DC Venting to outside

[Larry Whitlow]

I was reading the previous recent thread named “Damper for fresh air”. I had a question about venting a DC directly to the outside, but did not want to hijack that thread. Venting directly outside is appealing to me, but I am concerned that it would create a covering of fine dust all over the, house, cars, landscaping, etc? Do you literally pump out to the open next to the house or are you using some kind of trap? Additionally, I assume that anyone doing this is pretty far from their nearest neighbor. That would probably be the deal breaker for me, though I suppose if we didn’t get along I could aim the output directly at his house.

Thanks.

Larry

[Rick Potter]

My cyclone has no filter, and I direct it outside. The cyclone gets most of it, and you can see a light coat of dust on the exit duct, but in two years or more, there is no dust anywhere else.

Rick Potter

[Carl Beckett]

My cyclone has no filter, and I direct it outside. The cyclone gets most of it, and you can see a light coat of dust on the exit duct, but in two years or more, there is no dust anywhere else.

Rick Potter

Same here.

Note that there is a cyclone, not pumping sawdust directly outside (some people do this as well)

[david brum]

I use a 3 hp, 4 bag DC and vent outside. I initially tried just a vent. It painted the side of the house and surrounding area with fine dust. I then built a box, like a dog house, for the vent. It has a removable door with screen door material, about 2 x 3 feet. It works great. The chips and dust can swirl around inside the box, mostly settling. The really fine stuff drifts out of the screen door and seems to dissipate pretty well. I built the box from left over carpentry scraps, so it didn't cost anything.

The system works pretty well, plus avoids the resistance from filters or cyclone body. I have defeated it though; If I let the bags get more than half full, they send a lot of chips and fine dust into the box. I have had to shovel it out a few times.

[Randy Henry]

Same here. The only time sawdust goes outside is when the bin gets full. I have 2 german shepherds that will start barking when that happens, as their kennel is under the hood. Different kind of bin sensor!

[Ed Labadie]

My cyclone has no filter, and I direct it outside. The cyclone gets most of it, and you can see a light coat of dust on the exit duct, but in two years or more, there is no dust anywhere else.

Rick Potter

Same here also. I've went as far to stand and look for dust coming out while the drum sander is running, nothing noticeable.

Ed

[Dan Friedrichs]

If you're venting outside, a cyclone is overkill. I mean, the whole point of a cyclone (vs just a bagger) is to do a better job separating fines out to prolong your filter life. I just have the bottom-half of a double-bagger, with a Thien baffle installed, and a plywood disk installed in place of the top bag with a hole connected to an outside-leading duct. Even with the exhaust port aimed at the ground, there's never more than the slightest hint of fine dust.

[Lornie McCullough]

Same here.

My cyclone is located just outside the shop for noise reasons. I kept the double bag filters on the exhaust vent of the cyclone for the first year or so, but they collected almost nothing. I replaced the double bags with a 10" diameter flexible insulated heating duct that pipes the exhaust from the cyclone to the outdoors. Now it is quieter than ever. I actually have to pay attention, when using the remote to turn on the cyclone, in order to hear if it is running.

The 'Same here' refers to no evidence of dust outside.

Just a reminder.... I built my cyclone for approximately $20 dollars using 2 used plastic 55 gallon barrels and parts from around the shop. You can find the details searching SMC for 'DIY Cyclone of plastic barrels' and build one for yourself instead of buying a cyclone.

Lornie

[Larry Whitlow]

There is some really good news here. I have a portable cyclone. Time to do some head scratching to see if this is feasable for my shop (garage).

Thanks.

Larry