cyclone close to tools?

[Matthew Hills]

How close can you practically put a clearvue to your tools and still get a good result? (either in terms of routing the ducts and getting good suction or not shredding your ear protection).

My current dust collector is placed very close to my table saw and bandsaw. It is a JET DC-1100, with its inlet close to the ground, and connected via short (6') flex hoses to these tools. One possible layout for switching to a cyclone would have the cyclone in a similar location, but then I started thinking about the duct routing out of the top-side inlet, and wasn't sure if that would cause problems.

Thanks,
Matt

[Patrick Kane]

You typically want about 3' of straight pipe before the inlet of your cyclone. This reduces air turbulence. After that, you can have a tool right next to the cyclone body if you wanted. I think my closest tool is my slider, which is 8-9' away from the body of the cyclone. As far as noise i concerned, i dont think it makes much difference if you are right next to it o 25' away. It is still loud.

[John K Jordan]

The power of the ClearVue is enough to make up of some inefficiencies of the suction, but a straight inlet section is recommended and will probably help with the separation of fines. (My ClearVue separates talcum-powder fine sawdust.) If you can mount a short straight section on the inlet then down to or using flex you should probably get great results. I run 6" ducts everywhere but switch from 6" to one or more 4" flex ducts where needed.

As for the hearing protection, I and others have mounted the cyclones in a small closet made just to control the sound. I can work without hearing protection and even carry on normal conversations with the monster screaming.

JKJ