I’ve been a long-time lurker here and thought it was time to gave back a little after taking so much from this group. I’ve tried several different methods of dust collection over the years and determined early on that the worst part for me was transferring the collected dust from the lower bag/garbage can/drum to a plastic trash bag for transfer out of the shop. I always ended up covered in dust with a large portion spilled onto the floor as I tried to dump a full garbage can into a plastic bag. Below are pictures of the solution I came up with several months ago. I just finished planing a bunch of poplar this morning which netted about 3 full 55 gallon bags and couldn’t be happier with how it’s working.
I have a basement shop so in addition to lack of money and poor access I have low ceilings to contend with. I built a Thien baffle style separator several years ago and, while I’m sure it’s not as good as a cyclone, it has the advantage of being cheap and low-profile. My design simply puts the separator and collection drum up high enough that I can suspend a large garbage bag underneath using a quick release band clamp to facilitate quick bag changes. I figured the dust collector is already lifting the particles over my head why should I let them fall into a container on the floor for me to lift up again to dump into a bag?
My original design had a fixed ring underneath the collection drum, but I was too difficult to change out the bags so I built a removeable interlocking ring that makes it much easier to attach a new bag. The ring diameter was determined by the particular bags I have from Amazon and they slip over the ring with just a little tension and stay in place while attaching the band clamp. The cardboard drum was free from a local company that uses large amounts of color pigment and goes through dozens of them a month. The window is a must although I’ve seen some folks use an electronic sensor to monitor the level of the collected dust.
I have to say, it is hugely satisfying to simply slide out the baffle and have the drum empty into the bag with no plume of fine dust filling my shop. I still smile every time I do it.
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