Blow Dust Collection outside?

[wayne ateser]

Would there be reason I should not duct the output of my 2hp Dust Collector (Harbor Freight) through a wall to the outside and into a trash container?
What I have in mind is to send the the 5" duct output from the impeller through the garage wall, via an metal 5" duct transition through the wall. I would then attach another 5" duct section on the outside wall to the cyclone section of the unit which would be mounted over a garbage can and with no filter or collection bags, or in other words open to the air on the top and the bottom of the cyclone unit. It would look as shown in the first picture of the Wynn modification instructions below.
http://www.wynnenv.com/9e300bl_conversion.htm

AFter reading the BillPentz.com information, even fine filtering inside is still a health issue and the best solution is to send it outside.

Any thoughts appreciated

[Richard Keller]

Well, what goes out must come back in. If you are exhausting X number of CFM outside, you must have same X number of CFM coming back in. If you in a climate where you can work with the door or window open year round, then skip the trash bin and blow it right out in the corn field.

Richard.

[wayne ateser]

Well, what goes out must come back in. If you are exhausting X number of CFM outside, you must have same X number of CFM coming back in. If you in a climate where you can work with the door or window open year round, then skip the trash bin and blow it right out in the corn field.

Richard.
its a year round work environment in the garage in California. No HVAC. THe garbage can would be on the side wall and away from any openings that would draw air. Not really a community to blow dust on ground but would love to have that space, but alls I got is a driveway and a neighbor 20 feet away.

[Jim Becker]

As long as the "neighborhood" is fine with it, you're in the ideal situation to be able to do just that! Many of us would love to follow suit, but live in climates that preclude direct ejection.

[Pete Brown]

I'm not quite sure that I am correctly picturing what you want to do. If you're not ejecting dust and chips directly outside, ignore this :)

Is it going to blow into an area that will make a huge mess? Will you violate any local ordinances? Are there any windows in the general vicinity? How about plants or lawn? Are you worried about attracting termites and mice/rats? All of those things could be problems.

No to mention, you'll eventually have to clean it up. Plywood dust, MDF, exotics and some other chips and dust are not good for the environment.

I put all the oak/maple/cherry shavings into a compost bin in the back yard. That will be mixed in with lawn and leaf clippings come summer/fall. The shavings themselves rid the ground of nitrogen so you can't just use them as mulch without composting first.

Any fine dust you do eject (even if it is what would normally just go through the filter) will stick to your building. That may not be a problem.

Also, check with your cyclone manufacturer to make sure doing this won't burn out the motor.

Pete

[Jake Helmboldt]

A neighbor 20' away will likely be your biggest potential barrier. 20' setbacks are pretty small and all that respirable and nuisance dust is not healthy (as you know from Pentz's site). Given you are in California there is a good possibility there is a local code prohibiting that. Even in the absence of such, as the neighbor I would not want that; the dust will invariably end up all over their property, and if you are working with things like MDF that is bad news.

[wayne ateser]

no mess. It blows into a garbage can.

[Rick Potter]

Wayne,

I posted a week or two ago about the same general idea. I was wondering if I left the lower plastic bags on, and vented the top half out, how much of the dust would actually stay in the bags. I am hoping to catch most of the sawdust. I really like the MDF donut idea for the top hole. In my version, a pipe would come from this point to the outside.

Instead of putting a garbage can loose under your unit, why not just use the plastic bag and catch more of it, while leaving the top open?

I am gonna try it, but it will be a while.

Rick Potter

[wayne ateser]

Wayne,

I posted a week or two ago about the same general idea. I was wondering if I left the lower plastic bags on, and vented the top half out, how much of the dust would actually stay in the bags. I am hoping to catch most of the sawdust. I really like the MDF donut idea for the top hole. In my version, a pipe would come from this point to the outside.

Instead of putting a garbage can loose under your unit, why not just use the plastic bag and catch more of it, while leaving the top open?

I am gonna try it, but it will be a while.

Rick Potter
Sure. thats an idea. I can try it to. I too was wondering how much really comes out the top. When I first got the unit running yesterday , to test It I sucked 5 gal of MDF dust into it. I cant tell that any every made it to the top filter as it looks very clean.

One advantage of putting outside is reducing the space needed inside.

Im still considering my original plan which was to replace the top 10 micron bag with a 0.5 micron pleated filter as shown in the link I provided in the original post. AFter reading much of the information I got concerned about vent back into garage and the most harmful particulate are 2.5 micron and less.

[Paul Wingert]

I've been toying with the idea of putting some kind of "Y" fitting on the output of the cyclone and then in warm weather throwing the exhaust outside. In the winter, I'd have the output go through the filters. I have yet to see anyone that has done this though, and frankly, I don't have the courage to be the first one to try it.

[Keith Outten]

I exhaust my dust collection outside into a 400 gallon plywood box. The box has a couple of vents that have baby diapers for filters.

I am about to start retrofitting an old 400 gallon riveted oil tank. This will be stood upright on end with a door cut into the bottom side for chip removal. The top of the tank with have a 6" welded 180 degree elbow for venting.

Since I use a lot of Corian I capture and take all of the effluent to the local recycling center dumpsters. Fortunately it is a once or twice a year ordeal depending on how much I run my planer.

The heat loss isn't as bad as you would expect except durng very cold periods. Above 30 degrees it isn't noticible. My laser engraver is located in my second floor shop office and is connected to my DC system. During long engraving jobs over an hour my heat pump will run noticibly longer cycles. When the temperature is in the teens I suppliment my shop office with a small electric space heater.

.

[wayne ateser]

Ill try an experiment tonight and run the dust collector without the top bag installed and see how much get thrown in the air. With the top bag not there, im afraid that the air pressure will now favor that side and I will get too much dust...as compared to with the top bag on when I dont see any dust at all. WIth the top bag the pressure is more equalized top to bottom.

[fRED mCnEILL]

I'm in the fortunate position of being able to direct my dust collector output directly into the sawdust/shaving shed for my daughters horses. We have a small farm so noise, dust etc isn't a problem. However, my daughter is constantly encouraging me to "plane more wood" She is glad her dad is a woodworker but I'm not sure its for the right reason.

Fred Mc.

[wayne ateser]

There was a lot of dust in the top filter, so using outside wont work well in my situation. I went ahead and purchased a retrofit 0.5 micron filter cartridge from Wynn which will improve filtering performance as well as the vacuum performance due to larger area.

[Steve Clardy]

Mine all goes outside. No noticable heat loss.
My whole collector is outside in fact