One teeny problem with outside venting.

[Rick Potter]

I have my 3 HP Oneida cyclone in a shed 4' away from my shop wall. It then vents directly outside toward the wall, and the vent has a maybe 45 degree fitting pointing down to the gravel walk in between. It has worked fine for a couple years...almost no dust on the wall. Works great.

Until I get lazy. I knew it was getting pretty close to time to empty the drum, but I wanted to finish sanding some raised panels to get it done while I was in the mood. Next morning I went out while the DC was running, and found that tiny shavings and a lot of dust were floating around the gravel walkway. I waited too long. To make matters worse, the angle fitting had fallen off after only two years because I was too lazy to put a pop rivet in to hold it on.

The roof of my shop was covered in a nice thin coating of sawdust because the outlet vent didn't direct it down. Then it started to rain lightly. Not enough to wash the roof off, just enough to stick the sawdust in place. A friend who was there helped me dump the drum, then I spent about half an hour with a hose, washing my roof.

Nothing at all wrong with the system, it works great.


Let's chalk this one up to operator error.....OK, OK....just plain laziness.

[Bill Dufour]

In my town in California I would be fined for wasting water if I washed the roof. Of course then dust is a fire hazard during a forest fire so you can not win.
Bill D

[Jim Becker]

[Leo Graywacz]

Venting outside steals my air conditioned air. Not as noticeable with the heat.

[Chris Parks]

My bin filled just after the wife washed her car and parked it under the exhaust outlet from the cyclone, you fill in the blanks!

[Jim Andrew]

One day I was sanding doors, when I happened to look outside, and there was a cloud of dust out there under the outlet. There was no dust on the ground.

[Jim Finn]

Venting outside steals my air conditioned air. Not as noticeable with the heat.

Yes this is an issue here in west Texas where it is often over 100°. My dust collector is also outside my shop. What I have done is to install a six inch dryer vent, that I made without the flapper damper, connected to a flex duct to my sanding station and put a blast gate there. As the dust collector exhausts the dust and air the outside air is drawn in and goes right outside along with the dust. Little conditioned air is lost. I have another set up like this on my six inch stationary belt sander.

[Marc Jeske]

Creek Advanced Search Results for "Dust Level Sensor". Marc

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/search.php?searchid=8254947

[Marc Jeske]

Kinda similar... I'm planning for a poor man's mini DC system, and to put the shop vac in a different room, w remote switch.

Slightly concerned that if someone not used to it is using it, and can't tell hose is plugged, and can't hear motor whining in other room, and can't smell motor getting hot, could be trouble, like below link.

But, not too concerned, cause long as I'm around, will always be only 3 people w access. Marc

The owner of the below vacuum explained..... "I was running this vac to remove some yellow jackets from behind my siding for about an hour and a half. I had done this before several times in my yard. Today, I guess my vac just had enough. The motor burned to the extent that it fell inside the bucket before I discovered it. Thankfully it didn't set the deck or house on fire along with it."

Probably good it wasn't filled w wood dust.