Cyclone vs Dust collection

[Julie Wright]

What is the difference. Now I am really showing my newbyness. Any way thanks for the help.
Julie

[Jason Roehl]

Julie, a run-of-the-mill dust collector (DC) has a motor-driven impeller that blows all the chips/dust directly into bags or filters. That is fine until the filtering media clogs up with the smaller chips and fine dust, reducing the overall airflow, and thereby reducing the DC ability at the tool. A cyclone is a funnel-shaped device with the motor and impeller mounted on top that separates out all but the finest dust and drops it into an easily-changed bin below the cyclone. Then a filter of some sort is placed on the exhaust from the cyclone which then only needs to be cleaned once in a while. The dust/chip bin is easily emptied, and you don't have the "poof" (scientific term) of dust when trying to empty it that you get with the filter bags of a non-cyclone system.

Hope this helps!

[Terry Hatfield]

Julie,

Here's the Reader's Digest version....

Regular Dc's and cyclones accomplish the same thing....dust collection.

Regular DC's send all the chips and dust through the impeller and collect them in a bag. Whatever is sucked up goes through the impeller. Some DC's have bags only and some have cartridge filters to filter out the fine dust.

Cyclones use the cyclone seperator to remove the bigger chips (mostly bigger than 10 microns) before they reach the impeller. These larger chips (or whatever else is sucked up) are deposited in a collection barrel under the cylone itself and only the finest dust is going through the impeller to the filter. It's a much more efficient system than regular DC's and the drum is much easier to empty than the bags. Cyclones typically all use cartridge filters that are much better than the bags. These cartridges have many times the filter surface area of a bag so flow is improved and filter cleaning intervals are much greater.

Terry

[Mike Kelly]

Julie, here is a few hours worth of education on dust collection.
Bill Penz has spent quite a lot of time educating others at all levels.

http://cnets.net/~eclectic/woodworking/cyclone/index.cfm

[Julie Wright]

Thanks Guys for all your help and info on this subject.