Mounting 2hp dust collector on wall

[Dave Rosner]

Hi - I've got a grizzly 2hp DC that comes with a mobile base and looks like it's meant to be moved around. The motor is mounted on the mobile base and the inlet port is horizontal (parallel to floor). This unit looks just like the harbor freight 1.5hp model.

I've got a dedicated spot for the unit and I am working on running ducts to my machines. I'm wondering if I can mount the motor on the wall so that I can get rid of a tight 90 degree turn. My main duct comes straight down from the ceiling (perpendicular to floor). This also has the added effect of a short and straight connection from the blower to the bags.

I've seen videos of people who have done something similar with the harbor freight model when they added a cyclone. Can Anyone think of a reason this won't work?

[glenn bradley]

This is cheating since the blower comes designed to hang from the wall but . . .

[Andy Giddings]

If I understand you correctly, your motor would be below your inlet once its directly wall mounted but wouldn't the blower outlet to the filter be pointing directly out from the wall? If you make a simple box frame out of 4x2 softwood and have the motor mounted at right angles to the wall wouldn't that give you a straight run into the bags assuming they are wall mounted as well? There's nothing wrong with mounting the motor vertically vs its normal horizontal mount - as you say a lot of users have modded their DCs that way with cyclones

[William Sonnier]

I'm working on that same project with a Grizzly 2hp DC and an East Caroga cyclone. I bolted the motor and blower assembly to a plywood base and them bolted that assembly to some metal unistrut in the loft. It is not really difficult except for lifting the motor assembly. I'm hoping to finish mounting the cyclone and installing the breaker and wiring this week.

[Michael Broz]

I'm not sure if this is helpful to answer your specific question, but I did an experiment in home made dust collection system a while back and posted my approach and learnings on Lumberjocks : http://lumberjocks.com/mbroz/blog/50481
Mounting the motor/cyclone to the wall worked well for me. Apologies ahead of time to the many expert guidelines here that I ignored when I implemented my system :-)

[Dave Rosner]

Thanks - that lumberjacks post is great and I think I've read it before. I'm looking to mount my blower in a similar way except the inlet would be coming vertically from the ceiling vs horizontally as yours is. More importantly is you have the blower ahead of the cyclone. If that is working for you then it confirms the design I'm after.

Now to figure out which cyclone is best for me....

[Michael Broz]

Just a note on putting the blower ahead of the cyclone. It definitely works for me, but, as most everybody will point out, it is a little risky. Even being careful, I have sucked a few things into the blower that were never meant to happen...mostly rags or a glove, but a few larger pieces or screws, etc. that banged around the blower a bit. I should also reiterate the importance of sealing all the connections at the cyclone and barrel or you WILL get dust in your shop as those are all under pressure instead of "suction".
I know I said all that in the other post, but I just wanted to be sure to mention it. If I had to do it over again, I might put the cyclone in front of the blower, at least as a test to see if the system would perform OK like that.

[Andy Giddings]

I would have thought the pressure increase and therefore reduction in flow would be the same wherever the cyclone is mounted, as the combined system resistance would be the same? If that's the case, cyclone before blower would be better for the reasons mentioned

[Michael Broz]

Hi Andy.

Short version: You could be right.

Long version if you are interested: here was my thinking at the time:

I did some research beforehand and ended up with the following understanding/thoughts with respect to cyclone/blower order:

- if you have any leaks in the cyclone=>barrel assembly and the cyclone is ahead of the blower, it will impact efficiency because it will cause some amount of uplift from the barrel into the cyclone and the dust will be more likely to escape the cyclone instead of fall down into the barrel; personally, this is the one I was most concerned with

- It's my understand putting the cyclone ahead of the blower has some impact on efficiency but it is usually minor. I think the theory is restrictions on the "suction" side of the blower have a slightly bigger impact than restrictions on the "pressure" side of the blower. I'm sure it's all related to the design of the blower fins, airflow turbulence, etc. but I'm not an expert or anything (I recall some post where somebody actually measured it for their system and showed a small difference, but I've lost that link at the moment). It's also possible you could think of the cyclone/barrel ahead of the blower as an extra "dead side channel" impacting performance, but I'm not 100% convinced of that.

- ideally, the direction of spin of the blower and the direction of spin of the cyclone should match; in my case I had a cyclone that went one direction and a blower that went the other if the cyclone was ahead of the motor. Putting the blower ahead of the cyclone matched up better. I believe I found an article by Penz that said this is only likely to make a significant difference with larger systems than mine (5hp blower or larger I think), but again, a minor impact

- finally, the inlet/outlet sizes (blower, cyclone, pipe) matched up better with the blower in front: 6" pipe to 6" blower input, 5" blower output to 5" cyclone input, 6" cyclone output to 6" pipe. I sort of assume they are sized that way because they would work well with folks using 5" DC pipe, but I had 6" PVC and in addition I figured every adapter has another minor impact on airflow efficiency. Especially if it causes turbulence close to the cyclone. Of course now that it's done I ended up with an extra 90 after the cyclone that wouldn't be there if I had done it the other way around and I could have used a short 5" outlet pipe instead of 6" to avoid one of the adapters...so perhaps this one is a draw?

Overall, I decided those minor impacts added together might add up to be significant for me because I knew from the get go my blower was under powered...hence my decision to put the blower in front of the cyclone. Obviously, what I really should have done is test both (or spring for a bigger blower)...but like most folks I just needed to make a decision and get on with it so I could get to the business of making sawdust...so that is what happened :-).

And yes, in case you are wondering, I've been told I overthink stuff...and I write unnecessarily long emails/blog posts.

[Andy Giddings]

Thanks for the explanation. The inlet/outlet sizing and blower spin direction look like the most important reasons. Its easy to make a two stage system leak free with careful assembly and good jointing materials

[Brice Rogers]

I am finishing up my 2 HP Thien baffle dust collector. I mounted it on the wall. The trash can below it collects the material. Whatever dust that sneaks through gets exhausted outside through a 5" dryer vent. I initially set the trash can on the original rolling stand, but it took up too much valuable floor space and I didn't like having to walk over the corrugated flex tubing. Plus I wanted to replace the 4" flex with 5" smooth vent pipe.

The HF DC has 5" inlets and outlets, so I ran a 5" steel vent pipe main suction line to my tools at which point I dropped down to 4". It is still a work in process but it seems to work well. I'm surprised with how little dust goes outside.

If I would have disassembled the motor/blower, I could have moved the mount 180 degrees so as to be closer to the wall. But I didn't want to tackle that and risk damaging the motor/blower. So I just left it as original. The 2 x 4 framing is screwed into studs and easily supports my weight with no movement. So it is solid enough.



IMG_0025 (768x1024).jpg. IMG_0027 (768x1024).jpg

[Michael Broz]

Looks good Brice.