Dust Collection
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Dust Collection
Hi guys,
I was just wondering what most of you use for dust collection. I currently have a 12 gallon Ridgid wet/dry vac and I’m not sure if this is going to be sufficient. My shop is about 20x30 and I’m wondering if I’d be better served by a dedicated bagged dust collector? Do you think the (5HP) Ridgid is up to the task? I just want to make sure it is before I spend money on the ducts and attachments. Thank you.
I was just wondering what most of you use for dust collection. I currently have a 12 gallon Ridgid wet/dry vac and I’m not sure if this is going to be sufficient. My shop is about 20x30 and I’m wondering if I’d be better served by a dedicated bagged dust collector? Do you think the (5HP) Ridgid is up to the task? I just want to make sure it is before I spend money on the ducts and attachments. Thank you.
- KurtHuhn
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I've got a big Delta dust collector that I use. I definitely recommend some kind of purpose-built dust collector.
I used to use a 5HP Kobalt shop-vac as my dust collector when I was working in a garage, and it really didn't work well - but I didn't care because I was in a garage and wearing a dust mask.
When I bought my current house and setup shop in my basement, I bought the dust collector and have been very happy. It works so well, I don't even need to wear a mask while grinding - but usually do anyway unless it's just a quick couple-second grind.
It also works great as a way to keep the shop clean. Every once in a while I'll push all the chips, dust, shavings, etc off of the tables and benches and sweep them towards on of these:
http://www.pennstateind.com/store/DFS.html
Works Great!
I used to use a 5HP Kobalt shop-vac as my dust collector when I was working in a garage, and it really didn't work well - but I didn't care because I was in a garage and wearing a dust mask.
When I bought my current house and setup shop in my basement, I bought the dust collector and have been very happy. It works so well, I don't even need to wear a mask while grinding - but usually do anyway unless it's just a quick couple-second grind.
It also works great as a way to keep the shop clean. Every once in a while I'll push all the chips, dust, shavings, etc off of the tables and benches and sweep them towards on of these:
http://www.pennstateind.com/store/DFS.html
Works Great!
Sorry for the long reply but. . .
I use a 6.5HP, 16 gallon Rigid vac in my little garage shop. I have to clean the filter every 2 weeks. It works great, but - as everyone will tell you - it's not designed for dust collection so someday I'll get a real, bag-type dust collection system designed for woodworking.
Now for the long part (which you may or may not find interesting):
The company I work for designs and builds pneumatic material handling systems. In that capacity we also build a lot of dust collectors. For instance, large, industrial bakeries use a lot of "dusting flour" - they sprinkle it on the dough so it doesn't stick to everything - but they want to minimize the amount of airborne particulate and also reclaim excess flour so it can be reused, so they need huge dust collectors. The attached pictures show a recent installation in a frozen biscuit plant in SC. The big square dust collector in the first picture functions exactly like a shop vac (with one very important difference). It has 36 filters, each of them 6” diameter and about 5’ long. They look and function just like oversized shop vac filters. The big difference (and it’s huge) is that our dust collectors automatically clean the filters. We use a differential pressure gauge to measure the vacuum inside the unit and when it reaches a certain level the brain of the unit will send signals to a set of valves that sequentially pulse a huge volume of compressed air to the inside of each filter. The pulse blows the dust off the outside of the filters. The filters typically get a half-second pulse every 4 or 5 minutes. The filters get progressively less clean and they typically have to be replaced every 4 months.
We did one last year for a charcoal plant. It's 35 feet tall, has 96 filters and a 150HP motor on the fan!
dust collector (you go through the door in the top section to change filters, the overhead duct going in is 14" diameter):
a collection hood
"before"
just for fun, here's a shot during fabrication
I use a 6.5HP, 16 gallon Rigid vac in my little garage shop. I have to clean the filter every 2 weeks. It works great, but - as everyone will tell you - it's not designed for dust collection so someday I'll get a real, bag-type dust collection system designed for woodworking.
