Meet the new sucker

[mreza Salav]

After getting tired of cleaning the shop-vac filters I decided to build a mini-cyclone for it. The clear-vu version is $200USD plus shipping and it wouldn't fit my smaller vac.
I thought it would be a good practice to see if I want to build the large one for a dust collection.

I used the Bill Pentz design. It's scaled down by 1/3. Got a small sheet of metal and off I went. Here are all the pieces cut.

cyc1.jpg

Forgot to take pictures after each step. Here is the picture of cyclone finished with a layer of paint on it. It has an air ramp in the cylinder with 3" diam.

cyc2.jpgcyc3.jpg

I used 1/2" MDF to build the structures holding the motor and cyclone.
Here are the finished photo installed.

cyc4.jpgcyc5.jpg

(rest in the next post...)

[mreza Salav]

Here are a couple of photos of the locking mechanism I built
and also with the motor taken out. I can take the motor and cyclone structre out in seconds and turn the vac into its original configuration if needed.

cyc6.jpgcyc7.jpg

Started cleaning the shop to see how it works. It sucks very well!!
Let's take a look at the bucket:

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and see what is gone into the filter compartment:

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Yup, next to nothing!

The total cost was around $20!!

[J.R. Rutter]

That is excellent! Nice job.

[Joe Dowdy]

man thats pretty slick,

[keith ouellette]

That is very cool.

did you have a templet to scale down or did you draft it yourself?

[mreza Salav]

Thanks all.

That is very cool.

did you have a templet to scale down or did you draft it yourself?

There is a spread sheet on Bill Pentz website. I used it. It's a 1/3 scaled down of the big one (it's 6" diam).

[Paul Greathouse]

I'm not familiar with the Rigid Vac, (I own a couple of Shop Vac brand Vacs) so I'm not sure what type of hold-downs the motor/lid have.

I'm curious, how does the motor/lid attach to the box that it is mounted to. With the side mount it seems that it would be a challenge to keep it in place.

[mreza Salav]

I'm not familiar with the Rigid Vac, (I own a couple of Shop Vac brand Vacs) so I'm not sure what type of hold-downs the motor/lid have.

I'm curious, how does the motor/lid attach to the box that it is mounted to. With the side mount it seems that it would be a challenge to keep it in place.

It's kind of hard to explain it. So I've included a close-up photo of my setup so that you can see. It simply "clicks" in place and the nudge holds the motor housing in place.

cyc10.jpg

[Brent Smith]

I do like new ideas, and this is an interesting one. I may just try this out on an old Craftsman vac I have sitting around doing nothing. Thanks for the post Mo.

[Pete Hay]

Very impressive craftmanship, Mreza.

[Dewey Torres]

I have that same vac. Does the added height make it tipsy? Seems like mine tips over at will even without all the extra top heaviness.

[John Messinger]

That really sucks! I want one!

[Sonny Edmonds]

Well now, that is as cute as a bugs ear!
I love to see shop tooling creativity!
Nice job, great idear!

[mreza Salav]

I have that same vac. Does the added height make it tipsy? Seems like mine tips over at will even without all the extra top heaviness.

Haven't used it much to see if it is stable or not, but the added weight is mostly on the back of where the hose is connected. So that sort of prevents it from tipping when I pull it.
One thing though that I didn't pay enough attention: there is a loose lid inside the motor housing (if you remove the filter) that needs to be down (when the motor is in the vertical position). If that is pushed up it won't suck. The gravity holds it down in the vertical position but in horizontal mode if it is tilted to the side a bit it may go "up" and the suction stops. So perhaps I should make the motor housing a bit tilted.

[Dewey Torres]

Haven't used it much to see if it is stable or not, but the added weight is mostly on the back of where the hose is connected. So that sort of prevents it from tipping when I pull it.
One thing though that I didn't pay enough attention: there is a loose lid inside the motor housing (if you remove the filter) that needs to be down (when the motor is in the vertical position). If that is pushed up it won't suck. The gravity holds it down in the vertical position but in horizontal mode if it is tilted to the side a bit it may go "up" and the suction stops. So perhaps I should make the motor housing a bit tilted.

Interesting.... I will have to go look at that.