Adding barrels under d/c to replace bags

[Bobby Robbinett]

Hey guys I have a some what large 10hp d/c that uses 24” bags. The bags are always getting damaged and seem to not hold up well. Are there any drums or trash cans you guys could point me towards that I could attach to my d/c? It’s a 3 bag unit.

[Bill Crisp]

I'm looking at doing the same sort of thing soon. I've got a smaller collector than you (2hp). Mine is a two bagger, one up, one down. I'm planning to build a custom air box wih two ports on the top for the bags, and two on the bottom for 55 gallon plastic drums. The part I haven't figured out yet, is how to seal the drums to the bottom of the air box. I'm sure somebody on this site has figured out an elegant solution for this though.

Good luck! I'm interested to see what you figure out.

[Bill Dufour]

My dc just uses a standard lever ring clamp to seal the lipped top to the barrel. Suction tends to pull the seal closed.
Bill D

[Jonathan Jung]

I've gotten 55gal drums from a pig farmer for $8 each, with lids and clamping rings.

[Bobby Robbinett]

The issues I am having is finding barrels that have 24” openings in the tops. I guess that I could build a plywood adapter to join them together if the fit is close. So far I haven’t been able to get an exact fit.

[George Yetka]

I would try 55 gallon Contractor bags in 40 gallon drums. The oversized bags make it easy to swap and not too heavy.

[Bill Dufour]

Or just build a giant sealed cabinet and put the drums in that under some holes in the ceiling. A old refrigerator comes to mind.
Bill D

[Bill Dufour]

At the lab our dc blew into a 40 yard dumpster. It had a big opening on one end and a lid with vents at the other end. It blew some small dust into the air. Never enough to see it in the air but stuff got a dust coating. We hosed it off about once a month when it was hauled off.
Bill D

[Cliff Polubinsky]

Bobby,

Find a bag that will fit around the larger diameter, dust collector or drum. Cut a section off then use it to be the transition, clamping it to fit each of the two diameters.

Cliff

[Daniel O'Neill]

Maybe draw clasps between the lid and the barrel. Then do a lip in the barrel with weather stripping and the draw clasps will pull it close to the lid. I would do at least 3. To me 5 would be ideal if it's not too much of a pain.

[Bruce Wrenn]

I would come up with some method of raising drums up to match bottom of DC. Perhaps a pallet jack from HF. It would have to be modified to fit your drums. For seal between DC and drum, use a piece of shower pan liner. Take lid for drum, cut out 24" hole and add a lip to clamp liner over. If lid won't support 24" hole, then make a plywood doughnut. Route a groove where top of drum would rest, and add some weather stripping in groove to make seal. Inside hole area, add piece of 26 ga sheet metal to for a ring for shower liner to clamp to.

[Curt Harms]

There is at least one company that makes dust collector fabric filters to order. They also make fabric 'sleeves' to adapt different sized/shaped openings. The company I'm thinking of is American Fabric Filter. I got a filter from them for a small dust collector. It seemed well made.