Now for the long part (which you may or may not find interesting):
The company I work for designs and builds pneumatic material handling systems. In that capacity we also build a lot of dust collectors. For instance, large, industrial bakeries use a lot of "dusting flour" - they sprinkle it on the dough so it doesn't stick to everything - but they want to minimize the amount of airborne particulate and also reclaim excess flour so it can be reused, so they need huge dust collectors. The attached pictures show a recent installation in a frozen biscuit plant in SC. The big square dust collector in the first picture functions exactly like a shop vac (with one very important difference). It has 36 filters, each of them 6” diameter and about 5’ long. They look and function just like oversized shop vac filters. The big difference (and it’s huge) is that our dust collectors automatically clean the filters. We use a differential pressure gauge to measure the vacuum inside the unit and when it reaches a certain level the brain of the unit will send signals to a set of valves that sequentially pulse a huge volume of compressed air to the inside of each filter. The pulse blows the dust off the outside of the filters. The filters typically get a half-second pulse every 4 or 5 minutes. The filters get progressively less clean and they typically have to be replaced every 4 months.
We did one last year for a charcoal plant. It's 35 feet tall, has 96 filters and a 150HP motor on the fan!
dust collector (you go through the door in the top section to change filters, the overhead duct going in is 14" diameter):
a collection hood
"before"
just for fun, here's a shot during fabrication
"Cut your own wood and you warm yourself twice." - Henry Ford
At the risk of completely highjacking this thread, here's the Big Boy Dust Collector:
But to the point of italdesigns original question:
I posted all of this information to show that vacuum systems with cartridge filters are in use in thousands of plants around the world so the concept is proven and effective. However, if I were going to the expense of building a system of ducts and collection points for a home workshop I would buy one of the bag-style units designed specifically for the task. I only use my shop vac with a 6 foot length of 2 1/4" hose and only one collection point. Even my fairly large 6.5HP model does not move nearly enough air to work effectively in a larger system.
But to the point of italdesigns original question:
I posted all of this information to show that vacuum systems with cartridge filters are in use in thousands of plants around the world so the concept is proven and effective. However, if I were going to the expense of building a system of ducts and collection points for a home workshop I would buy one of the bag-style units designed specifically for the task. I only use my shop vac with a 6 foot length of 2 1/4" hose and only one collection point. Even my fairly large 6.5HP model does not move nearly enough air to work effectively in a larger system.
"Cut your own wood and you warm yourself twice." - Henry Ford
- ToddJohnson
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I use one of those collectors from Grizzly. When I first got it, I got it all put together and turned it on to see how it sucked. It sucks really well.
I was sucking up some chips on my drill press table and got a bit too close to a briar block, and Whooosh---clang! it sucked that block right up! I had to take the hose off the intake to get the block back out.
Luckily, there's a little plastic mesh apparatus in there to keep briar blocks from going through the impeller.
Rad
I was sucking up some chips on my drill press table and got a bit too close to a briar block, and Whooosh---clang! it sucked that block right up! I had to take the hose off the intake to get the block back out.
Luckily, there's a little plastic mesh apparatus in there to keep briar blocks from going through the impeller.
Rad
The other thing that's really nice to have is an ambient air cleaner, which amounts to a filter and a fan behind it.
This kind of thing just makes breathing a helluva lot easier if you are doing things like working with a router, which don't hook up that well to dust collectors proper.
http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx ... at=1,42401
This kind of thing just makes breathing a helluva lot easier if you are doing things like working with a router, which don't hook up that well to dust collectors proper.
http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx ... at=1,42401
- KurtHuhn
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Thank goodness I'm not the only one!RadDavis wrote: I was sucking up some chips on my drill press table and got a bit too close to a briar block, and Whooosh---clang! it sucked that block right up! I had to take the hose off the intake to get the block back out.
I opened my damn mouth one day to belt out a line from a well known Queen song playing on my iPod, and I had pipe in my mouth at the time. One tenon replacement later...
