I filled and dumped the 55 bin on my cyclone three times this week milling for my current project...the J/P is the "chief in charge" of filling up the bin!
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A twelve yard dumpster would be 56 of my large cardboard (44 gallon) bins. One on average a week ... that might happen. There are certainly weeks like yours but they are few and far between.
Yea, that's correct, it's not an all the time thing...I milled about 100 board feet of VG Doug Fir this week which made for the increase in "bin filling". Even though I hope to be doing a lot more work in my shop going forward, there still remains the fact that in a one-person shop, the major chip and dust producing is cyclic toward the beginning of projects when material is prepped.
At my old shop we had two large DCs and could fill them in quick order. We had 55 gallon drums on both and always used two people to empty them into the garbage dumpster. One person could never, realistically empty them. Suggest using a 35 gal drum or at least a plastic 55 drum.
Go 55 if you have the space. I keep a dolly right next to the DC so that when I have to move it, it's easy to scoop up and take out.
I ordered Oneida 5hp with 55 gallons fiber bin.
If you have another 3 or 4 inches of height to spare after the 55 gallon drum, you can make a little rolling platform for the dustbin to sit on. I've got mine in a closet, so the rolling platform makes it much easier to get it out when it 3/4 full of sawdust.
Which brings me to my next piece of advice:
Biggest piece of advice is to monitor how full your drum is. When you are planing and the planer jams up, and you realize that the planer jammed because the cyclone stopped pulling, and you then realize the cyclone stopped pulling because both the cyclone and filter are jammed with chips, that is an awful sinking feeling. And a huge mess to clean up:)
My back appreciates my decision to go with the 35 gallon every time I empty it. YMMV.
Am I the only one who has never lifted his 55 gallon drum even once because he uses heavy duty plastic bag liners? All I do is tie and lift out the full bag when I empty the thing. The full bag is still pretty heavy, but not nearly as heavy as the steel drum. Oh and get the bag hold down from Oneida which will prevent the bag from getting sucked up into the cyclone.
I can't imagine picking up the entire drum and dumping loose sawdust. A cloud of it must fly all over the place.
I transport mine from the shop door via my tractor's front end loader and then easily dump the bin on the pile near our composting area. But to your point about dust clouds...I check the wind direction before I flip it over so it's not heading in my direction... :)
If it's useful to anyone, for $21.95 you can get 50 2mil heavy duty trash can liners in a 55 gallon size from Home Depot. These are what I use. Full bag pulled and tied goes out with the weekly trash.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Ultrasac...2695/100200334
Probably other sources out there also. A box like this lasts me about two years, maybe a little more.
I don't mind admitting there's no way I could lift the steel can full of sawdust by myself.
I use to dump my 55 gallon steel drum into a large plastic bag when full, it's do-able but gets old quick and is messy. I ended up getting the drum liner from Oneida along with the bag hold down. Remove the bag hold down once bin is full and pull the bag out. It's heavy but I have no problems pulling out a full bag from a 55 gallon drum and I'm only 5'-7" 140lb soaking wet.
My 2hp Griz cyclone is mounted to an outside wall within an enclosure with enough height~~10"~~ to fit a 55 gal drum beneath. I welded two 1/2" ID pipes across the bottom rim, found four old lawnmower wheels, attached them to 1/2" steel rod, inserted and pinned all in position with cotter pins, attached an old halter lead, and gotterdun. A wheeled platform would work as well but I pull the full drum down a small hill and across the yard so there is no worry of the barrel slipping off the platform, the larger--and free--wheels handle the rough lawn, and the "axel" assembly only added ~3" to the height. If I would just check the chip level more often....