Dust Extractor help

[trials_guy]

Hi Guys,

I was after some help with my dust extractor please. I have a record dx1000 which is connected around my shop using 100mm hose (as the outlet on the unit is 100mm). I've got this connect to a floor scoop, and other outlets with blast gates. I've always been happy with the suction considering it's only an entry level unit but I was looking to upgrade this to something with a bit more power. It's mainly dust I deal with (sanding, mitre saw, I do do some turning but not alot and routing) so am I right in thinking that I do want a HPLV unit like I already have?

One thing that's recently struck me is, am I using too large hose? Because this is a HPLV unit, would I be better using 63mm hose instead of the 100mm? Would this give me better suction? Or, because the outlet is 100mm from the unit, can i just reduce the hose to 63mm at the end where it connects to the tool and it would be similar to using a 100mm to 63mm converter from the unit and running 63mm pipe all the way.

Sorry i know that's a bit of a mouth full but hopefully it makes sense!

Thanks in advance.

 

[sunnybob]

What you have sounds reasonable to me.
After doing a full session in the workshop, and you leave it locked up for the night, then go back the next day, how much dust and chippings have settled onto the equipment? If theres lots, then you need to improve the system. If its very clean, then youre good to go.

Hopefully you wear a mask though while working? The super fine dust you cant see is the stuff that sticks in your lungs.

 

[trials_guy]

Hi Sunnybob. Thanks for your reply. There is some dust on my items but I think a lot of that is due to not having a hood properly set up to catch everything from my mitre saw is it doesn't really have a dust port. Yeah I wasn't really too fused about catching the chippings from turning because like you said, it's the dust that's the killer not the chippings.

If I was to replace all the 100mm hose with a 63mm reducer at the tool end and have 63mm from the dust extractor to the tool, would this improve the performance? My understanding is as long as it's air tight it wouldn't make much difference?

Thanks again.

 

[CHJ]

It depends upon the design of the fan unit producing the suck, if its maximum efficiency is with the airflow volume expected through a 100mm inlet then throttling the inlet down to 63mm with the resultant increase in flow resistance you are moving into the realms of starving the fan and moving it towards airflow stalling.
The other consideration is the motor cooling, a lot of units rely on the collected air to exhaust through the motor and provide the cooling, better designed units have a separate fan and air ducting to cool the motor so don't care if the extractor system gets blocked.

 

[sunnybob]

Hi Sunnybob. Thanks for your reply. There is some dust on my items but I think a lot of that is due to not having a hood properly set up to catch everything from my mitre saw is it doesn't really have a dust port. Yeah I wasn't really too fused about catching the chippings from turning because like you said, it's the dust that's the killer not the chippings.

If I was to replace all the 100mm hose with a 63mm reducer at the tool end and have 63mm from the dust extractor to the tool, would this improve the performance? My understanding is as long as it's air tight it wouldn't make much difference?

Thanks again.

I have no "technical" knowledge of air flow, cant quote you any figures, but I have the sip version of your record. Apart from about a foot of 100 mm out the machine and round an elbow, it is then all in 63 mm connected to 4 machines through blast gates and also a floor cleanning gate.

I have the machine in a noise abatement box, it gets warm but has never overheated (temp here currently 35c ambient every day) and I am extremely happy with the collection of both dust and chips.
Just used the jet 12" thicknesser on two planks of badly sawn bubinga, with it extracting through a 63 mm hose, and it didnt jam and also collected at least 98% of the chips.
Never had all 100 mm so cant compare, but 63 mm does me just fine.

 

[Seiken]

I've got an almost identical arrangement to Sunnybob, Sip extractor (no box) with a couple of feet of 100mm hose to a 63mm pipe system with blast gates to machines. It gets most of the shavings from a Triton thicknesser and if I'm using the fence on the router table the port on that catches all the bits. The Sip has .5 micron filter which seems to do the job as no dust settles later.

 

[trials_guy]

OK so I think i'm going to go with a Camvac dual motor unit. What I would like to know is using 4" ducting, (longest piece would be about 4 or 5 metres long) will this have enough power to deal with most power tools with dust port? (Sander, mitre saw, router etc). I know it's not designed to catch chippings but providing I set this up well, will it catch some of the chippings from my lathe?

I just dont want to purchase one then in a few months time be in the same situation i am now where the DX1000 isn't powerful enough.

I noticed some people use cyclone units on their extractors. Because the camvac unit has cylone effect does this make the external cyclone units redundant?

Thanks again
Jake

 

[sunnybob]

the camvac "cyclonic" system is a marketing gimmick. Seperate cyclones remove the debris and deposit it in a seperate (usually bigger) box for ease of emptying. They also double the machines capacity before both containers become completely full.

The record camvac uses just the one container. it merely pushes stuff to the outside like a spin dryer would water. When that container is full, it will still only hold the same amount.