Dust seperator

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Jinx

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Hi - I am planning to make a dust separator for my vac and at the same time put is a series of 'plumbing' pipes around my shop to attach to each machine as I use it - I am only a diy'er so only use one or two, I was wondering if I put a screw cap on the ends of the pipe that is not attached to a machine at the time would the system work? or would the long pipework take all of the suck out of the system? Any ideas? cheers, Jinx
 
what vac are you thinking of using? What machines do you have?

It could be worth looking at DIY blast gates on the forum. I seem to remeber somebody making some pretty simple ones, which would remove that long run of empty pipe. The alternative, is to just unhook the dust collection pipe from one machine and put it on the next. I dont know how much of a pain this would be to you, but probably as quick as unscrewing ends etc.
 
Hi Marcros, I have a Woodstar from Screwfix (99.00) and I have a table saw, mitre saw, lathe, and router table - but only use one thing at a time and wanted to run the pipes around the roof and then just plug in at each machine as I use it with a length of flexihose? Jinx Oh never heard of blast gates, I will go and google them...
 
I think that it will struggle to power a system. Far better to put it on wheels and just plug it in to each machine. I dont know about the lathe, and its suitability- that will be more shavings than dust though, presumably?

I dont want to rain on your parade, but I just dont think it will cope with longer pipe runs than its own hose. I would simplify the connection systems for each machine ahead of doing any other mods- so that where you connect up is convenient, and adapted so that the hose will slot straight on.
 
Thanks Marcros - I appreciate your advice and I think you are right simplifying the connections would be easier and probably cheaper too, Jinx
 
Hi Jinx,

By the sound of it I think you have the same machine (mine is a SIP) that I use to power my chip cyclone - if so then you may be disappointed if you do try and plumb it to some 100mm soil pipe. I don’t think it’s the kind of machine to cope with that type of setup as its not powerful enough.

The way I have mine is that between the vac and the cyclone there's about a 5m hose and then between the cyclone and the tool there can be up to another 5m of hose depending on the length I use - I definitely don't recommended doing it this way but since I wanted the vac under my floor to cut out some of the noise I had little option. I only really use it for the planer which it does cope with, its also hooked up to a blast gate and a floorsweep (both of which I made - plenty of "how to's" online) which again it will just about handle.

Cheers
Alan
 
Jinx,
I have the same machine from Screwfix. I tried connecting it to a bin with a Thien seperator set up (Google or Youtube for more info or plenty of threads on here) but it was not powerful enough. It would definitely not cope with a long pipe run. I have now bought a second hand Record Power DX 4000 which has a double motor which should do the trick. Worth keeping an eye on eBay as they do pop up now and again.

regards,
 
I recently completed a dust separator build. It's a simple octagonal bin made from ply with opposing 90 deg 100mm elbows in the lid and it sits in-line with my Record DX4000.

I used an existing 100mm hose to connect the separator to the extractor. The hose is about 5m long and it's the hose I use when I need a long run for the extractor and hence I didn't want to cut it. The long hose causes a noticeable drop in 'suck' so my next step is to buy some super flexible 100mm hose to reduce the interconnect to a minimum.

I opted not to plumb my dust extraction in as many of my machines move around and I've always found it easier to move the extraction to where I need it.

The separator works brilliantly. The biggest bugbear I had with the DX4000 is the rate at which it filled up especially when using my thicknesser. Now I end up with a small amount of fine dust in the DX for every sack full of heavier sawdust, shavings and chips that I empty from the separator bin. I've also modified the filters in the DX to remove the fabric pre-filter and instead I've modified some Nilfisk filter bags which cover each of the DX fine filters. The main reason for this was that the fabric pre-filter in the DX was a complete arse to clean when emptying the DX.

I would highly recommend this type of separator. It's really simple to make and very effective. I'm going to modify mine with a perspex window so I can see how full it is.
 
Thanks for the advice guys - I will let you know what I do in the end and if it works or not?? Jinx
 
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