Home-made cyclone DC?

[Allan Speers]

I have been considering upgrading my 1.5 HP Delta 50-760 DC. This would entail the standard mods: Adding an Oneida super dust deputy, and a Wyn cannister filter.

The Delta is arguably the best 1.5 HP, non-cyclone dust collector made, and the conversion isn't very difficult.

HOWEVER, when done, I'd still have "only" a 1.5 HP DC. My recent aquisition of a Powermatic PM 100 planer, plus the fact that I now use a Eurekazone EZ-One table instead of my old Unisaw, has me thinking I'd be better served with more HP and a larger impellor.
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I can't afford a new 2-3 HP cyclone, so I'm thinking of ways to roll my own, and one thought is to start with an old "compact" DC with a good motor and impellor. Since I would be purchasing the cyclone part and the filter anyway, why not go this route, and get slightly larger cyclone and filter to match the extra CFM? The difference in cost would be minimal.

I'm wondering if anyone has used an old Delta 50-181 or 50-182?

There is a 182 for sale 3 miles from my house. It has a 3 HP, 3PH motor, 6" ports, and a large impellor, plus a 55 gallon steel cannister on wheels. Although the 3ph motor is problematic, and the stock filter is almost worthless, this seems like a decent starting point for a good system. - But I have no idea how efficient this design is.

The Delta manual claims 1300 CFM at 10" SP, which sounds pretty good to me.
The 50-181 is spec'ed at 1100 CFM @ 8.5" SP, which is still pretty decent, and that comes with a 1-phase motor.


As a comparison, my current Delta has been shown to give 930 CFM at 3.5" SP, and the Wynn filter would improved that a little bit, but that's not even close to the Delta.


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So whaddaya' think?

Also, are there any other vintage, compact DC's that might make good candidates for such a conversion?

[Allan Speers]

These are the units I'm referring to:

[John Donofrio]

I know this is a bit out of line from what you are thinking but have you given any consideration to building the Pentz cyclone? Not sure what the final costs would come out to but the motor has to be by far the biggest expense. Maybe you could source one from eBay or CL for cheap.

http://billpentz.com/woodworking/cyc...clone_plan.cfm
http://billpentz.com/woodworking/cyc...ld_cyclone.cfm

Just a thought.

[John Lanciani]

Read closely, the 50-182 is not 1300cfm AT 10"wc. Its 1300cfm OR 10"wc. Huge difference.

[Jim Andrew]

I priced a 5hp motor and 16" impeller from clearvue a month or so ago. The motor is very reasonable, just about 350$, and forgot the exact amount for the impeller, but think it was about 300$. Bill Pentz has a drawing you can down load, to build your own blower housing, and you could use a ebay cyclone to set up an amazing dust collector.

[Allan Speers]

Read closely, the 50-182 is not 1300cfm AT 10"wc. Its 1300cfm OR 10"wc. Huge difference.

Wow, good catch !

looking t the parts diagram the impellor on that Delta does look awfully small.

I'll check out the Pentz website.

Thanks.

[Lornie McCullough]

I built my own Pentz format cyclone for very cheap, and I love it.


http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...lastic-Barrels

[Harold Weaver]

Allan,
I have the equivalent of the Delta 50-181 in the Cincinnati Fan Dust Master 200s. In fact, Cincinnati Fan built those units for Delta, they are identical except for the badges. I am going to do exactly as you are planning to do. I looked at the SDD and SDD XL, but the blower/motor on these units will require some sort of upper shelf to mount the blower to. They do not have the metal box type structure attached to the blower/motor as do most single stage blowers like the one you have for mounting to the cart or frame if you build your own. They utilize 4 bolt holes on the bottom of the lower blower pan to mount to the lid, thus the need for a shelf above the cyclone. It just takes a little planning, but these are good units. The shape of the SDD and SDD XL do not lend themselves to this very well as far as attachment is concerned and will add additional height via connecting hoses in a tower design that I do not want.

