My cyclone separator lid is complete with pics... ***UPDATED***

[dbhost]

I finished the lid up Friday, but due to time constraints wasn't able to snap any pics until this morning. My job and my in laws had other plans for my time this weekend.

The completed cyclone separator lid installed on a 20 gallon heavy galvanized trash can. The hoses both in and out are Ridgid Tug A Long hoses, I used the small end on the both sides of the side that goes to my dust collection system.


The functional view of my cyclone. You may notice that my elbow is mounted backwards on the "wrong side" compared to Phils pic. That was by accident. I drilled the holes for the spacers with the thick part of the separator going the wrong way. It works well this way, but looks funny when you look at Phils pics...
Notice the spacers are nothing more than 1/4 -20 all thread with washers and nuts...


Tonight I am removing the screws from the hose adapters and gluing them straight up with hot glue. I want to eliminate the tips of the screws from inside the cyclone. My shop isn't dog hair free, and that tends to get hung on those tips...

Sorry about the pic host. I have been using Webshots since my ISP hosting kind of stinks...

[jhiggins7]

dbhost,

Nice work.  Looks like a fine separator.  Have you performed the separator test yet?

As for the elbow, I don't think there's anything wrong with yours.  You are just circulating in the opposite direction.  I think I remember Phil mentioning SOMEWHERE??? that the direction doesn't matter.

[dbhost]

I did a test on it, the pics are up now...

I didn't measure it, but scientifically calibrated eyeball tells me this is about 4" of material in the bottom of a 20 gallon trash can.
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And this is what made it past the cyclone and into the vac.


I have found that using the separator for vacuming larger debris can be somewhat problematic though. The screws that hold the hose couplers in don't exactly play nice with stringy debris as they hang onto it and end up jamming the inlet, AND... The elbow that I used, a 2" that was slipped through and hog glued into place jams up incoming air. So I am considering this one my first prototype. On to take #2. with the following changes.

#1. Mount the elbow the "right" direction unless I just want to be the odd man out...
#2. Hot glue the hose connectors in place.
#3. Use a 2.5" elbow modified via my oscillating belt sander to fit flush to the lid, and hot glue it inside the lid so that nothing "hits" the end of the elbow. The elbow will not slip through the plywood, but rather glue up right against it.
#4. Relieve the top edge of the incoming air hole to reduce air resistance. Probably use a rasp for this. It doesn't have to be pretty, just functional.

Actually, I have tested using it as a shop vac, as well as on the table saw, jointer, and oscillating sander, it works very well EXCEPT when shop vacuming. The debris that made it to the can I am almost certain is because of larger debris getting caught up by the elbow and screwing up the air flow...

My take #2 will be on the 20 gallon can, and once that is done, and working to my satisfaction, I am going to build take #3, which should be my final model, after discussing this with Phil, I am planning on setting this up for a 55 gallon barrel.

I should have mentioned, this earlier. Once the final setup is done, I am planning on building a shelf for the vac, that the pickup hose will route through to the can. This way I can stack them. The vac will be operated by a remote. This is really being done more for the fact that the framing will give me half of the framing I will need to build shelves next to the unit, where I can store stuff. It's all about organization in a small shop you know!

[dbhost]

I have had my cyclone complete and functioning for a little over a week, and I have had a bit of work going on in my shop.  chasing leaks in my plumbing system. With the leaks stopped (taped over joints), plus after discovering that I could wash out my Ridgid HEPA filter and reuse it I was able to bypass the need for the Clean Stream HEPA filter (Saved myself $35.00 after tax..). Performance wise. I find that I can just touch the end of an extended tool hose and it will contract immediately just like running it straight off the vac.

Some planing, a lot of routing, plenty of table saw work, and lots of work on the oscillating sander

I have filled the 20 gallon trash can about 2/3 of the way with mostly planer shavings, router chips and fine dust from sanding operations with the oscillating sander.

The filter itself has a barely visible dusting of fines, there actually appears to be LESS dust in the bottom of the vac compared to the photo I posted after first testing.

So for the function so far, this works not only as well as I had hoped, but far better...

I've also been reading Bill Pentz' web site, and I tend to agree with a great deal he talks about. This setup with the shop vac I think from what I can tell from Bill's site is probably a better functioning system than a 4" ducted full DC due to the higher static pressure, since the 4" duct DC can't move either enough CFM or static pressure...

The amount of dust, and dirt that was in the filter after the weeks worth of work and testing...


The amount of material that was in the trash can cyclone after a weeks worth of work and testing.


The amount of material left in the vac after a weeks worth of work and testing.
*NOTE ABOUT THE VAC PIC*** I empited the vac into the can after the initial test, and prior to planing, sanding, etc...


I now would very much like to clean the filter, AND the interior surfaces of all components involved to have a completely blank slate to test from again. But so far I am very impressed with the results.