Clearvue 1800

[woody dixon]

Trying to get my new clearvue up and running properly with great difficulty. My old dust collector was a modified harbor freight and to me the air flow on this new one is substantially more than that. I have tweaked, run numerous smoke tests and rechecked things for several weeks after finally getting everything assembled to no avail. I only have 30 ft of 6 inch pvc for my main so the air flow to my way of thinking should be massive as I overbought. I hooked a 4 inch flex hose to the side of my jet cabinet saw and it will not suck out the sawdust that had previously accumulated. I tried to emulate the dust collection box in a youtube video from 2009 with the clearvue and miter saw and mine leaves behind serious dust.

One strange thing I have also not figured out it the sound of whistling air in a closed 6 inch blast gate to my jointer. Numerous smoke tests show no apparent leaks and if i disconnect the hose at the jointer i feel no air. Nevertheless , my other 6 inch blast gates have no such noise. Anyone know if this is a problem?

The main reason for this post is to see if there are any members anywhere near me that have clearvues running and would be so kind as to let me see firsthand what the suction and airflow is supposed to feel like. Mine does not feel like it could suck up a bowling ball which is one claim I have heard. i live in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia about 35 miles west of Charlottesville. Appreciate any help I can get at this point.


Woody Dixon

[Randall J Cox]

I assume you have some way for the air to get into your cabinet saw. It has to get in to move sawdust out.... I only say this as some folks close up all the little cracks and it can't pull air out because it can't get in. I'm running a 5" hose to my cabinet saw with only a 1.75 HP motor, works fine. Your 6" should really pull some serious air. I will admit that I think it only pulls out the sawdust that is in the air. I won't clean out accumulated sawdust at the bottom of my unisaw, in the corners at least. It will pull out the sawdust where the hose and blast gate is connected. Could your 4" hose be possibly plugged? You sound like you have a good system, with pvc being smooth, etc. I'm with you, should work.....

[Rush Paul]

Hi Woody, I'm another Clear Vue user and happy to offer some thoughts as you check out your system. First, as Randy points out, air has to flow into the cabinet in roughly the same volume as the cyclone is capable of pulling it out. Your system is based on high air flow, not high suction (even though the suction is immense). So, check first to see if you have air openings on the opposite side of your table saw's cabinet and your cabinet is not sealed and choking your dust collection system.

Another thought for your design, with a CV1800 and 6" ducts, be sure you don't choke down the air flow by having only a single 4" duct open. If you're using a 4" hose into a machine, you should have another 4" port open somewhere else to keep the full air flow running along the main trunk line into the cyclone's intake. On my saw, I have a 4" flex duct connecting to the dust port in the saw's cabinet but I have a second 4" hose open for above the table collection. Whether I'm using the overhead collection or not, that second 4" hose is always open because both hoses follow after the same 6" blast gate.

If you try using one of your hoses to vacuum a dust pile from the floor, do you get good clearance of the dust pile? It should quickly pull both the dust and small 2" and 3" cutoffs.

The whistling noise at one of your blast gates is likely to be a small leak. Any minor deviation in the mating surfaces will result whistle. If all else seems fine, then run a small bead of pure silicone caulk at the edges of the joint. Use pure silicone (not latex) caulk because you can easily remove it should you wish to change your ductwork later. My current installation is full of whistles at the moment. At some point I'll get to doing the caulking. These minor whistling leaks have no adverse impact on the system, it's just annoying noise.

I'm sorry I'm not near enough for you to visit, but I'd be happy to make a video call via Zoom or Skype with you from my shop so you can see and hear what's going on here.

