Cyclone to the great outdoors?

[mark mcconachie]

I am wondering if I can forgo the actual 'collecting' of my sawdust, rather simply blow it out to the pasture behind my shop?

I have a cyclone DC now, that I am in the process of running the duct work for. It just seems silly to collect the sawdust and then carry it out to the fields and dump it. I would like to just use the system to blow it out there.

I know one thing I face is the heating of my shop will be adversly affected while the DC is running. Is here any other reasons I should not do this?

Thanks in advance for he input guys!

Mark

[Alan Schaffter]

Nope- other than as you noted, the impact on heating, and possible problems with CO in reverse flow of flue gases if you have a fossil fueled heater or hotwater heater in your shop, venting directly outside with no separator and no filter is the most efficient since it eliminates two sources of static pressure resistance.

[Philip Rodriquez]

I'd put the whole thing out there if I could. No filters, no collection bin... it would be great! However, I would make sure it wouldn't do any damage to the motor. I know my Oneida manual cautions about turning on the cyclone before it is connected to the duct work. Perhaps it would be a problem.

[Alan Schaffter]

I'd put the whole thing out there if I could. No filters, no collection bin... it would be great! However, I would make sure it wouldn't do any damage to the motor. I know my Oneida manual cautions about turning on the cyclone before it is connected to the duct work. Perhaps it would be a problem.

You gotta have some ductwork or hose on the inlet or outlet or else the motor will pull too much current. I can't say how much, but you need some.

[hank dekeyser]

I dont understand how a motor can "pull too much current" A motor pretty much runs. That would be like saying that your saw motor (or whatever) pulls too much current when the belt is off it ???
They make "flappers" for the bottom of cyclones, that turn and allow whatever is being collected to fall out while still allowing the cyclone to work properly. attach a conveyor to it and ?? It sound like what you want to do is pretty much by-pass everything except the impeller and just "let 'er buck" sooner o rlater you'll have to deal with a pile of chips, its only gonna throw the stuff so far. Maybe a sileage blower would work better ?( Designed to run off a tracto PTO and fill a silo, literally pushing material from the ground to the top of the silo)

[paul dyar]

My shop is in the basement, and I have mine blowing to the outside. It does a much better job, and it doesn't need the bags to keep it from pulling too many amps. Getting it up off the ground is no harder than emptying the bag. The problem I have is the fine stuff gets onto the screened porch and in the pool. Depends on the wind direction.
Paul

[Dan Friedrichs]

I dont understand how a motor can "pull too much current" A motor pretty much runs. That would be like saying that your saw motor (or whatever) pulls too much current when the belt is off it ???

Your example is in the wrong direction. Say you were using your saw to cut a really thick piece of hard maple - the motor could be doing a lot of work, and drawing more current than it can safely handle for a long period of time. That's usually not a problem with a saw motor (because you can't saw a thick, hard piece of wood continuously for hours...), but for a dust collector, the motor does the most work (moves the most air) when the restriction is minimized (ie - no duct work, no filters). Since most people use filters and ductwork on their dust collectors, the manufacturers size the motors based on the amount of air that would be moved with ducting and filters. Remove those, and more air is moved, but that also means the motor will do more work, which can result in over-currenting it.


To the OP - yep, do it. Maybe put a 45 degree elbow on the end of the exhaust pipe that you can go point a different direction every so often to keep from making a big pile.

[Alan Schaffter]

I dont understand how a motor can "pull too much current" A motor pretty much runs. That would be like saying that your saw motor (or whatever) pulls too much current when the belt is off it ???
They make "flappers" for the bottom of cyclones, that turn and allow whatever is being collected to fall out while still allowing the cyclone to work properly. attach a conveyor to it and ?? It sound like what you want to do is pretty much by-pass everything except the impeller and just "let 'er buck" sooner o rlater you'll have to deal with a pile of chips, its only gonna throw the stuff so far. Maybe a sileage blower would work better ?( Designed to run off a tracto PTO and fill a silo, literally pushing material from the ground to the top of the silo)

Well, without going into the technical side of material handling blowers, try this experiment- take a DC that is rated at 17 amps, remove all pipe and any restrictions on the inlet and outlet of the blower. Wire the blower to a circuit with a 20 AMP breaker, then turn it on. I'll wager every machine in my shop that the breaker will pop in under 3 minutes. Remember, a DC blower does the LEAST amount of work (draws least current) when the inlet/outlets are blocked and the most work when they are open with no restriction.