Mike's Basement Shop - Dust Collection System

[MikeK]

I've been working on my basement wood shop since May this year, and it has been a challenge balancing the project with my job and continuous travels. In addition to the equipment selection and acquisition, which might be mostly done by now, I had to build the dividing wall, design and install the electrical distribution, design and install the dust collection system, relocate the equipment to the basement, commission the Minimax SC2 saw, and complete the equipment installation. Finally, the first four tasks are complete, aside from some minor tasks, and I am ready to assemble the SC2 and have the tech commission it.

I decided to contract out the wall build and add a separate 1 x 2 meter closet for the dust collection blower and air compressor. Because of the constraints I had with the low ceiling and drain pipe running across the ceiling, I had to use 120mm ducting for the DC system. The company I bought the SC2 from gave me a nice discount on the Schuko ducting and accessories, so I decided to use metal ducting instead of DIN 110 drain pipe from the local hardware store. This saved me from having to build my own blast gates and flexible hose couplings.

The heart of the DC system is a Bernardo RV 350 3HP blower, an Oneida Steel Super Dust Deputy cyclone separator, and a pair of Wynn 35BA222NANO filters, each with an 18FP30 filter pan.


Here's an image of the DC closet showing the system. The filter box is made of 12mm plywood on a 44x44mm frame. I had to suspend the box from the ceiling in order for the end panel to align with the output port of the blower assembly. My air compressor will fit below the filters.

Here's a closeup of the ducting that connects the blower assembly to the filter box. I used a section of 180mm flexible ducting and reformed it to fit the opening of the blower assembly.

This is another view of the blower assembly and cyclone separator before I installed the filter box. The output of the cyclone separator drops into a 35-gallon trash can. The plywood cover has a gasket that matches the top of the trash can and provides a great seal, even without hold-down straps (to be added later).

Here is a closeup of the blower assembly mounting. I used rubber isolation mounts to reduce the amount of vibration and noise from being transmitted to the dining room above the shop. The isolation mounts have a good sheer rating, but work best when in compression, so I used hardware available locally to make the brackets. Four mounts hold the main panel to the wall-mounted strut and one mount attaches to the motor to counter the torque created by the top-heavy assembly.

Here are some images showing the ducting, blast gates, and 120-100mm reducers. With the exception of the SC2, all of the shop equipment has 100mm extraction ports. Since I don't have the equipment positioned yet, the reducing rings and clamps are positioned at each blast gate ready for the 100mm flexible duct.

This is an early image after the wall was installed and I painted the existing walls. I extended a 32A 3-phase feeder from the main panel to the basement shop. The top row of breakers are 3-phase and the bottom row are single phase. The SC2, DC blower, and air compressor are 3-phase, while everything else is single phase.

 

[Jamesc]

Nice looking shop I will be following your progress with interest, thanks for posting

 

[MattRoberts]

That's some serious setup! That ducting must have cost a fair bit. I'm just putting pvc ducting in, and that's already pretty expensive.

Did you get the cyclone imported?

 

[MikeK]

Nice looking shop I will be following your progress with interest, thanks for posting

Thanks! It's a slow work in progress, but I hope to have it somewhat operational this month

That's some serious setup! That ducting must have cost a fair bit. I'm just putting pvc ducting in, and that's already pretty expensive.

Did you get the cyclone imported?

Yes, it was expensive. I haven't tallied up the expenses yet, but I've spent over €4,000 so far on the DC system. The Wynn filters and filter pans were just under $1,000 with shipping and the ducting, blast gates, reducers, clamps was just over €2,500. The ducting would have been more, but the shop gave me a 10-percent discount and I am tax-exempt because of my NATO status.

I was in the States at the end of May this year, and found the cyclone separator in a woodcraft store in northern Virginia. It was on sale for $199, so I did some quick measurements on the box and determined it did not exceed the USPS limits. I was able to mail it to my military address for less than $60 and it was waiting for me when I returned a week later. Onieda was no help at all and insisted I order the cyclone separator from one of its German affiliates for €310 (about $350 at the time) versus the $279 directly from Oneida. Oneida wasn't interested in mailing it to my US military address.

At the other end of the customer support spectrum, Dick Wynn, the owner of Wynn Environmental, went out of his way to repackage and double box the two filters and filter pans for mailing. He even added some extra gaskets and mounting hardware.

I went to this extreme on the DC system because the shop is in the partially finished basement, and the adjacent space will be the entertainment room. I want to make every reasonable effort to capture the dust and prevent it from fouling the rest of the house.