Homemade Dust Collector Dampers

[Jeffrey Makiel]

There's been some recent renewed interest in automated dust collector dampers as an alternative to manual blast gates. Recently, a fellow SMC'er posted his pneumatic actuator design which I thought was way cool. This design uses electric solenoids and has been posted here before, and is nothing new. However, I just made up a photo essay from pics I took when making 6" dia models that I built a few years ago...

-Jeff

[Lee Schierer]

Very nice damper but you can do the same thing using your front and rear end pieces and a single thickness of lexan. Just cut a U shaped piece out of a rectangle of lexan that is the same width and about 2" longer than the height of your end pieces. The width of the U should be the diameter of the pipe being used. Peel the protective covering off the inside of the U and leave it on the out side of the U (this creates a slight amount of clearance). Sandwich the cut out between the two end pieces and screw them all together with four wood screws near the corners. Slide in the inside piece and add a single sheet metal screw to keep it from pulling back out.

[Bill Arnold]

I saw your design before and thought it interesting. I'm curious about the effect of air turbulence due to the baffle and transition between round duct and square corners.

Personally, I have no issue reaching over and pulling or pushing a blast gate at a tool.

[Matt Meiser]

Does the blade ever try to act like a wing in the wind? You've basically got a little wind tunnel going there!

[Jeffrey Makiel]

Does the blade ever try to act like a wing in the wind? You've basically got a little wind tunnel going there!

Nope. Nothing that I could tell. The pivot shaft is in the middle of the blade whereby making the blade immune to torque created by airstream pressure. When open (parallel), the solenoid and the return spring provide enough force to keep the blade steady.

-Jeff

[Bruce Wrenn]

GE dishwashers use a similar system to control the "dump valve" on the pump. Solenoids can be has for free off old dishwashers. But because they are "snap action" parts must be designed to account for this.