DC Outside

[Doug Mason]

Not to beat the subject to death, but I am going to try venting my DC outside. My knowledge of DC is very limited.

Here are my circumstances.
1) My shop is located on the bottom floor of a two-story garage. I have a ClearVue on the top floor (piping goes from bottom to top floor).
2) The closest nieghbor is a 100/125 yards away.
3) My outside temperature here is temperate year round (rarely too cold or too hot) - so I'm not concered with heat/AC issues. I never heat the shop (it is well insulated)--and I usually have the shop doors open.

So correct me if I am wrong.
1)I can simply disconnect the flex hose between my blower transition and my wynn filter--and redirect this plastic tubing through a wall to the outside. This is all that I need to do to vent outside-correct?
2)Only the fine dust will be blown outside--as the heavier stuff will fall in the trash can. As I am a hobbiest (mostly handtools), the amount of dust blown outside will be so small that there should never be an issue (for example - I'm not cutting MDF three hours a day).

I'd appreciate your comments before I experiment with this changeover.

thx

[Chip Lindley]

Hi Doug! Your fine dust will surely vent outside the way you discribe. The only issues are whether anyone in your family or neighbors are concerned with extra particulate in the atmosphere. An experienced "sniffer" will be able to discern what wood species you are using today! And, you may find that the exhaust area outside your shop becomes coated with the fine dust during damp conditions. You may wish to add some sort of flapper outside to seal your ductwork from varmits when not in use. Your idea is not very "green" by todays anal standards, but a man's home (and shop) is his castle! Let your conscience be your guide.

[Tom Veatch]

Doug,

Technically, what you propose will certainly work.

Since you're not concerned about heating/cooling losses, the only other thing that might cause you headaches would be any local regulations or restrictive covenants that would prohibit venting in that manner. If you're reasonably sure you won't run afoul of the local civil authorities or homeowner's association, I'd say you're good to go.

[David Giles]

Noise impact?

[Doug Mason]

Thx for the follow up.

As for my moral compass, I certainly would not vent outside if it posed any sort of problem to my nieghbors - exactly my purpose for this inquiry. My niebghors are a good distance from me and (this is where my uncertainty arises) the amount of fine dust that I would exhaust outside would be so small as to be of little consequence--so small in fact that it would be blown away by the wind and there would be scant evidence of it on the ground below the exhaust vent. My assumption is that all the heavy stuff will end up in the trash can under the cyclone just as it does now with the filters. Again, correct me if I am wrong in my thinking?

As for noise- it isn't an issue in this situation.

thx

[Tom Veatch]

... My assumption is that all the heavy stuff will end up in the trash can under the cyclone just as it does now with the filters. Again, correct me if I am wrong in my thinking?

As for noise- it isn't an issue in this situation.

thx

I think it's a good assumption that what you are now finding in your filters would be exhausted to free air, and what is now going into the chip bin would continue to do so. There's nothing about your proposal that should change that. The only effect I see is that you might get a little more flow volume due to the reduction in back pressure from the filters.

[Jim Becker]

Yes, shunting the blower outlet to the outdoors, rather than the filter stack, is exactly what you want to do. Be sure to put some hardware cloth over the outlet to avoid any birds or small mammals entering your setup when you are not actively using it... ;)

[Al Barale]

I agree with Jim. ;)

[Jim O'Dell]

Doug, I have the Clear Vue and I vent outside. My vents are about 5' away from a tree. I've never seen any dust against the trunk, on the leaves, or on the ground. Your neighbors are a little farther away than mine, and I've not had any complaints. I've only filled about 1 1/2 55 gallon barrels of dust, but a lot of it was MDF. The exhaust takes a lot of the noise outside also. It sounds like a small turbine engine running outside the shop. :eek: I'm sure all the trees we have help quieten the noise before it gets to the neighbors.
If interested, in my shop rehab thread, I have a section on how I did my exhaust. I built a different piece to replace the CV turn down to the filters, and used a metal 8-6-6 wye from Lowe's. The two vents are dryer type vents, only in 6" format. The have a built in cross hatch of plastic to help keep the bigger bugs and animals out. Louvers close when not in use to keep rain out. Work like a charm. Got them from Lowe's also...HD only has 4" for dryers. I used short sections of flex hose to as a damper to keep any vibrations from the cyclone from transmitting to the walls to help with noise cancellation. Anyway this is the link: http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=14427&page=3 Just scroll down to post 83, that shows the louvered vents from the outside. Here is a picture of the contraption I made to go from the Clear Vue to the louvers. I thought I had uploaded it before, but couldn't find it on my rehab thread. For some reason the phrase "Warning Will Robinson" keeps coming to mind. :D 100550
Hope this gives you some ideas that you can do in your situation. Jim.

[Chris Damm]

If you are using it so little that the dust won't be a problem then why even bother to run it outside? It sounds like you wouldn't have to empty it very much at all.

[Doug Mason]

Chris - I use the DC enough to empty it out every two/three weeks--primarily from jointing/planing. I am rearranging the area where I have the DC unit--so why shouldn't I make the change? I can eliminate the filters and pick-up alittle more airflow. I'll experiment.

[Phil Thien]

I think you could run MDF for three hours a day and STILL not have a problem exhausting outside. I'd go for it.

[Keith Outten]

Doug,

I doubt you will ever see any effluent from the discharge of your DC if you are collecting the large chips. I also doubt you will ever see any dust cloud when running the system unless you were using a large drum sander.

For many years I used my first chip box and pumped all of my DC waste from my shop machines, in those days I was a hobby woodworker but I planned a lot of lumber so I had a lot of waste to dispose of and emptied the 400 gallon chip box about once per month.

I also went through several years of blowing my DC effluent directly outside. During those years I didn't do much planning so dust represented the majority of my DC discharge. Finally, when I purchased my CNC router and started using a lot of Corian material I went back to a chip box system, basically because plastic won't biodegrade so it has to be collected and be disposed of properly. Even the fine dust from sanding plastic material has to be collected, it isn't noticable on the ground at first but the biodegrade issue is still a concern and it will lay there and collect over time.

Your right about seeing a major increase in performance :)
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