As to the miter saw, that is a very challenging machine to adequately connect for dust collection. Simply sticking the bare end of a duct/hose into a shroud/box is not very efficient. A solution I've finally implemented that seems to be working is to run a full 6" duct into a downdraft box on which the miter saw sits. A 4" hose off the same line goes into the manufacturer's 1 1/2" dust port built into the top of the saw's blade assembly. This combination is working well with the Festool Kapex saw we're using and is based on the design shown in this thread:
https://www.festoolownersgroup.com/m...-installation/

[John K Jordan]

I also think a DC might not pick up dust that has accumulated in a tool cabinet but should pull dust out of the air in the cabinet as it’s created. I use a 5hp CV1800 with 6” main ducts at least 40’ long and use some CV 6” to dual 4” splitters/blast gates at several tools. There is a healthy suction at the 4”. I only use short lengths of 4”, maybe 3’ or less. (how long is yours? too long might reduce airflow significantly) If I release a fist full of sawdust close to the open end the 4” will pull it strongly. At my bandsaw I split the 6” into three 4” ducts and dust never accumulates in the cabinet. (you should be able to watch the sawdust spiral down the cone and drop into the bin - if not, is the bin sealed well?) If I hold a small piece of plywood near the 4” opening it gets slammed tight by the suction.

If yours is not getting suction, is the motor turning the right direction? The outer edges of the impeller vanes should be trailing. Motor running a full power? (you might check the amperage through one of the wires, either after the contactor or in the breaker box. It’s been a few years since I measured but I think mine was drawing a bit over 14 amps on each conductor.)

Do you have any sharp 90-deg bends in the duct work which may slow the flow?

For a tablesaw, jointer, or other tool that makes a lot of sawdust it’s recommended to modify the port and run 6” duct all the way to the tool.

If you find someone close with the same machine any you think yours is not as strong, perhaps they would be willing to come take a look at your system and see if they spot anything amiss.

[John Lanciani]

Have you verified that the impeller is turning in the correct direction? Symptoms sound alot like reversed rotation.

[Brian Behrens]

I have the cv1800 also. Performance is incredible. When I had a grizzly cabinet saw, I ran a 6" port into the side of the cabinet. This worked incredibly well, no sawdust ever accumulated in the cabinet. When I got my sawstop, it came with a 4" port that goes through a hose up to the blade. The sawstop dust collection is not near as effective as it was on my grizzly. I would try running a 6" port into the side of your tablesaw. I made my own from some plywood and a 6" hvac takeoff. Do you have a straight run of pipe at least several feet long right at the cyclone, before making any turns? I'd also verify you have the impeller installed so it is turning the right way

[John K Jordan]

From the manual, to check motor/impeller rotation:

cyclone_impeller_direction.jpg

[Scott Bernstein]

Agreed. Make sure motor/fan rotation is in the correct direction; make sure the filters are not clogged. The outflow from a dust collector also has to be free flowing and equal in volume to the inflow. My ClearVue 1800 has the 16" fan of the CVMax with 6" inlet. It is very difficult to measure the flow directly with standard propeller-type airflow meters because the velocity is so high, but my best estimate on my system is nearly 2000CFM with four open 4" ports - that seems high but suffice it to say it is a monster. Having said that, it will still not pull up old, piled dust from the floor of my cabinet saw. On the other hand, I use the overhead floating guard plus cabinet dust collection on the saw and it takes many weeks for substantial amount of dust to accumulate there in the first place. The opening of the DC port on the saw cabinet is at least 12-14" away from he dust on the floor of the cabinet so I would not expect this dust to be affected anyways. Also consider using a dust monitor t check on how well the system is working in keeping the shop air clean.

[John K Jordan]

Woody, if you haven't read it perhaps check out Bill Pentz writings on cyclones, about testing the system and measuring the pressures/air flow:
http://www.billpentz.com/woodworking...easurement.php

You can read the entire (122? pages) of his writings but that might take a while. Interesting, though.
http://www.billpentz.com/woodworking....php#index.php

[woody dixon]

Here is a video showing what I was trying to copy for my miter saw. My saw is a dewalt 708 with the port a little left and lower but I aligned it with the 6 inch port on top of the box and extended the saw port back with flex to no avail. MY dust stream is about 1/10 what is shown.

