Can someone help with my dust separator issue?

[CaptainSawdust]

Hi everyone,

I recently purchased a (cheap) dust separator from ebay to help out my Henry Hoover which I'm running as my shop vac. Got it all connected today and gave it a test- I can see the sawdust going into the cyclone, but then its not dropping into the bin, instead its being sucked up in into the hoover.

Seen quite a few videos on YouTube where the first attempt is 95-98% efficient... so far mine is 0%.

Added a few photos in case that will help.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[morturn]

Is the cyclone hopper completely air tight?

 

[CaptainSawdust]

Thanks Morturn

Its sealed where the separator meets the lid- firstly screwed into place then I've gone around with a silicone sealant.

 

[Hot stuff]

The lid of the collector bin needs to be sealed as well though. I've got the same cyclone on top of a sealed blue drum, works perfectly.

 

[sunnybob]

The hose from the machine to the top of the cyclone; is it inserted inside the cyclone?
If the central hose is too low inside the cyclone it renders the thing inoperative.

Looking through the side hole of the cyclone, the vertical hose should only just be below the side opening, at the very most.

 

[Roy Clarke]

Several years ago I made a cyclone. It caught most of what came in, but the top to my bucket was a sheet of MDF. That stuff is unbelievably leaky. I gave it a few coats of paint which made a difference

Now as to your cyclone, the one I made was a design by Bill Pentz, http://www.billpentz.com It was the CV06 Mini, and is designed to operate in the same way as yours with a shop vacuum cleaner. The top is 6" diameter and something like 10" tall, then there is the cone below that. The insides are probably very different though, with a corkscrew vane to direct the air. This (and other details) make it more effective at separating dust. It still lets through some dust though.

I think your ebay unit might be a permanent failure, but I am going to buy a different one just to try.

As well as my CV06 I have another rough and ready one made from a Dyson DC01 with some plumbing fittings to allow me to plug the Henry (yes, I use one too) in to the outlet, and another hose plugged into a plumbing adaptor for the inlet. This collects almost all the dust from mini table saw, mini sander and Hegner jigsaw. You may be able to get a broken Dyson and just take off the cyclone.

I'll let you know how I get on with the ebay unit, in the meantime, There is much to read on Bill Pentz's site.

sunnybob's point is valid, there is a position down the cyclone where there is a null point and all the dust will continue on its downward path while the air can change direction and go up, though I think it's a bit further down.

 

[sunnybob]

I bought one of those 30 quid ebay cyclones, and it worked fine except I have a 4" extractor and it was choked down so much to fit the 2" cyclone I lost a lot of suction.

So I made a bigger one out of a traffic cone using 62mm pipe. At first it did not collect anything, just let it all go past into the machine bin.
Thats when i realised I had put the centre tube too far down. by re positioning it where I mentioned, it now collects almost all of the fine dust and around 90% of the chips

I havent bothered to refine the position as I still have to get into the dust collector to change the bag so its no big deal to clean out both at the same time. But I still get the extra waste volume advantage of the cyclone and dust box.

 

[jnw010]

You most likely have air leaking in from the bucket, creating a draft up the cyclone. The dust won't drop down an updraft!
Even a small draft makes a massive difference.