Show us your woodworking dust collection systems

[turbowoodworker]

In the last few months there have been a number of short threads designed around questions specific to woodworking dust collection. But in my research I could find no comprehensive thread in the spirit of all the "Show us your...".

So I thought it may be time to show some pictures that may strike up discussions about the mechanics, physics and art of wood dust abatement. In my specific shop, I drew heavily from the information available in the book, "Woodshop Dust Collection" by Sandor Nagyszalanczy. Also the more prominent players in the field, Oneida, PSI and others offer workshop solutions in the planning of the ductwork, etc.

I'll show you mine if you show yours:

I have the Penn State Industries Tempest cyclone (3HP, 220VAC) set up to collect dust at the source: table saw, RAS, miter saw etc. with room for extra drops for mobile tools like the planer, band saw and jointer. I have experimented a bunch on adapting the hose to the machines as not all machines come with good 4" ports. I have found that modifying the various sized plastic storage tubs with a blast gate is the best way to go, especially for the RAS and miter saw.

I also use a Jet and a Delta timed air filters to get the fine stuff that stays on 2 hours after I shut down for the night. I find this really helps with the superfine stuff that invariably escapes and settles on everything. Why two you might ask? I had the Jet then a super deal was found on the Delta at a store going out of business; couldn't resist.

I hope you find this thread helpful and generates good discussions.

 

[turbowoodworker]

Let me try the pictures again!

 

[turbowoodworker]

Sorry but here are some more uploaded slowly.

 

[gungatim]

I've got a blue tornado brand cyclone. bought at auction from a cabinet shop. they went out of business I think, located in the KY south. was like $160 I think I paid, included everything but the barrel lid.

3hp, 9 vane 1500cfm. fortunately I downloaded the manual for it before their website went down for good...

 

[turbowoodworker]

You **** Gungatim, nice setup for that price.

 

[gungatim]

You **** Gungatim, nice setup for that price.

you don't want to know what I paid for the unisaw then...or that porter cable sign...or this beauty (if you're into vintage woodworking machines)...auctions rule...

 

[jimgood]

Nothing elaborate here...
View media item 53219

 

[Chevy-SS]

Of course, my fan-in-a-window is a joke compared to you guys, but I am mainly just subscribing to this thread for more ideas. I absolutely hate sawdust all over the place.

-

 

[Ainsley]

HF dust collector with a cartridge filter:

I used 5", 26 gauge galv duct

Drops to the drill press and bandsaw:

End of line till I get the lathe dust collection figured

I also have a 2.5" duct system to a shopvac and dust deputy:

Grinder drops:

Across the workbench (currently just a plastic folding table)

 

[turbowoodworker]

Chevy-SS,
You hate dust. Your lungs really hate it. Long term exposure to fine wood dust is hazardous. So there are practical, aesthetic and health reasons to keep up with dust collection.
Good start though.

 

[Stuey]

I splurged on a Festool CT26. No regrets.

 

[brianh]

I built my own cyclone not too pretty but it works really well the collector is powered with a 3hp grizzly 1986 model still running great.

I made my own blast gate I hate the leaky sheet metal ones the suction side has rubber sandblast mask as gasket when closed. a quick glance and I know which one is open if I see the red on the slide.

I just have to open the box and pull out the garbage can to empty it.

 

[turbowoodworker]

Cool setup.

 

[turbowoodworker]

Speaking of dust collection, this is from the Greensboro NC Craigslist:

https://greensboro.craigslist.org/tls/5243490285.html

$4200 for Oneida system and some really fancy ductwork. Really fancy and pricey.

When you do this type of system, corners can be cut that do not impact CFM performance. Other shortcuts will result in suboptimal performance. But often overlooked is the large investment in quality duct work. I did not use the best stuff but PSI provides two or three quality levels andyou can mix, match and save a few bucks.

 

[guy48065]

My previous house had my shop crammed into a corner of the basement. Overhead dust pipes made things even more cramped so when I moved I installed under-floor pipes for my new shop.
3" drops (2 under the slab) feed 2 4" mains into my Cincinnati 2-stage collector.
Home-made 3" blast gates seal off the trunks. There's a 24V toggle located at each branch that activates the 220V collector via a relay box.

 

[guy48065]

I recently built this portable 120V cyclone based on ideas found on the Thien forum.

 

[bobcatdan]

Does on the floor count?

 

[turbowoodworker]

FYI,
Just ran into this link on another dust collection thread:

http://billpentz.com/woodworking/cyclone/index.cfm

This guy is a senior engineer who knows his stuff and must only need two hours of sleep. His website is massive and no BS informative.

Hopefully GJ members will find it helpful.

 

[493mike]

I put my system under the floor (along with radiant heat). I used 4" PVC 40 pipe and DWV fittings. Piping runs to Jet collector under the stairway next to woodshop. I use a wall switch to control collector.
Mike

 

[guy48065]

Sure you have that drill & tap chart next to the correct drill press?