- ToddJohnson
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- Joined: Thu Nov 23, 2006 8:00 pm
- Location: Nashville, TN
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Hey Dufuses,KurtHuhn wrote:Thank goodness I'm not the only one!RadDavis wrote: I was sucking up some chips on my drill press table and got a bit too close to a briar block, and Whooosh---clang! it sucked that block right up! I had to take the hose off the intake to get the block back out.
I opened my damn mouth one day to belt out a line from a well known Queen song playing on my iPod, and I had pipe in my mouth at the time. One tenon replacement later...
That's what wire mesh is for Or, if your dust collection system is rigid PVC, you can drill a hole and glue in a wooden dowel about 6" back from your down-port. It will catch the block/pipe if you ever drop it in there. You can just reach up in there and pull it out. It never makes it to the unit itself.
Todd--who's dropped pipes into the dust port plenty of times.
Dear Mr. Perfect,ToddJohnson wrote:Hey Dufuses,KurtHuhn wrote:Thank goodness I'm not the only one!RadDavis wrote: I was sucking up some chips on my drill press table and got a bit too close to a briar block, and Whooosh---clang! it sucked that block right up! I had to take the hose off the intake to get the block back out.
I opened my damn mouth one day to belt out a line from a well known Queen song playing on my iPod, and I had pipe in my mouth at the time. One tenon replacement later...
That's what wire mesh is for Or, if your dust collection system is rigid PVC, you can drill a hole and glue in a wooden dowel about 6" back from your down-port. It will catch the block/pipe if you ever drop it in there. You can just reach up in there and pull it out. It never makes it to the unit itself.
Todd--who's dropped pipes into the dust port plenty of times.
I know all of that, and I have hardware cloth screwed down over my down port, but I had just put the unit together and was seeing how it worked just using the 4" hose around the shop.
Bitch.
Rad
- ToddJohnson
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- Location: Nashville, TN
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Rad, I will admit to being an asshole, but not a "bitch." You have insulted my honor. Pistols at dawn . . .RadDavis wrote:Dear Mr. Perfect,ToddJohnson wrote:Hey Dufuses,KurtHuhn wrote: Thank goodness I'm not the only one!
I opened my damn mouth one day to belt out a line from a well known Queen song playing on my iPod, and I had pipe in my mouth at the time. One tenon replacement later...
That's what wire mesh is for Or, if your dust collection system is rigid PVC, you can drill a hole and glue in a wooden dowel about 6" back from your down-port. It will catch the block/pipe if you ever drop it in there. You can just reach up in there and pull it out. It never makes it to the unit itself.
Todd--who's dropped pipes into the dust port plenty of times.
I know all of that, and I have hardware cloth screwed down over my down port, but I had just put the unit together and was seeing how it worked just using the 4" hose around the shop.
Bitch.
Rad
Todd
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I just got a 2hp and am working on an addition to the shop.
Why an addition you might ask.
1) Didn't have room in my small shop.
2) I needed to dampen the sound of it, so I can still hear my radio. (LOL)
3) Now I'll also have a place for my air compressor where it isn't so
noisy either.
4) All this because I want to do more work in there soon.
I'm hoping it works well and isn't too much overkill. But I at least can work into it when my shop grows.
Why an addition you might ask.
1) Didn't have room in my small shop.
2) I needed to dampen the sound of it, so I can still hear my radio. (LOL)
3) Now I'll also have a place for my air compressor where it isn't so
noisy either.
4) All this because I want to do more work in there soon.
I'm hoping it works well and isn't too much overkill. But I at least can work into it when my shop grows.
- KurtHuhn
- Site Admin
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- Joined: Thu Nov 23, 2006 8:00 pm
- Location: United States/Rhode Island
That's actually a bit normal. They're not really leak proof down to the size of dust that most pipe makers generate. That said, you can probably stop a good bit of it by using some gaffers tape to seal around the outside of hard connections (metal to plastic, metal to metal).
I actually used a couple layers of gaffers tape to create a "gasket" on the metal where the bags attach. It isn't perfect, but it does help.
I actually used a couple layers of gaffers tape to create a "gasket" on the metal where the bags attach. It isn't perfect, but it does help.