Dust collection - filter/bag room?

I'm thinking about dust collection and wondering if people see any value to having a bag room or chamber where the filter media is housed that has the ability to be opened to the outside. In the winter you would close it up tight and expel the heated air back into the shop (or maybe a heat capture unit of some sort) and then in the warmer months you could just open it to the outdoors so as to avoid recirculating any very fine dust. Or should I be shooting for efficiencies that would make it unnecessary? The shop I work now is simply awful and surely unhealthy. For my own, I want it clean. JP

Reply to
JayPique
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JayPique wrote in news:942bfb6e-1de5-4773-ad17- snipped-for-privacy@ge5g2000vbb.googlegroups.com:

Noise reduction would be a good reason to build a room or compartment for the DC. Some DCs get hot while running, so they need a supply of air to keep them cool.

Take a look at Bill Pentz's dust collection pages when you have a few hours.

You might want to consider looking in to an air cleaner as well. Simple ones can be made with box fans and furnace filters, but better ones filter better and are much quieter. The air cleaner is just to clean the air up after you get done working, it's not a second line of defense like a DC. As a bonus, you can get charcoal filters that absorb some finishing odors.

Puckdropper

Reply to
Puckdropper

Depends on where you live. In south GA I am more concerned about the noise. My dust collector is behind the shop under a shed. That way I get much less noise and the fine dust that goes through the bag is outside the shop.

If saving heat is very important, a separate small room would be ideal, but I would put a really good filter between the room and the shop. Emptying bags can let loose dust, which you would not want wafting back into the shop.

A home made separator is worth it's weight in gold. I used a 20 or 30 gal fiber drum with a metal lid. Two elbows are under the lid and through the lid for the hoses to clamp to, with the elbows pointing in opposite directions does the job. I just cut the holes and secured the elbows with hot melt glue or epoxy.

Reply to
Gerald Ross

Or, you could despense with the filter bag all together and duct the output of your impeller into a small structure (mine looks like an outhouse) outside the shop.

This setup has two advantage

!) It gets the dust outside the shop.

2) It drastically increases the CFM of your system.

My system uses a cyclone (with a collection can) between the ports and a HF impeller (cheap and it was actually taken off their largest DC) which then ducts the fine dust outside the building.

Deb

Reply to
Dr. Deb

I dont find the noise of a DC any worse than a machine that it is collecting dust from, so I see no need to isolate it. Unless you are talking about a huge multimotor unit.

If you buy a DC with a pleated canister filter recirculating dust is not much concern either. MY DC stays pretty much dust free on the outside compared to most of my other equipment.

Reply to
Leon

Yes, be sure to RTF label.

-- Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air. -- John Quincy Adams

Reply to
Larry Jaques

=A0 -- John Quincy Adams

Yebbut those labels are just legaleze, right? That stuff can't acually hurt you. I hope. JP

Reply to
JayPique

Oh, of course not.

P.S: Enjoy your trip through the medical system...if you get that far.

P.P.S: I love the new product manuals for woodworking tools. There are at least ten pages of warnings, cautions, and tips prior to the one or two pages of instructions. Then come the exploded diagrams of parts you can't order until they have at least 1,000 orders in for that specific part.

-- Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air. -- John Quincy Adams

Reply to
Larry Jaques

I checked out a lot of stuff and I ordered the Clearvue cyclone system

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which has Bill Pentz's imprimatur.
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Reading Pentz's site is pretty useful, IMNSHO. With the right good filter, you should not have any fine dust in your shop.

Like you, I am concerned about losing heat, especially since I live in the Yukon. However, I have to put the cyclone outside mainly because of space and the ceiling height in my shop (7 feet). I rerouted the filters back into the shop so I would not lose too much heat. I am still building the system, so I don't know how it will pan out.

Luigi

Reply to
Luigi Zanasi

Crikey, $1,500 for almost-a-HEPA?

Oh, don't worry, WeeGee. You live in the Yukon. You never had any heat to begin with.

Just insulate the hell out of the little shed you build around the cyclone system and use a rubber gasket on the door. No biggie.

Congrats on the new toy, BTW.

-- Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air. -- John Quincy Adams

Reply to
Larry Jaques

For the same price, one can get a real HEPs, from a more proven manufacturer.

I guess a Penz endorsement trumps quality.

-- Andy Barss

Reply to
Andrew Barss

I think if you go for a good duct collection system (proper ducting, good HEPA filter, and such) you'll be doing well. I wouldn't be concerned about the DC itself recirculating dust -- the dust it takes in will remain withing the DC.

I can see a few advantages to an external system: a) it saves space within your shop (I'm considering moving mine for this reason). b) when it comes time to empty the canister, and more importantly empty and clean the filter, the dust that escapes during those operations will be in outside air, not inside your shop. c) noise.

-- Andy Barss

Reply to
Andrew Barss

Good Idea, Deb. I have a friend who vents his to the outside atmosphere through a wall and the noise level is much less, as most of the sound is through the exhaust. He has an Oneida similar to mine and both machines pick up most of the dust into the barrel anyway. I want to put my machine or at least the exhaust outside, as I live in the country.

What I really want a setup, which would be beyond the requirements of most in this group, that would pump dust from the cyclone into an enclosed trailer, for reasons of convenience. I have dust going into a 55 gallon drum, and it seems like I spend a lot of time emptying it.and carting it to the dumpster. My profits haven't been high in recent years, so I have put this on the back burner, like a lot of other things.

Reply to
woodstuff

Get multiple 55 gallon cans... then you can swap them out and in one operation empty multiple units out.

If you live >>

Reply to
tiredofspam

Your idea is good, but I have a small shop (1400 sq. ft) with the DC near the corner and there is not much room to move around a barrel. What I do now is to shovel the dust into another can with a contractor trash bag in it and roll it out to the front door and put it into a wagon and go to the dumpster. I think that I should just put up a lean-to shed on the side of the building later. The duct work is really expensive for me right now, so that all may just have to wait. Thanks for the input :-)

Reply to
woodstuff

I ordered a 50' length of flexible hose. It flops around when you start the DC, but it works just fine. $60 at Amazon. ($40 when I got it.) The vinyl was offgassing horribly when new, so I left it outside for a couple weeks. It didn't stink after that.

-- ...in order that a man may be happy, it is necessary that he should not only be capable of his work, but a good judge of his work. -- John Ruskin

Reply to
Larry Jaques

Don't you love that off gassing.

I find that the Chinese products do that. Not from anywhere else. I bought some new tires for a handcart (not used on a handcart though). And they stink years later. They were made in China. I have an air hose made in china, 2 years later, it still stinks...

My made in the USA air hose never smelled.

Reply to
tiredofspam

Having worked in the automotive world in my past profession I started in the tire business while going to school, I eventually had my own tire store that I ran for Ameron Automotive Centers.

Anyway, if you don't think rubber made anywhere else stinks, have a walk inside a tire ware house. I oddly have a very fond memory of that smell. And they still smell the same as they did in 1972.

Reply to
Leon

Yes, but they lose it over time. This set of tires hasn't lost any of it.

And normally they smell different, this smells like it was burnt to a crisp... Not the normal rubber smell. I know it is vulcanized, but these babies are cooked....

I left them outdoors > >> Don't you love that off gassing.

Reply to
tiredofspam

That's logical. Hoses don't have noses. (couldn't help myself)

Tires, huh? I fondly remember the smell of latex with Nonoxynol-9 on it, myself.

-- ...in order that a man may be happy, it is necessary that he should not only be capable of his work, but a good judge of his work. -- John Ruskin

Reply to
Larry Jaques

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