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Thread: DC on A Budget

  1. #1

    DC on A Budget

    I have a very small shop...and I mean SMALL!

    My DC is my shop vac attached to a Thein modded 5gal bucket. The Modded bucket works VERY well, as it is intended to. However the daggone thing won't stay upright on the floor. The hoses continually knock it over.

    My next issue is with small paerticles of dust being blown around by my box fan. I read that someone here taped a furnace filter to the back of the fan and it solved the problem.

    I did this and after cutting some MDF (nasty stuff) the filter completely clogged up so there wasn't any air flow.

    My fix for both problems this weekend:

    I thought that if I taped an old T-shirt to the back of the fan, that it would not only collect dust but I could wash the shirt when dirty. I tried it yesterday and sure enough it has collected a decent amount of dust.

    Next, the 5 gallon bucket. I thought about making some sort of wheeled carraige...or maybe something heavy. I found in the dim dark recesses of my shop a couple of 5lb weights (barbell type) I put two into the bucket and presto, no more falling over.

    Just my .02 today.

  2. #2
    Sounds like your shopvac isn't controlling the dust and/or allowing much of the dust to escape at the source. At which point your depending on the box filter to get the rest. My shop vac/seperator is rated at 6.5 peak HP. I have no idea what that means. I do know that my 1 1/2HP dust collector does a way better job of actual dust collection than the vac.

    There are a few different ways to use a box filter:

    Ceiling mounted box fans typically draw the dust thats being created somewhere below your wast on up past your face up to the filter. Ceiling mounting is typically used to filter the air when your done working.

    Since dust settles, a floor location filter can be used as your working drawing the dust down as well as when your done.

    The scenario you've described sounds dangerous, I would suggest using a good half face mask. Conceder at least a portable single stage dust collection system that can be wheeled to each machine. You can store the collector outside when not in use.

    A Fine Woodworking comparison of portable DC's rated the Delta 50-760, Jet DC 1100A, and the Grizzly G1028Z, the only DC's in the field that actually worked well.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
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    Buy the cheapest furnace filter sized for your fan. It will work better than a t shirt. I don't have money, or space for dc yet & it works pretty good for me. Like Jerry said dump some weights, or bricks in the bottom of your 5 gal bucket, It's better than nothing.
    J Load

  4. #4
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Location
    Paducah, KY
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    I was looking into the little mobile unit from Rockler. You can get it with a 5 micron bag which should surpass the filter you are using.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
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    League City, Texas
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    Jerry,

    Not exactly a free solution, but a cheap mod comparatively speaking...

    Add a HEPA filter to that shop vac to catch the fines before they are pumped back into the air you are breathing. Depending on your vac, availability may be good, or not at all... For my Ridgid they are available for $30.00 all day long.
    Trying to follow the example of the master...

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by John Lohmann View Post
    Buy the cheapest furnace filter sized for your fan. It will work better than a t shirt. I don't have money, or space for dc yet & it works pretty good for me. Like Jerry said dump some weights, or bricks in the bottom of your 5 gal bucket, It's better than nothing.

    I tried this with a good quality furnace filter and it worked fine except that it filled up with dust in fairly short order.

    I went with a t-shirt because I need to have some air circulating in the shop AND I can wash the t-shirt when it gets dirty (doesn't cost me any money to do this either)

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by David Hostetler View Post
    Jerry,

    Not exactly a free solution, but a cheap mod comparatively speaking...

    Add a HEPA filter to that shop vac to catch the fines before they are pumped back into the air you are breathing. Depending on your vac, availability may be good, or not at all... For my Ridgid they are available for $30.00 all day long.
    I have one and haven't used it yet. Instead I take the filter on the vac and clean it regularly. The mod to the paint bucket traps all of the heavier particles and chips, but the finer dust particles pass right through into the vac.

  8. #8
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    Feb 2009
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    Not knowing what your vac specifically is, or what filtration you are getting, I would suggest you look into dropping that HEPA in there. The point is to filter the fines, not just the chips / shavings...

    Those HEPA rated filters filter somewhere to about .3 microns I think... Low enough to make even Bill P happy...
    Trying to follow the example of the master...

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Location
    Oshkosh WI
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    41
    I agree with the HEPA filter, but there is a problem. Depending on the type of wood you work with, you said you were cutting MDF, which is alot of what I do. You need to do something with the dust before it gets to the filter, or a good portion of it. I only have a TS connected to a "DC" right now. By DC I mean a shop vac.

    When I bought my HEPA filter, things were actually worse. Thats because the filter filled up so fast, the filter started to compress because of the loss of airflow through the filter.

    I was making my router table and was cutting up MDF. I made ten cross cuts in MDF 24" wide and the filter was plugged!! I had to wash the filter and wait a day for it to dry. This is my point about keeping the dust out of the filter.

    I know you have a baffle, but I dont think thats enough. What I ended up doing was buying the Mini Cyclone from Clearvue Cyclones. Im sure the one from Oneida or even the ones on ebay will work just as good.

    I dont have any comparison shots, but like I said earlier, ten cross cuts and a plugged filter. Now with the Mini Cyclone I cut 2 full sheets of MDF (maybe 40-50 cuts) and just a slight trace of dust on the filter.

    Dust collectors are probally one of the worst internet topics, but for me, I only had a table saw, and hand power tools, (no planers, jointers etc) I couldnt afford a larger DC, plus I figured I could use the mini for sanders and routers when I get a larger DC. you unfortunately have to do whats right for you and you setup.

