Originally Posted by
Bill Pentz
Max,
As the person who designed that Clear Vue cyclone I know a little about this subject. That little cyclone will keep your vacuum filter from plugging and make emptying it easier, but is not going to move enough air to provide you with good dust collection at your larger tools. Which dust collection system is best for you depends upon what level of dust collection you want, the size of your shop, the size and type of your tools, and your budget.
If you only want good “chip collection” meaning picking up the same sawdust and chips that you would otherwise sweep up with a broom, you need about 350 CFM and pretty much all 4” ducting going right to each machine. Almost any good dust collector sized 1.5 hp or larger, or almost any cyclone sized 2 hp or larger will provide that 350 CFM needed for good “chip collection”. Any of these moves so much air compared to your current vacuum there will be an unbelievable improvement in performance.
If you want good fine dust protection, then you have a different challenge. The easiest solution is buying a good mask like the 3M 7500 and working outside. Working inside requires also wearing a mask and blowing the shop out regularly with no air shared with your home. Unfortunately with basement shops and shops that share the air with your home then you need a good fine dust collection system. Even buying a good fine dust collection system will not protect you if you don’t use it wisely. After buying the best advertised cyclone and filter available for my garage shop, I landed in the hospital with dust triggered serious health problems. That inspired me to do some serious homework to figure out why and how to make repair.
I discovered most including me are so happy after getting their first dust collector that it takes a long time to realize there is still a problem. In spite of doing minimal woodworking and having the big cyclone, that fine coat of dust that kept building in my shop pushed my exposure up way too high, plus contaminated my home. Eventually I developed a sensitivity followed by a bad allergic reaction and chronic infections.
That explained what happened, but figuring out why required getting an air quality evaluation and some test gear. I found my and most other dust collectors and cyclones move too little air to do a good job capturing the fine dust as it is made. Worse, in spite of advertising claims most come with wide open filters that provide a false sense of security because they filter off most of the visible dust while passing the finest unhealthiest dust. This finest dust is made up of particles sized under 10-microns. A 10-micron dust particle is about one tenth the thickness of a human hair and about the smallest we can see without magnification. It takes six months or longer for this dust to dissipate and be broken down by molds, fungi, etc. OSHA testing shows even the cleanest looking shop with an indoor venting dust collector or cyclone tests with dangerously unhealthy dust levels.
We can make repair if we have a shop that does not share air with our home. Buy a Jet or Delta 1.5 hp dust collector or just about any 2 hp or larger dust collector, always wear a mask while working, and thoroughly blow out our shops with a good leaf blower after making fine dust. Most find this too inconvenient, so end up wanting a good fine dust collection system. It takes more time and money to build a good fine dust collection system. We need to fix our tools, move enough air, and get rid of the fine dust.
With most tool hoods and ports setup for the roughly 350 CFM needed to collect the same chips and sawdust we would otherwise sweep up with a broom, most tools require remaking or adding better hoods and using larger dust collection ports.
Over twenty years of air engineering and testing shows to meet the lowest permitted air quality standards we need to move about 800 CFM at our larger tools and either blow the air outside or provide fine filtering. It takes about 1000 CFM to meet the air quality that most medical folks agree upon and which are already the standard adopted in Europe. Because CFM varies depending upon the resistance of your ducting, hoods, tool ports, tools, and filters, a 2 hp dust collector or 3 hp cyclone able to move a maximum of about 1200 CFM will be hard pressed to even move 600 CFM to tools located across a shop when your filter is getting dirty.
As a result, to ensure moving ample air the math and physics say we need at least 2.5 hp blowers on our dust collectors and at least 3.11 hp blowers on our cyclones to move the 800 CFM to meet minimum government air quality standards. To move the 1000 CFM to meet the higher air quality standards we need at least 3 hp dust collectors and at least 4.25 hp cyclonea. These numbers will let us have good airflow just about anywhere in a two car garage sized shop if we use 6” ducting mains and down drops. If you can locate your high air demand tools right next to your dust collector then a 1.5 unit with minimal 6" diameter ducting will move ample air. Likewise you can get by with a 2 hp cyclone, but in either case give up the ability to have the flexibility to locate your tools where you want in your shop.
Getting rid of the fine dust requires either blowing the fine dust away outside or filtering. Most commercial shops in all but the most extreme climates blow their finest dust outside and that is what I recommend because fine dust rapidly clogs, wears out, and ruins fine filters. Most dust collectors and standard cyclones put close to 100% of the fine dust into the filters. The better cyclone designs with neutral vanes still put about 60% of the fine dust into the filters. At these dust loads I do not recommend use of fine filters on most dust collectors or cyclones. I instead recommend putting dust collectors outside and exhausting cyclones directly outside. This requires make up air and you should use a carbon monoxide detector if you have any fired appliances or burn anything in your shop. In my case due to legal and local restrictions I have to filter. Some also choose to put wyes on their cyclone output where in mild weather they can blow outside and in harsh weather can filter. Most find their heaters and air condidtioners can keep up with normal hobbyist use while exhausting outside.
Tired of dust baths every time I had to constantly empty my dust collectors I bought one of the best cyclones. It did not move ample air and constantly plugged the filter. I got rid of that unit upgrading to the best recommended cyclone available. It worked no better and in fact was an exact copy of the first I bought. Frustrated, I put my over thirty years of enegineering experience to work and engineered my own cyclone design then shared my plans about seven years ago. This is the same design you saw in the small Clear Vue vacuum cyclone. There are over 3000 people now using cyclones of my design who are very pleased because it provides much higher fine dust separation to better protect your filters and hopefully your health. I think if you cannot blow the dust outside and want good fine dust collection you should seriously consider making a cyclone from my design on my web pages or buying a unit made from my design. I also recommend you power it with my recommended impeller, blower design, and heavy duty motor. I tried to help by working out discounted prices on the parts from Clear Vue Cyclones, Electric Motor Warehouse, and Wynn Environmental.
bill
). Just thought I would "bump" it here, for perhaps a little more discussion.
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