Dust Collector vs. Cyclone

[Sam Chambers]

Does anyone know if there is a way to line the chip barrell with a plastic bag so that one could pull it out of the barrell after tying it off to keep the dust level down?

Jim:

Penn State sells something called a "VAC SAC" that fits inside the disposable plastic bag to keep it from being sucked into the motor. There's nothing showing up on their web site for it right now, so I don't know if they still carry it. I had been thinking about doing something similar, like using a piece of Formica cut so it would fit snugly inside the trash can, with duct tape wrapped around the edges to keep the bag from tearing.

[markus shaffer]

I cut a piece of formica laminate to fit on the inside of my cyclone barrel. Put in a bag and then roll up the laminate to fit inside. The outward pressure keeps the bag tight against the barrel. I rounded off the corners so that it doesn't puncture the bag when I pull it out. Roll it up in opposite directions every few times ensures that the laminate will not form to one direction. It's a little bit of a pain to pull it out sometimes when the barrel is packed really tight with fine dust, but with regular chips from the planer it's no problem to pull out. It does make for emptying the barrel a bit nicer than trying to dump the contents into a bag.

-Markus

[Jack Wood]

Has anyone else noticed that dust collection is one of the hottest posted to topics on the mill? It amazes me with the degree of technical knowledge that some of our members have in matters such as these. If you want to fire up the posting just ask for opinions on DC'ing and stand back! I for one have a 2 horse from HF($130 on sale ) and a single 20'- 5" hose($50) assorted connectors,($50) that I move around to my various machines. I have a small shop, 20x24 and am not into production work so to move it around is no problem. I then have the bag collector on the outside of my shop so no secondary blowby dust is created by it. If you can vent the pipe to the outside it really is not going to make sense to buy a really expensive system when for about $250 you can do the same thing. But not everyone can vent outside so there's where the more complicated types come in. So theres my 2 cents worth THE MILL ROCKS!