    For what its worth I feel that $135 for the mini cyclone was the best $135 I ever spent.
    Last edited by John Peterson; 06-03-2009 at 2:24 AM.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
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    I'm going to stand by my earlier suggestion to stick with the HEPA filter, and YES a HEPA filter will clog quickly if you allow lots of fine dust and particles to get straight to it... The original poster said he had a Thien separator on a bucket, so his problem is more or less solved with that... Now the stability issue is a different story...

    OP. Try saving yourself the aggravation of the tipping bucket, and the waste of floor space by having both a vac and a collection bucket by building a Cyclone Stacker...


    You could scale something similar to this to fit your bucket layout, maybe put it on wheels and roll tool to tool. I am NOT happy with the performance of my Shop Vac collection system piping. Too many bends, too small pipe... Going straight from the cyclone / bucket to the tool would be a HUGE improvement...

    To keep the bucket stable even with the hoses trying to tip it over, put a couple of bricks in the bottom...

    I just had to clean my HEPA in my vac, the 2nd time in a year... I have dumped the dust bin something like 8 times in that time frame...
    Trying to follow the example of the master...

  11. #11
    Your best bet is to try and trap more of the dust at the point of origin instead of trying to clean it out of the air. I have a contractor type saw that came with a pretty terrible dust collection setup. I removed the old shields, sealed up all of the openings on the saw with masonite, great stuff foam, and some old scraps of carpet for the parts that needed to move. I put a new collection port on the bottom. That and a zero clearance throat plate really helped to keep the stuff that went into the saw from coming out.

    My next problem was the cloud that shoots up into the air from the back of the blade. I tried an home made over the blade collector. It worked well, but I scrapped it because it was always in the way. I was often more concerned about working around the collector than that spinning wheel of dismemberment.

    I asked myself why does the blade shoot dust into the air? Some is probably just trapped in the blade from the cut, but most of it is because the blade is cutting on the upstroke. Why? because the fence wasn't square and my thin kerf blade was vibrating. Adjusting the fence, replacing my thin kerf blade with a full 1/8" kerf woodworker II, raising the blade higher, and using board buddies on longer stock helped significantly.

    I am using a 2HP DC now, but this setup worked pretty well when I was just using my shop vac. I still use the shop vac for my hand held sanders. Because of the crazy amounts of small dangerous stuff these throw off I found that my HEPA filters clogged very quickly. Opening the vac to remove and clean the filter just released all that crap back into the air.

    My solution was to use a regular pleated filter covered with open cell foam on the inside, and attach the biggest, cheapest HEPA vacuum cleaner bag I could find to the output port.

    I liked this solution because it is cheaper than HEPA filters, and I can shake the bag to get the dust to settle down to the bottom so I'm opening the vac much less frequently.

  12. #12
    Join Date
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    Something that really cleared the air for me was switching to CleanStream vac filters:

    GORE™ CleanStream® Filters trap dirt on the surface and are easy to clean. Available with HEPA filtration (99.97%) efficient at 0.3 microns) or High Efficiency Filtration (99.7% efficient at 0.3 microns.)

    You can also clean them out by hitting them with the hose. They seem expensive ($35) but I don't feel that way after using them.
    "A hen is only an egg's way of making another egg".


    – Samuel Butler

  13. #13
    Join Date
    May 2006
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    Puget Sound area in Washington
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ben Hatcher View Post
    Your best bet is to try and trap more of the dust at the point of origin instead of trying to clean it out of the air. I have a contractor type saw that came with a pretty terrible dust collection setup. I removed the old shields, sealed up all of the openings on the saw with masonite, great stuff foam, and some old scraps of carpet for the parts that needed to move. I put a new collection port on the bottom. That and a zero clearance throat plate really helped to keep the stuff that went into the saw from coming out.

    My next problem was the cloud that shoots up into the air from the back of the blade. I tried an home made over the blade collector. It worked well, but I scrapped it because it was always in the way. I was often more concerned about working around the collector than that spinning wheel of dismemberment.

    I asked myself why does the blade shoot dust into the air? Some is probably just trapped in the blade from the cut, but most of it is because the blade is cutting on the upstroke. Why? because the fence wasn't square and my thin kerf blade was vibrating. Adjusting the fence, replacing my thin kerf blade with a full 1/8" kerf woodworker II, raising the blade higher, and using board buddies on longer stock helped significantly.

    I am using a 2HP DC now, but this setup worked pretty well when I was just using my shop vac. I still use the shop vac for my hand held sanders. Because of the crazy amounts of small dangerous stuff these throw off I found that my HEPA filters clogged very quickly. Opening the vac to remove and clean the filter just released all that crap back into the air.

    My solution was to use a regular pleated filter covered with open cell foam on the inside, and attach the biggest, cheapest HEPA vacuum cleaner bag I could find to the output port.

    I liked this solution because it is cheaper than HEPA filters, and I can shake the bag to get the dust to settle down to the bottom so I'm opening the vac much less frequently.
    Hey Ben,

    Great idea. I just bought a bright new stainless steel drum Shop Vac from my friendly, local Lowes last night. I also bought a HEPA filter drum for it since my primary use is with my DeWalt bench top saw and portable planer. Inside was a large bag that the instructions say is for sanding drywall. I will probably never use it for that so now I see your idea.

    Thanks for posting. Owe you one!

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    Ft. Pierce, FL
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    185
    Go back and read John Peterson's reply. He is dead on. Whether it is the Oneida dust deputy, or the Clearvue mini cv06 cyclone,(which I have) the secret is the cyclone comes between your tool and the vacuum. It will seperate out almost all your sawdust, fines, etc.

    I have seen a lot of posts about which filter to use, HEPA, micron size, etc. You are still going to be cleaning it all the time unless you have something in between to get out most of the stuff. That something is the cyclone.
    "Non illegitimis corborundum"

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