Dust Collector question

[Joe Vee]

I have a 2HP 1600 CFM 2 stage (trash can lid cyclone) dust collector. If I attach it to 15 feet of PVC pipe with 1 45° elbow, will I lose a lot of suction? It will be attached to a planer molder. Thanks


Joe

[Prashun Patel]

What's the PVC diameter?
Should be ok.

Make sure yr grounding the pvc pipe.

Make sure yr separator lid is sealed.

[Joe Vee]

Shawn,

I guess I left out a huge piece of the equation sorry. 4 in PVC pipe. Thanks

Joe

[Art Mann]

Just running the collection through a trash can separator will reduce your cfm by close to half. I would think the effects of the pipe and elbow would be small by comparison.

[Steven Wilson]

4" PVC will limit you to 350CFM. A trash can separator is very iffy with 6" pipe, works ok with 4" pipe. Basically your 2HP DC will be very limited by the separator and 4" pipe. It will collect chips though.

[Joe Vee]

Thanks for the replies. My shop is in a separate building. I also run a Jet 3-Speed 1000 CFM Air Filtration System. I didn't know the trash can cyclone was such a CFM liability. I will just use the flexible hose and put the collector near the machines that use dust collector.

Joe

[Prashun Patel]

Is it possible to exhaust your separator outside? This would eliminate the need for a top of line filter.

Else, I'd make sure you get a 1micron filter bag or cannister and clean it periodically.

[Alan Schaffter]

Every addition to your duct work will result in some reduction in efficiency. You can go to various sites, like Bill Pentz's site, and find the resources to actually quantify the loss.

I don't mean to be facetious, but trashcan lid "separators" are NOT cyclones, and do not even come close to the separation efficiency you get with a true cyclone.

[Phil Thien]

Every addition to your duct work will result in some reduction in efficiency. You can go to various sites, like Bill Pentz's site, and find the resources to actually quantify the loss.

I don't mean to be facetious, but trashcan lid "separators" are NOT cyclones, and do not even come close to the separation efficiency you get with a true cyclone.

My design comes pretty darn close:

http://www.cgallery.com/jpthien/cy.htm

A couple more points: (1) Trash can cyclones don't have to rob all your CFM. My design only causes a 18-25% hit (depends primarily on blower design--which is same for true cyclones).

(2) It sounds like he is talking a two-stage DC, which is a hybrid with the blower mounted directly to the top of the DC lid. Some of these were pretty decent designs with lots of CFM. Unfortunately, they didn't separate very effectively and lots of stuff gets through to the filter. They can be modded for better separation.