Junk through dust systems when cleaning up?

[ian maybury]

Am mid the first major clean up since starting up my Pentz/CV (cyclone) system. As usual after a period of intense activity the shop is knee deep in junk. I've picked up the bigger bits (over say 2in), but after that there's everything from short bits of edge banding, to odd screws, to small bits of paper, small blocks of wood, metal filings, dust, bottle caps, plane shavings and so on.

I'm thinking in terms of just hitting it all with the floor sweep which is on a 4in flexible hose and has a pretty voracious level of suction.

I think the system should be OK, but just in case. Have any of you run into problems with a cyclone system through picking up what you didn't ought to???

Thanks

ian

[ray hampton]

All vacuum systems will pick up stuff that you want to keep, a floor length magnet will help if you use it first

[Joe A Faulkner]

I believe the standard configuration on a ClearVue is to pull the debris through the cyclone rather than push it through. That being the case, the heavy stuff should spin out into your bin and not hit your fan. You have to decide whether you want small chunks of hardwood, screws, etc. smacking the sides of your cyclone. I'd consider some type of grate in front of my floor sweep, but maybe I'm just too cautious.

[ian maybury]

My system has a DIY built Pentz cyclone in quite heavy gauge galvanised steel Joe. The ductwork is spiral, and also pretty heavy. So i'm inclined to feel that a bit of moderate clattering and banging probably isn't going to do a lot of harm. I guess I'm wondering though if people have run into problems in practice - maybe unexpected stuff like say bits of plastic wrapper getting caught and so on...

ian

[David Giles]

Paper towels and rags can get wrapped up in the impeller and throw the fan off balance. Other than that, if the DC can move it, up it goes.

[Dan Hintz]

I just suck it all up (whether I really wanted to or not). 1-2" chunks of wood have been sucked up, though I do try to grab the largish scraps by hand before sucking up what's left... even sucked a 3" plastic guide out of my bandsaw once (once!).

[ian maybury]

Ta guys, that sounds like the plan Dan. After a while faffing about last night I cut the mesh out of the 4in dia inlet to the sweep (presumably there to protect the impeller on single stage systems that don't have separation before the fan), picked out the bigger chunks and let her rip - there doesn't seem to have been any problem. It's a bit like having a new car i guess, the tendency is perhaps to be over sensitive for a while.

It's quite amazing to get through a previously big and dusty job like that in minutes, and then find the air in the shop dead clean when you finish......

ian

[Dan Hintz]

Just be aware... you will eventually chip/bent your fan blades that way. But I look at it from a time perspective... I'm not going to waste a bunch of my time separating every little thing because I'm going to slowly wear out blades on an item that will cost me a couple hundred $s to replace, at most. By the time I beat it up enough to worry about, I'll probably want to replace it for other reasons, too.

[ian maybury]

Do mean Dan that that damage is possible over time even with a cyclone? I knocked an impeller a shade out of balance once on a single stage bag filter by sucking up a block of wood, but in that case it went straight into the impeller. The new system is a Pentz/Clear Vue with a cyclone - with a bit of luck it should drop out anything solid enough to do harm??

I'm guessing it mightn't do so well on bits of paper and the like - that they could get carried through into the filters. Possibly too much area, and not enough weight for it to drop out....

ian

[Dan Hintz]

Not nearly as likely with a Cyclone first in line... just anything that hits those impellers will nick/bend them. With my all-in-one design (simplicity), the impeller is before the cyclone, so mine can take a beating.

[Alan Schaffter]

I suck up everything but the very largest pieces of wood, plastic, and metal, and have even unintentionally sucked up at least one chuck key and a smaller tape measure!! Big pieces make quite a racket in the duct and blower but just bounce off the steel impeller and get thrown into the (push-through) cyclone. I'm not sure when it happened or what caused it, but one piece punched a tiny hole in the side of the 26 ga. steel wall of my cyclone. I just hammered it closed and put a little caulk on it.

[ian maybury]

Sounds like there is a limit then guys - if we get unlucky and a piece of something hard and heavy gets a good kick from the impeller. Less likely i guess with a pull through. My cyclone mostly by pot luck ended up in 18G (about 1.1mm) - heavier than i originally wanted and a struggle to form, but maybe it's got some advantages. The ducting though is 26G.

All in all it sounds like it's a case of appling some discretion but of not needing to be overly careful, that it's possible to do harm if we get too relaxed about the whole thing....

ian

[Sean Hughto]

I once got too close to a small can of gel stain with my 4 inch hose. I could watch it move through the clear hose just ahead of my desperate steps towards the off button. The impeller did a great job opening that can and spreading stain throughout the inside of the unit and hose leading to the bag and filter. Quite a lot of staining ability in that little 1/2 pint or so can. No damage to the DC, just alot of cleaning up.

[Matthew Joe]

Sean, sorry to hear about your misfortune, but I have to admit that I laughed out loud thinking about the resulting mess. I laughed almost as hard as I did a couple of weeks ago reading about the guy who sliced up a turkey (or ham or whatever) on his bandsaw and had to spend several hours subsequently removing animal fat from the inside of his machine. That wasn't you, was it?

[Dan Hintz]

Classic, Sean, classic...