Just FINALLY cleaned the Oneida Dust Collector Filter - Oh the Humanity!!!!

[Alan Lightstone]

Well, I put this off for way too long, and this made the job horrifying.

I must have blown out about a pound or more of dust from the pleats of the dust collector cartridge filter. All very fine dust, plus, interestingly, the remnants of a Publix plastic grocery bag (ripped into very small pieces).

Trying to blow out the filter from the outside was a joke. It did nothing at all. So I spent about an hour, in a Tyvex suit and wearing a P100 ventilator outside and blew out as much as I could until I just couldn't take doing it anymore. Quickly tried afterwards to vacuum the pleats with a wet-vac brush, but that didn't seem to do anything.

So much smoke rose, I wonder if my neighbors thought there was a fire.

The filter was 3 years old, so I guess that was 3 years of accumulated wood dust. Clearly my bad. Especially since it's hooked up to a wide belt sander.

So, lesson learned. Don't wait 3 years between cleanings.

And even worse, somewhere I have a Magnehelic gauge that I never bothered to hook up. So not a clue how much this was affecting my dust collection.

Also, to make things worse, when I tried to clean up some of the piles of tiny wood dust that fell on the floor when removing the filter, I noticed that my long Festool vac hose is mostly obstructed. I have no clue how I'm going to clean that out. Any ideas?

Probably going to have to throw out that brand new Tyvex coveralls. Certainly can't spray a finish with them. Is Tyvex washable??

[Sam Force]

I try to clean out my dust collector at least twice a year. I have found what works best is to use the leaf blower, it does produce a lost of airborne dust. The neighbors seem to be use to it with 1 exception.

[Alan Lightstone]

I try to clean out my dust collector at least twice a year. I have found what works best is to use the leaf blower, it does produce a lost of airborne dust. The neighbors seem to be use to it with 1 exception.

I forgot about the leaf blower method until after I reinstalled it.

[Jim Becker]

Truly a thankless task...even more so when it's an "emergency" in the middle of a project where the filter gets clogged because of overfilling the bin and there isn't any easy to swallow laxative for said filter.

[Kevin Jenness]

Some people use a water hose to clean cartridge filters. Would be wise to check w/ the mfr first.

I had a cartridge for a while. Traded up to tube filters, problem solved.

[Frank Pratt]

Wait till you forget to empty you bin & the filter packs solid with dust & chips. The result is a hard, solid mass that would make an excellent road bed I'm sure. The center of the filter must literally have the spoil excavated out with a tool. then comes the cleaning of the pleats.

As if once were not enough, I've done it twice.

[Rod Sheridan]

Wait till you forget to empty you bin & the filter packs solid with dust & chips. The result is a hard, solid mass that would make an excellent road bed I'm sure. The center of the filter must literally have the spoil excavated out with a tool. then comes the cleaning of the pleats.

As if once were not enough, I've done it twice.

Been there, done that.

That’s why I made a bin level sensor��

Regards, Rod

[Prashun Patel]

If it’s at all possible to vent outside, I highly recommend it. Took me years to convert and so glad I finally did. No more filters. No more cleaning , and dc performance never drops off.

[Kris Cook]

Probably going to have to throw out that brand new Tyvex coveralls. Certainly can't spray a finish with them. Is Tyvex washable??

If it is poly-coated Tyvek it could be washed. If the paper type, not so much.

We buy them by the pallet. Wouldn't think a single suit would be all that much $$.

[Kevin Jenness]

If it’s at all possible to vent outside, I highly recommend it. Took me years to convert and so glad I finally did. No more filters. No more cleaning , and dc performance never drops off.

Do you try to maintain consistent temp and humidity in your shop, and if so do you find that venting outside is problematic?

[Carl Beckett]

Do you try to maintain consistent temp and humidity in your shop, and if so do you find that venting outside is problematic?

Will be interesting to hear Prashun perspective on this.

I was vented outside for years. Yes after the DC ran a while it pulled indoor temp down some (in the winter). But - for me, I never ran the DC for hours and if you consider the entire thermal mass of the contents and building, the thermal mass of air is quite low. So once the DC was turned off it came back to temp quickly.

Short run times on the DC was not that noticeable.

Summer months never much impact. I often left a door open for fresh air anyway. Although I had a split mini that was as much for dehumidification than temperature, so that would pull back down after leaving the shop.

If you were doing production (many members here are spending considerable hours in the shop) it would be a bigger consideration. But the upside of venting outside is no filters, no pressure losses, resulting in improved DC performance. (and a couple times it filled up and blew dust all over the outside - I can not imagine the mess that makes in a filter system - although I now have filters I hope to never find out)

Another consideration on DC that has me wondering: The purpose of DC is to protect your health. Make a pareto of what exposure you have to your lungs for various activities. For sure cleaning filters has to cause exposure. PPE is only limited in its effectiveness (how many of you have your respirators properly fitted, and how do you know? Even face stubble reduces effectiveness by a LOT). The one that surprised me the most was.... cooking. But there are many other activities (sweeping the floor, hand sanding, blowing compressed air on anything, operations that do not have collection hooked up), that cause much higher exposure than what my DC 'misses'. So once I get past a certain level on the DC 'performance', my attention has focused on other exposures. Like any safety item, the most effective is the one that gets used.

Just my experience.

[Alan Lightstone]

It would be tempting for me to vent outdoors, but my DC is in a closet about 20-25' away from the outside wall, so that's a non-starter.

Interestingly, when I run my fan in my ventilation booth, I have to open up one of the doors to the workshop for makeup air (it's impressive how hard it is to close a door against that. The fan really blows a lot of air). That being said, even in summer the workshop doesn't heat up that much, and cools down quickly with the two mini-split AC units. And this is in Florida, so another vote for venting outdoors, if possible.

The fan draws out 3420 CFM. Even my 5HP Oneida cyclone only draws out 1620 CFM at 3" WC (which I assure you I'm not that low), so drawing in twice the volume of air you will ever see with a huge cyclone, in sunny, absurdly hot Florida, making up outside air is not that big a deal.)

One man's opinion and experience.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

You might be overthinking the filter cleaning. Just leave it installed with the catch pan installed, blow from the outside with an air nozzle, not too close. A little tapping with your hand can tell when the pleats are clear. Wait 10 mins or so for the dust to settle and remove the catch pan to dump. Repeat as necessary. If the DC is working well and you don't over fill, it won't get impacted. They do not have to be spotless and cleaning from the inside with the filter removed can actually hurt the filter.

[Alan Lightstone]

You might be overthinking the filter cleaning. Just leave it installed with the catch pan installed, blow from the outside with an air nozzle, not too close. A little tapping with your hand can tell when the pleats are clear. Wait 10 mins or so for the dust to settle and remove the catch pan to dump. Repeat as necessary. If the DC is working well and you don't over fill, it won't get impacted. They do not have to be spotless and cleaning from the inside with the filter removed can actually hurt the filter.

For whatever reason the filter was way too caked with fine dust. I initially tried that for virtually no effect . So that really wouldn’t have accomplished much, unfortunately.

I do wish I had remembered the leaf blower technique though.

[Ole Anderson]

Tap it with a wood block to loosen caked material, it will fall to the bottom of the pan, then take it outside AT NIGHT and go at it with a leaf blower.