. It has to absolutely sealed to work properly.

[Jamie Buxton]

You should suggest to your dad that there may be an air leak between the "separator" top and the can. Even a minimal leak will cause blow-by like you describe. It has to absolutely sealed to work properly.

Jim, a leak may do this, but high cfm may do it too. At one point I had a separator box in front of a bag-type collector. It accumulated chips like I expected. Then I changed the upper bag to an aftermarket bag. The new bag had finer filtering, but also I ordered it to be about twice the size of the OEM bag. The larger filter area gave more airflow, which was my objective. The larger airflow also almost eliminated dust depositing in the separator.

[Bert Johansen]

I have a similar set-up and fixed this problem by drilling a 3/4-inch hole in the separator lid--right in the middle. It may seem counter-intuitive, but it works.

Bert