I have been working on upgrading my Dust Collection to a two stage system. I have a small shop and ofter work with the overhead door open and I have long giving up on getting a Penz style dust collection system that collects 'everything' at the source. This is about better and less messy and not about collecting every bit of dust.
The only thing really interested or different about this system is I went with a clear garbage can and clear out bucket. I am glad I did, as I like the visual reminder to empty them when needed.
Here is the finished system:
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My starting point was an offshore no-name brand "2hp" dust collector that I bought ages ago and have run in various formats. The motor as far as I could tell after running a few test appears to be a true 2hp, and when I looked under the hood it had 11 3/4" impeller. So not a bad starting point. According to my (crappy) Anemometer it was pulling some pretty good CFM numbers.
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The inlet and outlets were 5" so I made short work of switching them over to 6" to fit the Dust Deputy better. After the mod it was pulling 35% more CFM. I was moving so fast I took a shot of the before, with holes drill out to make jig sawing out the 6" hole easier that I forgot to take after picture with the 6" Hvac fitting in place.
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Then it was on to building the unit. I am not sure if this was the easiest way to go about things, but I decided I would use an 8' section of plywood as a base for the unit. I built and mock things out on the bench and then shimmied it into place. In the end it worked out fine, but as I had a tight fit it took bit of work to get it up on the wall.
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I never took good picture of it, but I built a simple box to connect the filter to the blower. I also added a blast gate to direct vent outside most of the year when I have the overhead door open anyway. I picked the filter up an industrial supplier. The specs would be very competitive with the more popular filters on the market at about half the cost.
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For the clean out I used a gamma seal lid and clear 5 gallon bucket. Finding a clear bucket was a major project of internet sleuthing, but I have to say I love being able to see if any dust is collecting in it.
I also had to hunt around to find a clear garbage can. I found it a food supply company, and it is very robust and heavy gauge. No issues with the collapsing.
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The lid has a channel routed in it and a couple of hinges and a hook to make pulling the can in and out easier. I had planned to use a gasket of some kind in the channel, but so far the suction of the dust collector creates a perfect seal.
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I ran 5" ducting to the tools with a mix of 5" and 4" ports. The runs are the best I could do with where I needed the duct work to go.
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I am getting some shockingly high numbers for FPM (from my super unreliable Anemometer). I take the numbers with a grain of salt, but compared to my old setup the FPM has gone up allot over-all even with the addition of the Cyclone. It could be that I have no or less leaks now, but I actually suspect it has more to do with getting ride of the filter bag and going to the cartridge filer and direct vent outside. As an aside, with the filter fresh and and clean I am not seeing any difference from venting outside or through the filter.
If you are eagled eyed you will notice I used what looks like grey duct tape to attache the Cyclone to the blower. It is actual tarp repair tape, that you heat and it shrink to size. I wanted to to try it out for this application over the long term as I link the idea of shrink tube over the joints. Not sure how it will work, so I just used in that one area to try out for a bit.
Thanks for having a look.