Coupling two extractors

[19ches]

Wonder if anybody has done this?

I have aquired another dust extractor the Scheppach HA2600. I already owned a cheapo SIP model. I propose to house the two of them in a cupboard outside the shop and have thought about coupling them through a y piece and therefore increasing the vacuum... I think it should work fine but maybe you know better??

 

[CHJ]

Operating them in parallel may well reduce the effectiveness if the inlet source is restricted in any way.
Indeed if coupled to a normal 100 or 150mm inlet hose the lower spec one may not do any work at all as it may be starved of airflow by the stronger one.

With some experimentation putting them in series may prove effective but not guaranteed.

 

[Halo Jones]

Blue collar woodworking talked about this recently. You can put the extractors in series but they said that you have to be careful that the first motor is not "overcharged" and therefore a fire risk. They monitored how much power the motors were drawing to ensure that the motors were not likely to blow up!

 

[chipmunk]

I think it may be possible to join them at a Thien separator so that the separator drum creates a reservoir of slightly higher pressure air from which both units can draw from. This is essentially what a twin motor vacuum unit does but here the motors are pretty closely balanced too.

But if one is much more powerful than the other then it may still not work as Chas says, particularly if the inlet pipe is too constricted. To avoid it you could add some flap valves of rubber or plastic to shut off the outlet if the vaccuum inside the separator is lower than either of the outlets but the vacuum units may not appreciate this very much.

HTH
Jon