Hello everyone,
I bought this cartridge filter below off ebay in new condition just over a year ago:
https://www.clarkfiltersdirect.com/t...rk-filter.html
I have a frankenstein harbor freight setup with an oneida cyclone. the setup works fantastic and I have no complaints.
When I clean the cartridge filter I blow with compressed air staying back about 4" and blow from the outside in. I have done this 4 or 5 times since I have owned it. I have a piece of clear plastic tarp on the underside of the cartridge and gauge when the filter needs to be cleaned by feeling how much pressure is behind the plastic tarp. When the system was new, when running, the tarp would have essentially ZERO pressure - the flow through the filter was amazing.
Now, even after cleaning the filter, there is still slight pressure behind the tarp. But the bigger issue is that I am pretty sure I can smell the wood being blown through the filter. Its hard to tell, but I think it is letting the finest of fines through while at the same time having restricted flow. Not positive.
I will admit that on two occasions, I let the drum and cyclone fill up entirely with planer shavings, which caused the entire filter to fill up with them...
Another thing I believe worth mentioning - I do a production piece that requires a heavy amount of shaping with a 40 grit flapper disc on an angle grinder. After completing 600 pieces, without the dust collector I would have a pile of extremely fine dust that is roughly 3'x3'x4". This is a lot of dust that I assume does not get filtered in the cyclone, and I typically send it up the floor sweep.
Did I damage the filter via my maintenance, or is the lifespan of these filters just terribly short? Did I buy the wrong filter to start with?
thanks,
DW