Help with my dysfunctional Cyclone please?

[Jensmith]

Of course! Anti-static spray as Sasha says! Forgot all about that...and it works too!

Jim

Does it? Ok, I'll try that then. What bits would I need to spray for it to work? Are we talking about the whole kit and caboodle or is it more the point of extraction to discharge the static?

EDIT: The contents of the can is mostly isopropanol so given I have a bottle of that, could I just wipe that over the surfaces?

 

[jimi43]

Of course! Anti-static spray as Sasha says! Forgot all about that...and it works too!

Jim

Does it? Ok, I'll try that then. What bits would I need to spray for it to work? Are we talking about the whole kit and caboodle or is it more the point of extraction to discharge the static?

EDIT: The contents of the can is mostly isopropanol so given I have a bottle of that, could I just wipe that over the surfaces?

Did you try wood to see if the problem disappears first?

Plastic will pick up a charge from anything it rubs against really...not sure where you would spray it in an extractor though.

Jim

 

[Jensmith]

I've not had a chance yet Jim as I'm at work all day. I'll have to try it at the weekend once I can get the extrator all cleaned out so I know it's a fair test.

I am sure that the plastic 'dust / chips' are statically charged becuase they stick to everything so it can't do any harm if it's a cheap solution. It's just whether this is causing the problem in the cyclone.

 

[kostello]

i think tumble dryer sheets work too..............

 

[Racers]

Hi,

Try fabric softener diluted 1 to 10 parts of water, in a spray bottle.

Pete

 

[theartfulbodger]

Is all this static a potential sparking fire risk?

 

[Jensmith]

Hi,

Try fabric softener diluted 1 to 10 parts of water, in a spray bottle.

Pete

Thanks Pete.

Is there any problem spraying on water in terms of wet dust going into the extractor?

I assume it's best to spray the solution onto the plastic being cut?

 

[doorframe]

EDIT: The contents of the can is mostly isopropanol so given I have a bottle of that, could I just wipe that over the surfaces?

Jen, the isopropanol I used to deal with was very highly flammable, and I would be very cautions spraying (or wiping) it near or directly onto anything that sparks or gets hot. Please be very careful.

Roy

 

[marcros]

good old Mr Sheen used to have an antistatic within it didn't it? would that work?

 

[Jensmith]

As an update today I cleaned out my Camvac in preparation for testing it while cutting wood to see if the same effects are experienced.

On taking apart the machine I noticed that there was quite a quantity of dust on the paper bags (see photo) and also dust on the inner cloth bags. This begs the question - is this dust therefore getting out into the general air in my garage? I always wear a dusk mask but it's not ideal if so.

I also noticed that there was no dust inside the flexible 4" pipes to the cyclone bin but in the flexible 4" pipes from the cyclone bin to the extractor the pipe was covered, on the inside, in a very fine white powder. This powder is also what is coating the inside of the extractor bin and also the outside of the first cloth filter bag. There was also more dust actually in the bottom of the extractor bin than usual (photo below).

We tried to test how static the dust / chippings were but it didn't seem to be too bad. Obviously I still need to see what happens when I run a quantity of wood through the bandsaw but I ran out of energy after hauling the bins outside and emptying everything out!

Given the dust is so fine, could it be that it is just too light to drop out of the air in the cyclone and is therefore being carried through to the main extractor?

I thought cyclones were designed even to remove fine dust but just wondered.

One thing is for sure, I can't keep emptying the damn thing after every session so I need to find some sort of solution.

 

[sometimewoodworker]

Given the dust is so fine, could it be that it is just too light to drop out of the air in the cyclone and is therefore being carried through to the main extractor?

I thought cyclones were designed even to remove fine dust but just wondered.

No they are not designed to remove the finest dust.

They are designed to remove the bigger and heavier particles so reduce the load on the filters. And the way that they work means that, since it seems that your system is charging the plastic dust with static, it will be even less effective.

Unfortunately this means that the cure is not likely to be cheap.

As background if you look at the design of the Festool shop vacs. They have static control built in all the plastic is conductive, connectors and hoses, and they are grounded through the vac itself. Also the paper filter bags seem to filter down below 1 micron. I say that because my secondary HEPA filters have never shown any dust on them.

All this means that the dust doesn't pick up much, if any, static charge. And there is no really fine dust released into the air.

Of course this is not much help as a shop vac like that is expensive and won't do a great job with a bandsaw unless your saw is designed for the HPLV (High Pressure Low Volume) of a shop vac. HVLP is the usual as then a fairly leaky enclosure isn't a big problem.

You are in experimental country what may work is anti static hoses and couplings, maintaining the static path all the way through to the filters, and grounding the lot.

The problem is that your static is generated by airflow and friction of plastic against non conductive plastic.

I haven't had the problem so don't know the answer.

One of the reasons I've never had your problem is that the humidity is almost never less than 50% and often over 75% where I work. Therefore I get little static anyway

Edited to remove content that was not correct

 

[Jensmith]

Yes indeed the fine dust is getting into the air. It is very unlikely that your "chip extractor" is filtering down to more than amount 5 microns and that will be after the filters have been conditioned (the "filter cake" of dust on the inside). Before conditioning the filters will pass much corser particles.

Do you know what a Camvac is? It is not a "chip extractor" and it certainly isn't filtering down to 5 microns!! As I have already tried to explain to you a Camvac has a cotton / paper triple filtration system, filtering to 0.5 microns. I would never have bought a chip extractor for the work I'm doing.

Believe me - when the outer bag has a "cake" of dust over it, the extractor struggles to get air through the system and the lid of the extractor lifts up.