Official Luthiers Forum!

First off i gotta say i got a little spooked after reading through clear vue's and Bill Pentz's internet site.
I've been making sawdust professionally for the last 7 seven years, and on a hobby basis for a lot longer, and have never taken any dust precautions at least not till now...

my woodworking takes place both in my garage in my house an area of about 40sqm(square meters) where i keep my smaller hand held power tools. and at my dad's metal shop i've claimed an area of about the same size which consist of a bandsaw a large router a combinational saw with bench saw, jointer and tickness planer, and a LARGE drum sander.

my first efforts will be improving the conditions in my garage(as it is a part of the house where my wife and kid also live and breathe), i don't have a shop-vac, so i want to make something that i can use for general cleaning of the shop floor and such too.
I guess i'm pretty lucky in a way being as my father has a shop where he makes custom machines, so he has a lot of different metal working equipment and a big storage room full of motors of various makes and models.

I was thinking about making the big cyclone with the blower attached to the top and just running the exhaust through the exterior wall of the house, eliminating the need for filters(for now anyways).
how would it be to attach a vaccuum hose to this system, i know it is design to run with 6" ducting. and the hose being 2.25", would i need to allow the device to suck 'false' air for not burning the motor.

This is not a thread meant to put clear-vue out of business, but being that i have a lot of material available to me i can make it very cheap myself(not charging my own labor ofcourse). and the shipping to Norway of this product i can only assume would be a b***h.

any thoughts about this is very much appreciated.
Thanks,
Frank

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Frank

Hi Frank,
Great info put out by Bill Pentz and Ed Margano huh?
And it is a bit scary to think you may have done yourself and others harm by woodworking dust.

As to building your own, only you can say, you know your skill levels. I'm sure Bill would applaud your efforts, he made this information available to all of us. And, I know Ed or any other person who manufactures for a living respects someone's efforts to do it yourself, after all, it's the American Way.

I too downloaded the drawings and considered building them too. Doing the math, I found they weren't really charging too much at all. I purchased first the mini-cyclone from Ed, and it convinced me to buy a larger shop-size unit.

Buying a cyclone but barebones, I'm taking my Delta 2HP 12" impeller out of my Delta Dust Redistributor and attaching it to my ClearVue. This is a stop-gap attempt to use what I have, but change the way the dust is trapped, cyclonic action, and static electricity. I learned with the mini that the static electricity generated is quite an integral part of the trapping of the tiniest particles, they all cling together and are deposited by attraction to the lid of the collector can.

Frank, I too am discharging for now out a window, which means I have to open to outside air when in use, which I am willing to do in our Arkansas moderate temperatures. Wouldn't work so well in the extremes some luthiers live in though I acknowledge. I have an air conditioned shop, so it's gonna cost me, I may even schedule sanding operations in the cool of the day?

You didn't get much action on your post because it's likely most of the readership elect to buy rather than build their systems. There is a maxim of only build what you can't reasonably buy. Some just like the challenge and more power to you should you go that route.

I can recommend working with the folks at ClearVue, and there are other systems out there too. Good luck building or buying.

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http://www.dickeyguitars.com

What i hoped to get out of this post was really to get some input about how big a scale cyclone&blower i should use for my small shop and if it would be effective to use it with a 2" hose for vaccuming the shop.
I'm most likely going to use a 3KW (4,5hp?)motor for the blower, and its main use would be hooking it up to a downdraft table and hooking a 2" hose to the tool in use.

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Frank

Frank,
I have the Max unit ( fantastic). You don't want to stifle the VOLUME of air by going to a small hose. keep your hose as large as possible for as long as possible. Take at least a 4" to the machine and then put on a 4 to 2 1/2 adapter. Volume is your friend!

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Dean

Cyclones are designed based on the total CFM and length of tubing and size of tubing you'll be running required for your specific tools. If you're going to use a 4.5HP motor you'll want to build yourself a good size cyclone, propably 20-24" diameter I'd guess.

Have a look here for some quick definitions, calculations and information on sizing for your shop.

I say make it if you can because it's just part of all the fun. If you're making a living at woodworking and guitar making, your time is of course more valuble building your products than a tool, but if it's a hobby, make the tool (if that's your desire), there's always time.

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searched through the shop(my dad's that is) today for something to use. found a complete blower 2,2KW/3hp motor, 2810 rpm, 14 1/4 impeller. complete housing with 6" air intake and 6" exhaust, only had to change the motor bearings and she was good as new.
what i'm unsure of at this stage, what is the desired rpm if for this contraption, havent been able to find too much mention of this anywhere.

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Frank

Well i finally got my cyclone finished and it actually works!!! (one noisy piece of machinery though).

it's probably way oversized for my small shop(garage 40m2) but was satisfying to see how it just sucked away all the dust and nothing came out the exhaust.

Now for the ducting and soundproofing...

Frank

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Frank

pictures?

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Jeremy Vonk

I'd be interested in how you made it....my shop is a dusty mess.
big John

John, I used bill pentz's plans. he has a downloadable excel document that lets you enter motor size and other variables and it puts out a cutting diagram for the sheet metal, his site has a thorough description on how to build it.
if you do build on his design i would recommend using a 5hp motor. I used a 3hp motor(because i had a complete blower w/motor) and this resulted in such a big cyclone that i had to modify the design for a side outlet vs placing the blower on top of the cyclone.
with a 5hp motor the cyclone would be small enough to have the blower mounted on top and still have room for a dustbin underneath it.
i drew up the different parts full size on paper and gave them to a local sheet metal shop were they cut and rolled the parts for me.
i used caulk and pop rivets for joining, worked great.

i made the inlet transition out of wooden strips, cut out a rectangle and a circle and spaced them apart with a 2"x2" to use as a stripping form (have built a couple of strip-built kayaks). I painted the outside and inside with some kind of thick epoxy goo, worked surpringsingly well.

Won't be any pictures for a little while, my camera quit on me

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Frank