Cyclones – What am I missing?

[glenn bradley]

L'm surprised no one mentioned all the chunks that beat against your fan blade without some kind of separator in front of it.

I run a cyclone and a bagger. I can relate to the bang/clang/sucking gravel sounds you elude to with the bagger. I use the bagger only on the helical head machines now; much quieter ;-)

[Brett Luna]

L'm surprised no one mentioned all the chunks that beat against your fan blade without some kind of separator in front of it.

That was an additional benefit of "cyclonizing" my DC...previously, the impeller screen was prone to frequent blockage when using the jointer, planer, or when cleaning up a lot of handplane shavings. Now it's not.

[Stephen Bandirola]

I run a cyclone and a bagger. I can relate to the bang/clang/sucking gravel sounds you elude to with the bagger. I use the bagger only on the helical head machines now; much quieter ;-)

I also use my dust collector as a general purpose shcp vac and am no longer worried about chipping or breaking the impeller..

[David Utterback]

For those who exhaust outside, is the noise level ever a problem?

[Tom M King]

Not with the nearest neighbors at least two dog barks away.

[Frank Drackman]

I would love to test a system without a filter that exhausted outside but living in Maine I don't think that it is feasible. I can't imagine what my heating bill would be during the winter.

[Stephen Bandirola]

For those who exhaust outside, is the noise level ever a problem?

No, not a problem. I’m in a regular residential neighborhood no louder than a regular built in house vacuum.

[Jim Andrew]

No neighbors except across the road, but I don't notice the noise, and my wife does not complain.

[Curt Harms]

L'm surprised no one mentioned all the chunks that beat against your fan blade without some kind of separator in front of it.

I guess that could be a factor if using a floor sweep but I use a dust pan for bigger chunks. I don't use the dust collector where larger pieces are involved, mostly jointer/planer, table saw and router table. None of those produce large pieces. The fan blades in most single stage dust collectors are fairly robust so I doubt small pieces would have much of an effect, maybe more noise than physical impact. YMMV of course.