Dust collector bag leaks

[Jim Colombo]

Do anyone have a tip for keeping the wrinkles out of the plastic bag on a dust collectors? Those wrinkles cause the dust to come right up the outside of the bag.

[Mike Chalmers]

Sounds to me like the clamp isn't tight enough. Can't avoid wrinkles, but, they can be minimized and made deliberately as neat folds.

[Earl McLain]

Painter's tape--easy on, easy off, quick and cheap.
earl

[glenn bradley]

Is there a strip of rubber on the metal collar where the bag is clamped? This takes care of any problems on my bagger and I double bag (till I run out of cheap bags).

[John Piwaron]

I think your band is a bit too loose. On mine I had to wrap a layer of duct tape around the collar the bag goes over to get the band to tighten correctly. Even then, when I put the bag on I'll pull all the slack to the side I have access to and carefully make a neat fold. And hold it in place with blue painter's tape while I get the band on. Tada! No leaks. There.

But there's another problem. The cheap 2mil bags. I say poor quality. I'd say worse in light of how much mess happens when they split open. For me, it seemed that just about every 2 mil bag developed some kind of hole or tear. And the occasional bag that splits the entire length puking it's contents all over the place and spraying dust & chips everywhere. Woodcraft sells some 6 mil bags, but they're not really made for dust collectors. They sorta fit but they're too short by about 5 inches. And they are not pleated. And they hold maybe 1/2 of a correctly sized bag. And they're $5 each. I might be less unhappy with the $5 price if they were a better fit and held as much as a correctly sized bag.

But that's the situation until I can scare up some $ for a better dust collector.

[Jerome Stanek]

I do about the same except I use a magnet to hold it

[Mike Ontko]

I'm in the same boat with John and Jerome directly above. I recently customized a Jet DC1100A with a Thien type baffle and Wynn filter (as described in the FWW #232 article, Soup Up Your Dust Collector), and then cut the metal retainer ring out of the original Jet dust collection bag to use for holding plastic bags (either 4 or 6 mil) that I'd also purchased from Wynn along with my filter.

Jet's original cloth dust collection bag (or distribution bag, depending on how you look at it) uses a spring metal retainer ring hemmed into the top of the bag, to lock the bag into the inside of the bottom rim of the separator. It was loosely wrapped with cloth when I removed it, and I applied another wrapping of Gorilla Tape (great stuff) around the cloth to hold it in place and to provide a better friction hold for the plastic bags.

[David Hostetler]

+1 for the painters tape advice... It will hold the bag, seal the gap give the pressure the DC can produce (as long as the mating surfaces are CLEAN) and is easy to remove when you need to empty / change the bag.

If you don't already have one built, I would HIGHLY recommend building a separator. I personally have a Thien style separator, a basic one with a side inlet, not the fancy top hat one, and I have filled / emptied my waste bin which is a 55 gallon drum, probably about 45 gallons before you hit the separator, no less than 5 times, and I have less than 2 cups of material in the lower bag of my DC. I made mine side inlet to eliminate extra hose / bends to improve dust collection...

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