Can this cyclone work

[Robert McNaull]

This is a cyclone that my dad has that was for dust/fine separation off of his grain setup that he never installed. It is 36in tall and 24in diameter at the top. It does not have an air ramp inside of if and has 6 in connections. I could put an air ramp in it and the lift tube but think the proportions are off dust collection for woodworking, thought I would post this and the picture and see what you all thought and if it is worth the effort. I did some looking on Bill Pentz's site for ratio and am to going to play around with his spreadsheet a bit to see if this has any value as well.

cyclone.jpg

[Wade Lippman]

Anything works; heck, trashcan separators work and you can't get much worse designed than that. It might not be optimal, but if its free...

[Jim German]

Yep, it'll do something. Might not be better than a baffle though. It looks a little short to me.

[Robert McNaull]

Based on Bill Pentz's sheet it is definitely short, the diameter to total height ratio is about 1.5 versus ideal is about 3. I'm thinking with some modifications it may be useful, I still have to build a blower for the top and add filters. Still trying to decide whether to buy a single stage mobile unit and just pull it through a Thein baffle and be done with it or try to build something a little more efficient.

[Jim Andrew]

Think I've seen a pic of a cyclone with the blower mounted remotely, with pipe attaching the two, on the forum. Those dust systems for grain work, so if you set it up right, it will probably do you some good.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Robert, I actually intended to use nearly the exact same thing for a few years. Never did, but sure think it would have worked fine. Even scrounged a really nice fan for the project and all the electronics. Ought to pass all that stuff on to someone else I guess. Anyway, some grain dust is strikingly similar to sawdust, if it was well designed to begin with, it will work fine.