Filtering fine dust

[mickey cassiba]

Here's a question for the experts...this isn't a home workshop, it's an industrial type shop with bad DC problems.
We had a 20HP dust extraction system that finally gave up the ghost. It was 25 years old and poorly maintained when I came on the scene. I kept it going for the last two years with bailing wire, duct tape and bubblegum, along with liberal sprinklings of holy water(WD40) but it's gone, dead and deceased. No money in the budget to replace it. Instead, I've been given a Delta two bagger, a grizzly four bagger, and a Delta cyclone. I've already explained to the shirts that the baggers will not remove the fine dust, the hazardous stuff. they will only re-introduce it into the shop. I was told to try to find a work around.
The question is:
Are there any Wynn type filters or canisters with an approximate diameter of 24"? I've googled my little fingers off, and only come up with home shop type filters. I'm building "Thein" type separators for each machine(thanks Phil, sorry if I misspelled your name) but I want to avert an OSHA no-no by providing each machine with a 1-0.5 micron filter.
Any and all comments will be received with gratitude, respect, and a little boot licking.
Thanks all,
Mickey

[glenn bradley]

I'm not being a smarty. Seriously, if there's no budget, vent them outside. If that's out and they'll cough up the ducats for filters then, solid lower bags and filters as good as or a step better than what the old system had oughta do it. Did the old system return air into the work area? Where are the old filters? Just tossing out ideas ;-)

[mickey cassiba]

Not a smarty...good questions. The old system did not return the air into the workspace, but a neighbor has filed suit over the fine dust that filters down. Exhausting the dust outside is not acceptable. My mission is to collect the chips, and get us by until the housing market picks up.What I think I need is six corrugated filters with a diameter of 24" +/-. Can't find 'em anywhere. The old system had no filters, just a 20HP cyclone with a holding tank. Once a week we parked a dump truck under it and pulled the cord and the heavy's went into the truck, and the fines went everywhere. If the ducats were there, I'd install another blowpipe system like we have in the manufacturing section, but at $60K, what we paid for the big boy, it ain't in the cards.

[Mark Bosse]

Mickey,

I would call a down-draft table maker like http://www.denray.com/ or the equivalent. I think they get filter bags made. I will bet you a drink that they can point you to someone who makes bags.

Mark

[mickey cassiba]

Mickey,

I would call a down-draft table maker like http://www.denray.com/ or the equivalent. I think they get filter bags made. I will bet you a drink that they can point you to someone who makes bags.

Mark

Hmmm, 1 micron might get us under the wire. Gonna RFQ them tomorrow. Thanks Mark! And your on for the drink...how far are ya from Texas?
Mick

[John McClanahan]

How about a duct manifold with several (4-6 or more) Wynn style canisters?

John

[mickey cassiba]

How about a duct manifold with several (4-6 or more) Wynn style canisters?

John

Can you explain a little more? Do they run in series, or parallel? I've got three units to filter. I'll look up duct manifold in the morning, though.
Thanks John.
MC

[Matt Armstrong]

I'd call Wynn and get a quote. You can replace bags with filters but you may also be better off imploring some of the guys around there to assemble some sheet metal into a cyclone shape. I'm guessing with the right plans, you could get a cyclone body built in a day, then you can reduce the strain on the filters significantly... Even several smaller cyclones in place of bagtrees would greatly lengthen the life of your system(s)...

[John McClanahan]

I was just thinking out loud. If you have trouble finding a filter canister big enough, maybe using a couple of smaller canisters together. The lower bag(s) would need to be air tight, not filters. The upper bag(s) would be replaced with a shallow rectangle box with a hole in the bottom to sit where the bag was. The top would have 2 (or 3) holes with the canisters mounted over them. That way you can have enough filter area to maintain CFM longer before the filters need cleaning.

Buying the needed number of filter canisters may get pricey, though.

John

[Thom Sturgill]

Wynn makes or sells (torit) filters that large - look here

[Rod Sheridan]

Have you contacted Oneida?

They make filter packages for cyclones in that size range...........Rod.

[glenn bradley]

Not a smarty...good questions. The old system did not return the air into the workspace, but a neighbor has filed suit over the fine dust that filters down.

Well that takes the fun right out of it.

My mission is to collect the chips, and get us by until the housing market picks up.What I think I need is six corrugated filters with a diameter of 24" +/-. Can't find 'em anywhere.g boy, it ain't in the cards.

I think surface area is your focus, not diameter. If you have to make an adapting collar out of a piece of ply or MDF, you wouldn't be the first. If the smaller diameter filters don't have the surface real estate, you could stack them(?).

I know you have baggers but,

[Robert Reece]

Why not setup the new dust collectors as they are, then anonymously report the shirts to OSHA. See how fast they find the budget to fix the problem.
Of course, if you get fired because OSHA shows up, then that might not be such a hot idea.

Probably wouldn't take long for a bored OSHA person who is on vacation over Christmas to google your name and city and figure out where you work.

However, as others have said you don't need diameter. You need filtration surface area. So just stack up Wynn filters to get the surface area you need. I'd call Wynn, they have been very helpful to me in the past.

[mickey cassiba]

Certainly not looking to lose my job! And I wouldn't like to see the company take a hit.
Got an idea I'd like to toss out: If I were to hang a squirrel cage with filter over each unit, and filter the output with fine mesh filter pads. Possibly with a curtain around the filter bags to direct the output of the DCs to the fan.
I know that I don't want to decrease the output of the DCs as that would reduce their inflow, defeating the purpose of the whole system.
The rated CFM of the Griz is 6700 CFM, but I suspect it is somewhat less, the Delta(bagger) is more realisticly rated at around 1300. THe Delta cyclone isn't rated as it's a hybrid, though I do have a manometer ordered. I have a good source for fans, locally we have a mobile home "recycling center" and the older ones have very powerful furnace blower systems. The Wynn "Torit" filters may be a good option. Oneida just wants to sell me a new system, which is not an option at this time.
If it weren't for the lawsuit with the neighbors I'd have no problem with venting the dirty air outside, but I don't need EPA on top of OSHA.
Mick