I have decided to go with one of the East Caroga cyclone bodies instead. The upper surface of these are flat and if I use2 round MDF "shelves" the same diameter of the cyclones top, (18"), I can mount my blower directly to the top flat. The rings will account for the 2" high outlet on the top of the cyclone body. For the $199.00 price and $48 shipping, it is the same cost area as an SDD. Gary, the gentleman that sells these units has been very helpful in my design process. For the cost of this unit, I can skip buying all the metal, the snips and riveting tools that are required to build my own, not to mention the time involved. The units for that size blower come in 2 sizes, 37" high with 4" intake and 6" exhaust and 41" high with 6" intake and 7" exhaust with the intake mounted on the right or left to match the rotation of your blower. His website is below. He prefers to sell from his website vs. the site he has on Ebay as the hit him for a lot of selling fees. I plan on the 41" high model since the opening on the bottom of the Delta/Cincinnati fan unit is the same 7" diameter as the outlet on top of the cyclone.

http://cycloneseparator.com/

Hope this helps......

[Allan Speers]

Thanks, Harold. That's extremely seful info.

I know you have the 181-type, not 182, but can you tell me what size the impellor is? Again, from the parts diagram, they look very small, in fact way too small for the housing they are in. - but maybe the diagram isn't to scale?

Regarding which cyclone, that sounds like a good option, as does making my own re Bill Petnz's design. I am leaning towards the metal one sold on Ebay by "eastcaroga"
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Cyclone-Sepa...item4170f2aa11

It's all metal, and the has a larger one for the same price of ~ $250 delivered, which has a 6" ports and is designed for up to 1800 CFM. Of course, I have no idea where that CFM is measured or under what conditions, but this sounds like a reasonable tower at a great price. The Oneida "equivalent" is $650 + shipping.

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BTW- what filter are you planning to use? I'm going to just port outside for now, to save money, but eventually I'd like to have a good filter with a "handle cleaner" and the clear bag underneath. I'm having a hard time finding this for sale separately, even from Wynn.

[Bruce Wrenn]

I have the Wood Cyclone, with the 1.0 HP delta blower from a similar unit mounted on top. I also have a Delta 15" planer, along with 13" Rockwell. My unit has no problem keeping up with either planer. I also use a Thien Baffle at planer outlet to save sending shaving to back corner of shop, and then having to haul back out the front

[William A Johnston]

I highly recommend the cyclone seperator. I purchased one from Gary about a month ago and used my grizzly 2hp motor and fan and vented outside. Increased my suction dramatically and when planing there is no dust going out the vent.

Bill

[James Gunning]

Allan,

I built a portable version of what you and Harold want to do. It is shown in this thread: http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...able-SDD-build It sounds like you will mount yours to a wall and not have it on a cart. Either the larger Oneida SDD or the eastcanoga cyclone should work well for what you want. In the case of the blower, within reason, bigger is always better. If you can source a 3 HP unit with a larger impeller, do it. Also, go with 6" or larger for your inlet pipe. The amount of air it will flow compared with the "standard 4" pipe is eye-opening. The four inch ports on most machines are just not adequate in size to allow the air flow we need to capture the fine dust. Go with 6" from the machine to the cyclone.

I've never seen the Delta units you are contemplating, so I don't have any advice on how to mount. In my case I took the side panel off the blower and replaced it with a "doughnut" made from MDF. I sized the hole to match the center tube on the cyclone. For mounting, it just sits on top of the cyclone. It is sitting on weather-stripping and the weight keeps the seal plenty tight enough. I could have simply fashioned brackets to bolt to the frame, as I originally planned, but it wasn't necessary.

[Harold Weaver]

Allan,
The 181 type blower has a 12 1/4" fan and 2 HP motor, rated at 1100 CFM. If you visit the Cincinnati Fan website, they have the fan curves available for review.

[Robert Engel]

I was going to build one but opted for the Dust Deputy in stead.
Works well and saved me a bunch of time.