Vac for Fine Dust.

[Colin Stamp]

That sounds encouraging then. The ones on Ebay at the moment are DC02 and DC05 cylinders and a DC07 upright.

Cheers,

Colin.

[Andrew Gabriel]

My impression is that the uprights have more effective cyclones and larger capacity. I'm using a DC04 upright - the DC07 replaced that model and has very noticably more vacuuming power and a larger diameter hose (I use it for the house), so I imagine it would work well for this.

[Dave Liquorice]

The pleated filter is not an open cylinder it has a metal closure plate across one end and a little handle to help pull it off the large black plastic frame that sits down into the drum. The paper pleats are also supported by a metal mesh inside. The open end is a rubber seal that pushes against the under side of the top, quite hard when the vacum comes on. B-)

[Colin Stamp]

Ah, that makes sense then. I think that would be a worthwhile upgrade for the Earlex, which will be going back to mostly wet work. I've put one in my TLC basket for next time I order.

Cheers,

Colin.

[John Rumm]

Yup the 07 should be able to "suck start" a leaf blower ;-)

[Colin Stamp]

Looks like I'll be aiming mostly for the DC07 then. I'll post back once the auction ends...

Cheers,

Colin.

[meow2222]

Building dust is abrasive, not what I'd want running through a motor.

NT

[John Rumm]

If you have adequate airflow then the cyclone will do its job, and there won't be any extra dust. The danger comes when you run it until its too full, or you run it with the airflow choked off at the point of collection.

[Jim K]

phew lets hope he's finally got it now!

Jim K

[Colin Stamp]

The "new" Dyson has now landed. It was a DC07i, advertised as spares or repair and ended at 13 quid. The fault turned out to be a duff clutch. Originally, I wasn't going to bother fixing that, but then we decided it was in slightly better nick than the "house" DC07, so they've swapped places and a reclaimed clutch is on order.

In the meantime, I tried a couple of chases and I have to say I'm really impressed. By far the dustiest part of the job is now breaking out the plaster inside the chase. I think I'll start doing that by hand now instead of using the SDS. There was no point before, since there was already so much dust in the air.

I've taken out the post-motor filter. The pre-motor filter does catch some dust - a thin surface covering after two chases. I think I'll leave it in for now though. I reckon it should easily do four chases before it really needs cleaning. I'll try taking it out if it gets too annoying but, for now, I don't begrudge it that amount of cleaning given how much I'm abusing it.

Thanks to everyone for all the advice. I reckon that's a problem well and truly solved :o)

Cheers,

Colin.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Pleased to hear it!

It may be worth checking the cyclones are all working properly, and none are clogged. The top 7 cyclones filter out the finer dust, and it drops down inside the centre tube to the bottom of the dust canister, but this can't be seen without opening the bottom flap for emptying, and peering up the tube.

This central tube can block with larger dirt/dust if the first stage cyclone has overfilled before being emptied, resulting in large fluffy dirt passing into the secondary cyclones. If it blocks, wiggling the release trigger on the top moves some paddles inside which might clear it, but you would probably do well to disassemble the cyclone assembly and clean out the blockages, which should get it back to brand-new performance, and it will stay there providing you empty it in time.

I would not operate it without the pre-motor filter - you risk wrecking the motor if it overfills. That filter is easily washable under a tap, and if necessary, you can get another so one can be drying whilst the other is in use.

[Colin Stamp]

I've had it apart and had a look. There was a fair bit of dust stuck to the sides, but nothing was choked off. I couldn't get to the insides of the small cones because I couldn't work out how to separate the two halves of the casing, but I blew them all through both ways and got rid of all the dust I could see.

Yep. Another filter set is already on order. I don't have a problem with the foam filter. That washes fine as you say. It's the mesh one that the foam one sits inside that concerns me. Although it's washable, washing doesn't seem very effective. Very little, if any, dust makes it through the foam filter, so I reckon cutting out the mesh may be an option as long as I can leave enough support for the foam one. New motors are only

20quid or so anyway...

Cheers,

Colin.

[Jim K]

ISTR they are a pain to get at tho... perhaps offset that faff & joy against building a seperate (& appropriately sized) cyclone powered by the dyson?

Jim K

[Colin Stamp]

Or I could wait to see if it actually happens, and if it does, gaffer-tape the cyclone/bin assembly from the Dyson onto the side of the Earlex. Hopefully, the Dyson will soldier on as it is though...

Cheers,

Colin.

[Jim K]

;>)) ah real men's DIY

Cheers Jim K

[John Rumm]

In fact, if you extend that idea a little, its not actually that bad...

Take a decent sized collection can/bin, and mount a scrapped dyson root cyclone on the top of it with its bottom door chopped off, and you have a commercial style collector, that will probably do rather better on the really fine dust...

[Andy Dingley]

My fixed stuff (router table) I do with a cyclone upstream of the vacuum. This means that I get almost no dust hitting the filter, thus no clogging.

For portable I use an Earlex. However I made my own pre-filters from some fleecy stuff that I bought off the roll from a filter maker. They have far more gunk capacity than Earlex's shonky originals.

[Jim K]

means that I get almost no dust hitting the filter, thus no clogging.

fleecy stuff that I bought off the roll from a filter maker. They have far more gunk capacity than Earlex's shonky originals.

mmm pre filter as in "wrapped around the stock earlex filter" or something else?

Cheers

Jim K

[Andy Dingley]

Earlex have a habit of selling two or three different filters for each mach ine. A paper one as stock (zilch dust capacity) and a more useful pleated p aper or foam filter for extra money. The papers aren't waterproof, so the w et & drys use a foam filter. My workshop vac had the Earlex supplied pleat ed (still in use) with Earlex's own additional paper bag filter over it. T he fleece sock replaced the paper bag.