a thought on dust collection

[Karl Card]

I used to have a rainbow vacuum cleaner. best vac i ever had in my life and served so many other purposes than just a house vac. But what i am wondering how it would be to make a dust collector on the same principle. Or at least try and get the big stuff out and have a water container get the 2 or 3 micron sized dust.
I have had others argue but I have alwasy been told that water is the best filter possible.

Any thought? or has anyone done this?

[Chuck Isaacson]

That would be very messy to clean. But I think that it would be neat.

[Jim O'Dell]

I thought about that a few years ago...but with the amount of air that needs to be moved for the fine dust collection, it would take a big tank of water to do the work. Plus, for those that heat or cool their shops, the water would take at least the heat out for the winter, would probably warm up the air slightly for summer use. If not returning the air, then no problem.
I guess you could do it a little differently, and have a chamber that the air went through, and use misters, a lot of them, to wipe the air clean. Would still create the above problem for conditioning the air.
But I agree, it seems that water should be a good way to clean the dust out of the air. Jim.

[Bryan Parlor]

Any thought? or has anyone done this?

I agree with you about the Rainbow vacuum cleaner.

I have a shop vac attachment that uses water to collect drywall dust. Its a 5 gall plastic can that you fill 2/3 full of water. There are two hose connections one is connects to a shop vac and sucks air. The connects to a gauze sanding pad and has a tube that extends below the water line.

This concept could be adapted to work with Phil Thiens baffle which I made (95% efficient) and would elliminate the remaining 5% fine dust that finds its way into the shop vac.

The downside is that anything you place in the dust path reduces the sucking power.

Bryan

[Phil Thien]

I've thought about this in the past, too. Problem I can't get around is that it seems like you'd be creating a giant humidifier, and the resistance.

[Alan Schaffter]

Another thing that comes to mind- I've seen smokers blow bubbles into a glass using a straw. When the bubbles float to the surface and burst, they release smoke. Wouldn't that happen with fine dust?

[Aaron Berk]

Think industrial automotive paint spray booths.

They use rushing water in open channels along the floor to create both air flow, and filtration. I know paint over spray is a totally different subject. But their water filtration is near perfect efficiency.

I like the idea a giant "rainbow" dc. I've used Rainbow's older vacuum and hated emptying the water bowl, but I know it caught every thing going through it.

Just try it with a 55 gal drum half full and the inlet pipe extending to about 10" off the bottom.

I've seen 4000+ cfm blowers on craigslist, overkill for a small shop. But if your using a water filter inline...... you just might need that 4,000 cfm

I've got a 5gal "cyclone" lid that I used to use before I got my CV06. I once used it while sucking up about 3gal of clean water out of a small drum. when I was done with the 3gal I promptly removed the cyclone lid and was amazed at how long the cyclone effect continued in the water even after the suction had been removed. Makes me thing you might be onto something here with your water DC


Give it a try, you've got my blessing

[Andrew Joiner]

I just saw this. It's a water dust filter. http://bagkeeper.com/know_dust.html

[Alan Schaffter]

Another vision just another came into my mind- with the DC volume of air, say a modest 400 CFM, being blown into the bottom of a drum of water, wouldn't you have a mini "Old Faithful" geyser if the blower could even do that?

With a top on the drum, wouldn't a lot of water bubbles and spray exit at the top along with the air to . . . ?? I think the "Rainbow" idea might work better with a shopvac type of high static pressure flow, in a large enclosure to contain the water, but might be tough to do with a DC.

But worse, you might be totally killing CFM. The back pressure would depend on the amount of water above the air inlet. It might really do a number on the fan curve of the DC. According to their specs, a typical DC like a 2 hp Grizzly 9775 operates with a MAXIMUM static pressures (SP) of 12" (of water) without ducting, fittings, blast gates or machines. Add another 20" of water from a drum and all your CFM is now gone! (on a DC fan curve- CFM is max when SP is zero. When SP is max CFM is zero!)

Another data point- the fan curve for the Oneida 2 hp Super Dust Gorilla shows max SP of only 9" of water and their biggest 20 hp unit maxes out at 15" SP. So you will likely exceed the max SP with a water drum filter even before adding pipes, fittings, blast gates, and machines, which all contribute to SP, on that monster DC.

[Dan Forman]

+1 for imagination.

-3 for practicality. Sorry.

Dan

[phil harold]

wood chips + water = mold

[David Hostetler]

A dust collection bong just sounds wrong...

[GLENN THOMAS]

I thought of this not too long ago myself. I dont know if its possible but I was wondering if the system wasnt properly designed if you could get a siphon effect. Could you imagine the mess you would have on your hands if the water were to get siphoned through any of your hoses back to your tools. But like I said I dont even know if this would be possible. On the other hand, if it did work you could reclaim the water and used it in a garden or something, but that sounds like too much work to me and thats time you could spend wood working.

Just my 2 cents worth.

GT

[James Combs]

Allen has a point there. If you turn a rainbow vac upside down without the water canister you will notice a large disk with fins on the side away from the water. This acts as slinger using centrifugal force to through any water trying to escape from the reservoir back down into the reservoir. Whatever you were to come up with would need something that does the same thing.

With a top on the drum, wouldn't a lot of water bubbles and spray exit at the top along with the air to . . . ?? I think the "Rainbow" idea might work better with a shopvac type of high static pressure flow, in a large enclosure to contain the water, but might be tough to do with a DC.

[Karl Card]

A dust collection bong just sounds wrong...

then I could call i the "cheech and chong shop"..lol