Final (?) Tweak on my DC System

[Rick Hubbard]

Do you have a floor sweep? If so how do you keep metal from impacting the impellers?

Floor Sweeps? Up here in Maine we call'em brooms

Actually, no I don't use a floor sweep at all. The DC is used strictly for dust/chip extraction on the power tools. Hence, no problem with metal impacts on the impeller.

Rick

[Rick Hubbard]

Since I can't vent my dust outside, I was wondering if anyone has checked what micron the alternatives are giving you? My winter time wood working would get expensive if I were to heat the great out doors. My 1250cfm Delta does noticeably better when I clean the bags including the 1 micron bag.

I really have not looked into the "micron issue" yet, since I've only had this thing up-and-running for 2 days AND since I really am not concerned right now how much fine material escapes from the box (because it is outside).

Since it gets down to minus 35 or 40 degrees here in the winter I will have to look into this before snow falls tho. This past winter I had the dust bags and frame in the closet and vented back into the shop (through the bag and 2 hi MERV furnace filters mounted in the wall between the closet and the shop). This coming winter I won't have the DC bag to pre-filter the return air so I'm not sure what I'll do (maybe buy some bag-filter material and cover the opening in the box?).

Incidentally, all winter long I vented the DC outside and because of the return filter did not seem to lose much heat. From November through March I only used about 82 gallons of propane. Thats not bad considering I am in the shop with the heat on AT LEAST 20 hours a week in the winter. Of course the shop is very well insulated, so that makes a big difference too. Also, I don't run the DC continuously. If you look at the pics I posted earlier you can see the shop-built fan that DOES run non-stop whenever the lights are on so that does a superb job of keeping the air pretty well scrubbed. It doesn't vent outside- in fact I depend on it to keep the warm air circulating in the winter (notice how the flex pipe points at the ceiling).

Rick