Outdoor Dust Collector Questions

[George Bregar]

Even with a vent hood, pointing downward, my bigger concern would be whether or not an obvious dust cloud was emanating from my house.

No dust cloud with a separator.

[David Giles]

I converted a 1.5Hp dust collector into a cyclone located outside. I would second the recommendation to run 6" header and put it where you won't trip over it. The cyclone and blower set on a plywood hole supported by a 2x4 frame. Not pretty, but serviceable. Everything is under a metal awning to keep rain off. The discharge line free vents outside the awning lip. No cartridge and no major dust emitted unless I forget to empty the bag.

[Dan Friedrichs]

No dust cloud with a separator.

+1. I just put a Thien baffle inside the bag ring of my HF DC, and replaced the top bag with a connection to a 6" vent leading outside. My vent points down to the ground, about 4" above grade. I recently cut a bunch of MDF, and we had snow on the ground, and the only thing visible was the slightest tint of brown dust on the snow - barely visible.

[Neil Brooks]

+1. I just put a Thien baffle inside the bag ring of my HF DC, and replaced the top bag with a connection to a 6" vent leading outside. My vent points down to the ground, about 4" above grade. I recently cut a bunch of MDF, and we had snow on the ground, and the only thing visible was the slightest tint of brown dust on the snow - barely visible.

At the risk of asking a silly question .... why won't the exhaust vent ... be ... exhausting ... all the fines that still fill up my collector bag after my chip separator ?

Or is is that ... they will go out the vent, but ... rarely/never in such quantities at any given time that anybody would notice ??

[Chris Jackson]

Sounds like a resounding call to plan ahead for 6"...which I don't disagree with. My DC is a Jet 2 HP unit and has a 6" primary port if I remove the Y fitting. I could certainly run 6" from the DC through the hole and hook it up the existing 4" piping run with a reducing fitting, and there would be some benefits immediately as well as some future ones to gain. Concerns are:

-my cyclone only has 4" ports, and that would either require reducing fittings (which negate the benefits of larger piping, as the K value of these restrictions are still at 4" thresholds), or buying a new cyclone (which I can't affort). Cyclones with 6" ports don't come cheap and I have yet to see a trash can type unit with 6" connections.

-now I would have to consider a 6" hole in my cinder block wall...that's a mighty big hole! even assuming no code structural issues (not sure that's the case) that certainly presents some resale issues with my home.

Any thoughts?

[Dan Friedrichs]

At the risk of asking a silly question .... why won't the exhaust vent ... be ... exhausting ... all the fines that still fill up my collector bag after my chip separator ?

Or is is that ... they will go out the vent, but ... rarely/never in such quantities at any given time that anybody would notice ??

I suppose some fines still end up outside, but I think the air velocity just throws them so far and they're so light that they get easily picked up by the wind and carried away (or just drift away).

[david brum]

Instead of a trash can separator or cyclone, you can install a Thien baffle inside the inlet ring on your Jet DC. These work absolutely great and will cause much less air loss than you'd get with either other option. They are easily made with scrap plywood or mdf. I've used one on a 1.5 hp Jet and currently have two on a 3 hp DC. I don't notice any drop in suction with them installed, although I'm sure there is some. With a baffle, you don't have to worry about ducting size.

A quick search shows this link http://www.cgallery.com/smf/index.php?topic=100.0