 

[turbowoodworker]

Mike, very cool setup. I sure can't find any dust in your pictures.

 

[rartuin270]

I recently built this portable 120V cyclone based on ideas found on the Thien forum.

Does it work well?

 

[stg454]

I'm interested in how that works as well.

 

[guy48065]

I meant it to be a roll-around, somewhat portable DC I can transport in my truck--one that's quieter than a shopvac. It works very well. It's got a 1000CFM 5-stage blower on top that came from a Xerox plant, bought from a surplus outlet years ago. It was full of black toner when I brought it home. Fortunately I first powered it up in my driveway

The body is a short length of concrete pier tube.
I'm sure I lose CFM by upsizing the 3" blower in/out to 4".

 

[x95braat]

I'm working on setting mine up this weekend, but had a 55 gallon leftover barrel from work and added a Dust-Rite cyclone kit. Decided the odd red color needed to be updated to something a bit more entertaining. The wife rolls her eyes, but friends either question the drum or laugh at the reference.

 

[Jim_No_Garage]

I recently built this portable 120V cyclone based on ideas found on the Thien forum.

I adapted a Cincinnati Fan dust collector to be a Thein Collector. Mine isn't a top-hat design - yours is the better setup.

The Thein design works very well - I need to get a larger and FINER bag. I've looked a American Filter Fabric - just never pulled the trigger. I don't do that much WW right now to upgrade the dust collection. If I'm gonna do that I would be rethinking the entire setup - not extending this limited setup.

I used 4"inlet and run flex hose to my machines as needed. The fan/motor combination is too small - but it does CUT DOWN on the dust.


Cheers

Jim

 

[TerryH]

Evening everyone. Here's my setup. The heart of the system is a Bill Pentz designed cyclone and blower that I built using a Leeson 5 hp motor and Cincinnati Fan 17" straight blade impeller. I'm using Wynn Environmental filters on a filter base that I built. I also built the muffler between the blower and the filter. It produces 2800 cfm. Here's the cyclone.

Shop 2012 (8) by TerryHatfield, on Flickr

The ducts are all 6" PVC. I designed my duct system and built all my own gates and machine hoods. The system works very well but took a ton of time and a ton of trial and error to get it figured out Here's some shots of the ductwork and drops.

Shop 2012 (85) by TerryHatfield, on Flickr

Shop 2012 (13) by TerryHatfield, on Flickr

Shop 2012 (11) by TerryHatfield, on Flickr

Shop 2012 (1) by TerryHatfield, on Flickr

Shop 2012 (84) by TerryHatfield, on Flickr

Shop 2012 (50) by TerryHatfield, on Flickr

 

[turbowoodworker]

Terry H and I have been speaking via PM and I asked that he share his DC setup and his expertise, which he has graciously agreed to do.
My general question to Terry concerned the Pentz setup. While it seems well done and engineered, it also seems like it demands a tremendous amount of work to get to the finished product. And for some, me included, it made sense to pay Penn State (or any similar company) to design and supply the needed system parts. Is this thinking off base?
Here's to thanking TerryH ahead of time for educating us on his choice of systems. I suspect Toolfool can weigh in as well.

 

[turbowoodworker]

BTW, what a great shop.

 

[TerryH]

Terry H and I have been speaking via PM and I asked that he share his DC setup and his expertise, which he has graciously agreed to do.
My general question to Terry concerned the Pentz setup. While it seems well done and engineered, it also seems like it demands a tremendous amount of work to get to the finished product. And for some, me included, it made sense to pay Penn State (or any similar company) to design and supply the needed system parts. Is this thinking off base?
Here's to thanking TerryH ahead of time for educating us on his choice of systems. I suspect Toolfool can weigh in as well.

Thanks Rick. Building one of Bill's cyclones from scratch is not for the faint of heart. It requires a significant amount of time and a pretty steep learning curve. I actually had a local company water jet cut the pieces of the cyclone and I formed the parts and soldered it together. Back when Bill and I were working together on the plans there were not nearly the number of commercially available cyclones that there are now. It probably makes the most sense for the average guy to buy instead of building as far as the cyclone itself goes but I did enjoy the challenge and built several of them. It was a fun project and Bill's design continues to be second to none in efficiency. Several manufacturers make pretty good cyclones now.

When I started wood working it didn't take me very long to find out that the fine dust plugged my sinuses up like concrete and generally made wood working not very enjoyable. I wasn't allergic, it just made me miserable. I started with a 2 1/2" system with a shop vac powering it. I moved up to a bag style collector with 4" ducts but still had issues. When I started researching, I found Pentz's site. That's where the fun began. A couple of years of working directly with Bill resulted in the system that I have now and some pretty significant rewrites on Bill's site after I did a mountain of testing and retesting of every component and part of the cyclone and the ducts. Hopefully all of that work has done and will do some long term good.

 

[turbowoodworker]

Thank you for posting your experience.
Rick

 

[guy48065]

Awesome shop! Obviously it's just for tours and no real work ever happens in there.

