Cyclone Airlock

[Rob Will]

Who sells airlocks for DC cyclones?

Rob

[glenn bradley]

At the risk of sounding incredibly ignorant; what is an airlock? Do you mean blast gate? Probably not.

[Rob Will]

Glenn, I'm looking for a powered rotary air lock to place below my outdoor cyclone.

That allows one to dump shavings into an outside trailer without losing shop air or in my case, drawing in outside air.

Thanks for the reply,'
Rob

[Bob Wingard]

I had access to numerous RAL's where I used to work, and could have obtained many of them free for the hauling, BUT .. .. they were huge and required LOTS of power to turn AND shear wood chips. We used them primarily for sugar and cornstarch which flows very readily, and we still used at least 7.5hp 3ph motors on them. Having rebuilt many of them, I would think it would not be too difficult to make one out of plywood that would handle wood chips. The clearances between the rotor vanes and the housing would have to be large enough that the rotor would not lock up, but other than that, it should be a fairly straightforward project. I'm surprised none of the magazines have yet to develop one for a story line.

[Rob Will]

I had access to numerous RAL's where I used to work, and could have obtained many of them free for the hauling, BUT .. .. they were huge and required LOTS of power to turn AND shear wood chips. We used them primarily for sugar and cornstarch which flows very readily, and we still used at least 7.5hp 3ph motors on them. Having rebuilt many of them, I would think it would not be too difficult to make one out of plywood that would handle wood chips. The clearances between the rotor vanes and the housing would have to be large enough that the rotor would not lock up, but other than that, it should be a fairly straightforward project. I'm surprised none of the magazines have yet to develop one for a story line.

Bob, do you think that steel vanes with a rubber flap on the edges would work to convey wood chips?

Rob

[Bob Wingard]

Yup .. I sure do, BUT .. that's only my opinion .. haven't tried it. I think if I were attempting it, I would use either a stiff urethane or Lexan to fabricate the flaps. Hopefully, they would YIELD enough that large or stringy pieces would get SWEPT into a pocket, or be left behind for the next one, and if there was any pieces caught by the flap, the flap would bend enough to let the turret continue to turn. Last thing you want is to have it lock down .. .. .. if you don't have a motion-sensor to PROVE it's running, it can get messy REALLY FAST.

We've had 2-story cyclones backup due to debris contained in "virgin" sugar .. .. .. no way to empty it in a reasonable time without just pulling the RAL & letting it freeflow onto the floor, only to be vacuumed up and thrown in the trash !! !! !!
That get's pricey in a hurry when you're dealing with sugar.

[glenn bradley]

Rob, thanks for the clarification. I feel bad though, I got my answer but have none for you. Hopefully some other creekers can help.

[Rick Lizek]

http://kraemertool.com/rotaryair.htm
Don't know of any small ones offhand. Our DC is 40 hp.
Look in google using the term rotary air lock for others.
http://www.extremausa.com/dust_mass.php
Extrema has rotary air locks for their DC.

[Steve Jenkins]

Extrema does sell the airlocks seperately