I appreciate all the suggestions and in fact have tried most already. Rotation is correct, amps leaving contactor are just under 10 amps each leg. I probably had unrealistic expectations about collecting the old sawdust in the cabinet saw. Still, it doesn't seem very powerful at all to me, again only a little better than my old harbor freight. I was hoping to get a way to examine for myself a properly operating system but that may not be possible.

I had thought about getting an airflow meter from amazon to measure cfm but couldn't figure which one, how much I needed to spend, and also read where the fan type meters were relatively inaccurate. Would a meter provide useful data and if so, does anyone have a recommendation?

If a video of my layout with the system running would help I will be glad to post that also. Thanks everyone.

Woody

[Larry Frank]

There are quite a few posts where people have measured airflow of both the HF and CV1800 or similar. The HF gives you around 650 cfm while the CV1800 and similar are over 1800 cfm. The OP should do some reading about the performance of his dust collector and others.

[John K Jordan]

[video=youtube_share;8AIITfs51PE]... Rotation is correct, amps leaving contactor are just under 10 amps each leg. ....

What is the horse power of your motor?. I measured about 14 amps on my 5hp motor using a clamp-on amp meter with the cyclone moving air. But maybe that was startup amperage, I don't remember.

I looked at the ClearVue web site. It appears they have really changed things around and no longer offer the 1800 but say the CV1700 is the previous 1800. The specs say it has a 5hp motor but indicate it draws 20.8 FLA. They indicate just 1700 CFM with a 16" impeller pulling through a 6" duct. But the CV1800 had a 15" impeller; the CVMAX was 16". Their downloadable manual for the CV1700 is still the old CV1800/CVMAX manual, indicating the 16" impeller on the CVMAX should move 1,935 CFM (at 2.25” static pressure) through an 8" duct.

I don't quite understand just what has changed.

[woody dixon]

I have a 5 hp but a 15 inch impeller. The amps I tested were running not startup amps. I dont have to read about the performance of the clearvue, I already have, and thats precisely why i am concerned.

Did some more smoke testing tonight. The smoke shows definite movement at the joint with the bottom of the housing. This is not supposed to be caulked according to the manual. Before when I saw this, it seemed to go in the joint and come back out. Seems less comes back out now and of course i dont know how much actually might have been sucked in before. Anyone had this problem? Does it hurt to caulk or seal this with hvac aluminum tape anyway?

[woody dixon]

Have now smoke tested the top of the blower housing where it meets the motor plate and can see smoke moving from right to left towards the exhaust. I dont see any movement or air being sucked in at the flexible duct on the exhaust outlet. This also is not supposed to be caulked, partially because it makes it harder to take the assembly apart later if necessary. I have found some threads where people have caulked/sealed both these areas. Considering my inability to get adequate air flow, i am considering caulking the joint between the top of the cyclone/bottom of blower and taping the top of the housing/motor plate with hvac tape. Any reason not to try that at this point?

[Rush Paul]

I looked at the ClearVue web site... They indicate just 1700 CFM with a 16" impeller pulling through a 6" duct. But the CV1800 had a 15" impeller; the CVMAX was 16". Their downloadable manual for the CV1700 is still the old CV1800/CVMAX manual, indicating the 16" impeller on the CVMAX should move 1,935 CFM (at 2.25” static pressure) through an 8" duct.

I don't quite understand just what has changed.

Clear Vue has tried to clear up the confusion over the 15" vs. 16" impellers and the 6" vs 8" intakes by moving all the model numbers to the rated CFM of the unit. That is:

CV1450 - 6" intake with 15" impeller for 1450 CFM (formerly the CV1800 with 15" impeller)
CV1700 - 6" intake with 16" impeller for 1700 CFM (formerly the CV1800 with 16" impeller)
CV1950 - 8" intake with 16" impeller for 1950 CFM (formerly the CVMAX)