My system goes against the "conventional wisdom" in several ways. For one--it's PVC so I should have died in an explosion sometime in the 30+ years I've operated it.
Second--it's a puny 4" main trunk. I sacrifice a LOT of CFM to frictional losses by using 4". I've made numerous measurements of actual flow using both hotwire & fan-type professional meters. I don't recall the exact numbers but I believe they were in the neighborhood of 2200+ CFM at the 6" Cincinnati inlet (measured in an open 4-foot long 6" pipe) and down to 500CFM at the farthest 3" drops. "By the book" I should have problems but it's my experience that these systems are much more forgiving than you might assume from all the obsessing on the internet. I've NEVER had to clear a jam. Maybe if I had an industrial planer or giant-bed jointer--but the small shop tools I own can't produce enough shavings to choke a 3" drop flowing 500CFM.

I'm not disparaging "best practice" or attempting to optimize performance--I had to make compromises due to limited space, low ceilings, and the desire to not have vertical drops in my workspace. It all worked out fine for my ~500SqFt shop area.

 

[TerryH]

Awesome shop! Obviously it's just for tours and no real work ever happens in there.

My system goes against the "conventional wisdom" in several ways. For one--it's PVC so I should have died in an explosion sometime in the 30+ years I've operated it.
Second--it's a puny 4" main trunk. I sacrifice a LOT of CFM to frictional losses by using 4". I've made numerous measurements of actual flow using both hotwire & fan-type professional meters. I don't recall the exact numbers but I believe they were in the neighborhood of 2200+ CFM at the 6" Cincinnati inlet (measured in an open 4-foot long 6" pipe) and down to 500CFM at the farthest 3" drops. "By the book" I should have problems but it's my experience that these systems are much more forgiving than you might assume from all the obsessing on the internet. I've NEVER had to clear a jam. Maybe if I had an industrial planer or giant-bed jointer--but the small shop tools I own can't produce enough shavings to choke a 3" drop flowing 500CFM.

I'm not disparaging "best practice" or attempting to optimize performance--I had to make compromises due to limited space, low ceilings, and the desire to not have vertical drops in my workspace. It all worked out fine for my ~500SqFt shop area.

I really do use it. Every couple of years I do a set of pics as it is always in transition. Spend a **** load of time getting everything just right for the pics and then back to normal.

Nothing wrong with PVC. I'd never consider anything else personally. I've never had any static issue with mine and it's so much cheaper and easier to work with especially if you constantly change something like I do.

4" ducts will work, especially in a smaller shop. CFM is important but so is duct speed. I'm guessing that your system at 2200cfm probably has over 5000fpm in a 4" duct. 500cfm at the tools with high duct speed is nothing to sneeze at....literally.

 

[Craptain]

Beautiful shop Terry.

I have nothing to post yet, but I have the bare bones of a system. Delta DC bought from a thrift store, a few lengths of 4"pvc and a handful of fittings. I still have to plan the system and then actually do it. Most of my machines are movable and are often used several feet from where I store them, which adds problems. Eventually I will have something to post here.

 

[TerryH]

Beautiful shop Terry.

I have nothing to post yet, but I have the bare bones of a system. Delta DC bought from a thrift store, a few lengths of 4"pvc and a handful of fittings. I still have to plan the system and then actually do it. Most of my machines are movable and are often used several feet from where I store them, which adds problems. Eventually I will have something to post here.

Thanks! Shouldn't be an issue with using the tools in a different place than the are stored. Some well placed drops in the area that the tools are used should be fine. Drop placement and limiting the amount of flex duct will be crucial. Also need to make sure that the bag or filter on the collector is a good one. You might even consider actually moving the collector to the tool versus hard ducting.

 

[Craptain]

Thanks! Shouldn't be an issue with using the tools in a different place than the are stored. Some well placed drops in the area that the tools are used should be fine. Drop placement and limiting the amount of flex duct will be crucial. Also need to make sure that the bag or filter on the collector is a good one. You might even consider actually moving the collector to the tool versus hard ducting.

Moving the collector is what I am doing now. It gets old quick especially when using multiple tools. I will have to use more flexible hose than I prefer but I have to make it work with my situation rather than my ideal.

Sent from my LG-D801 using Tapatalk

 

[TerryH]

Moving the collector is what I am doing now. It gets old quick especially when using multiple tools. I will have to use more flexible hose than I prefer but I have to make it work with my situation rather than my ideal.

Sent from my LG-D801 using Tapatalk

Agree with making it work for the situation. Moving the collector is a pain.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Nothing fancy here for the RAS. It doesn't get all of it but a fair amount.






I did a similar thing with the bottom of the table saw, closing in between the legs and hinging one side to remove the saw dust.

 

[pharper]

Here are some photo's of my system so far.

For more details, check out my garage workshop build.

 

[morgantm]

Here are some photo's of my system so far.

For more details, check out my garage workshop build.

Thats a beautiful setup, nice work