Grizzly dust collector question

[Quinn McCarthy]

I have a 3 hp grizzly dust collector. It has 2 bars welded at 90 degrees on the intake opening and every time I use my W&H moulding machine the big chips get caught on those bars and clog the system. Has anybody cut those bars out?

It is a really annoying feature.

Thanks

Quinn

[Chuck Lenz]

Quinn, one way to get around that issue would be to use one of those garbage can cyclone lids before it gets to the dust collector. You wouldn't fill your dust collector bags as fast either.

[dale rex]

I have the same problem with my 2 HP Grizzly. I often thought about doing the same thing. Mine usually clogs when I use my 20" planer. :(

[Roger Owen]

Quinn,

The purpose of the bars is to prevent a chunk of wood from ending up in the fan. That's a potential problem with a single stage system. The garbage can cyclone will catch the big chunks, screws, etc. before they hit the fan. I say get the cyclone before you cut the bars out.

Just my 2 cents.

Roger

[Ed Peters]

but I only use it when I am planing a truckload of lumber. Otherwise, everything gets sent to the dust collector. Having said that, I cut out the cross bars on mine after the second time I had to clear it.

Ed

[Dave Laird in NM]

The cross bars were installed in all dust collectors after a young kid in a school stuck his hand in the inlet on a dare and lost a couple of digits, and then his parents sued the company that sold the dust collector.

[Bart Leetch]

I cut out the cross bars on mine after the second time I had to clear it.

[Quinn McCarthy]

Thanks for all of the suggestions. I never thought about using a seperator. I really don't have room for one however. Looks like it might be the hacksaw treatment.

Thanks

Quinn

[Ed Lang]

I cut the bars on mine.

[Chuck Lenz]

I have a 2 HP Grizzly dust collector that has the bars also. I don't think I'll be cutting mine out because if I ever sell it, it could become a liability issue, plus if something large does ever get sucked up as mentioned by Roger, it won't ruin the impeller. Another wood product that can clog the opening and get stuck to the impeller I noticed when useing my tablesaw is presure treated wood that isn't dry.

[Chuck Lenz]

The one thing thats kind of had me scratching my head about the Grizzly G1029 2HP dust collector that I have is the inlet on the blower is 6", but hose that goes from the blower to the bags is 5". It doesn't make much sense to me. Then if you look at the Grizzly G0548 2HP canister dust collector it has a square metal duct going from the blower to the cartridge. I like the metal duct better, it looks larger then the 5" hose and it looks more ridgid.

[Jim Becker]

Quinn, you don't need to have the pre-separator attached all the time, just bring it out when you're using your molder or planer--high "volume" generation machines. Tuck it under a bench somewhere or hang it from the ceiling in a corner when it's not in use.

[Jeffrey Makiel]

My 2 hp single stage bagged DC didn't come with any crossbars. Never had a problem with larger pieces of wood scrap like small cutoff pieces from a tablesaw. No issues with chips fromthe planer or jointer either...however, they are small machines.

-Jeff :)