Dust collection option?

That’s very useful, cheers.

So basically never use any wood, heh.

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For the answers to everything you didn’t know about dust collection, you need Bill Pentz.

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Thank you, I’ll check that out.

So I got a really strange email back from Dyson today.

I was told that their vacuums aren’t suitable for fine particles as you may block the filters, I thought that was the point to having a filter in the first place, and that none of their range is suitable. We’re talking here about their own range that claims 0.5 micron filtering, why advertise that level of filtering if you’re not actually supposed to use it for that level of filtering.

I’m not sure, in that case, what their vacuums are meant to achieve, I have asked for further clarification in the matter and for uses for their vacuums other than air. I’ll post it when I receive it.

Please reply if you think my expectations of their top of the line range are unreasonable, I didn’t think I was.

I did not know that Dyson made a dust collector.

If you’re using a Dyson vacuum as a dust collector you’re doing it wrong.

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Fair enough, it wouldn’t be called a dust collector, I’m referring to their vacuum range. In all fairness I wouldn’t have considered the jobs to be that different, only scale, I’m not expecting full workshop levels of waste. The amount of waste produced by a Carvey is small per job and certainly equatable to entire house vacuuming tasks and as the vacuum is rated for 0.5 micron levels of dust filtration at that level dust is dust, you have density to take into account, sure, but then surely that would be an issue of the vacuum only being able suitable for certain amounts debis, rather than particular tasks.

But that’s why I’m here, to sort out what I know from what I don’t have a clue about, and get the benefit of everyone’s knowledge, and I have to admit for the scale of the tasks I wouldn’t have thought that my expectation were so wide of the mark, but it’s good that I know that now.

I’ve seen an industrial dust collector, I was hoping not to have to go with a huge (in comparison) piece of equipment, but it seems from reactions at my stupidity (?) that would be my only option. Yech… oh well every day is a school day.

Hey that’s pretty cool, I only saw your comment in the notification and I was going to reply with why not add a gif to that to further validate your internet level comment, but I see you had that covered.

Good one, typical internet person. thumbs up

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Just playing dude. I still use a hand-held hoover on occasion for small tasks.

If you’re looking for something to run all the time and work well with saw dust you’ll need a specaialzed vacuum. If you want a “shop-vac” looking vaccuum you’ll need a “dust extractor” like a Fein or Festool OR you need a “dust collector” (something like this http://www.harborfreight.com/2-hp-industrial-5-micron-dust-collector-97869.html ).

Your X-Carve is going to produce a wide range of particle sizes when you cut wood. You will get a lot of large “chips” and you will also get a lot of very fine dust. For that reason a Dust Collector will usually have a cyclone type separator to force all the larger particles to fall into the collection bag and leaving the very fine dust to be filtered by the filter bag.

The Harbor Freight Dust collector comes with a 5 micron filter bag, but for about $25 you can easily replace it with a 1 micron filter bag.

http://www.harborfreight.com/70-gal-2-hp-industrial-dust-collector-61790.html

If you have a good dust shoe the HF dust collector will do a great job keeping the air clean.

If you have other wood working equipment (belt sander, table saw etc…) you may also want to get a shop air filter to pull the dust out the air that is not captured by your dust collector.

You can use a shop vac in place of a dust collector, but they are really not designed to run for long periods of time and will eventually overheat and the motor will fail. Plus they are usually much louder than a dedicated dust collector.

Lol, no I wouldn’t dare to have any other dust producing tools in the environment I have to work with, any finishing I have to do would be done outside with sand paper (or other equivalents according to material used), I fully admit I’m expecting a lot here given my circumstances, but I’ve always considered that’s there’s a solution to everything if you consider the matter hard enough.

I’ve seen this…(haven’t looked at your suggestion yet (TY btw))

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DJM-Heavy-Duty-Industrial-Workshop-1hp-Dust-Collector-Dust-Extractor-240v-/201047854976
(hey it gives a picture… cool forum feature)

and am in the process of finding out if I’m able to swap the filter (or bag, I’m not entirely sure of the set ups of this kind of equipment) on this to cope with smaller particulate matter.

I apologise for the tone of my reply to you.

Unfortunately I’m not able to go for a small regular vacuum, I would love to get away with a solution with that ease… although you do bring up the reason for my puzzlement in being unable to use a vacuum with a filtration system… if a small vacuum without filter can handle the larger particles why wouldn’t a filtered vacuum be able to handle the rest… Do you see my point?

Thank you for your suggestion of more suitable equipment.

I’ve never tried it, but you might be able to hack a “dust deputy” ( Google) to a standard vacuum. The problem is long term you have have lots of hardware issues. Standard vacuums aren’t made to run constantly for hours at a time.

I wouldn’t be running it for hours, I fully accept that would cause problems.

I have the intention of housing the machine in a strong polythene hood (currently trying to source a crib sized medical tent or something to that effect) I would then only turn on the vaccum sporadically during the job for clearance issues and at the end of the job for clean up.

In that scenario, I’d look into a cheap shop-vac with a dust deputy.

OK, I’ll check that out.

Edit … I’m still left with the problem of smaller filtration unless I and hack a filter into that kind of system somehow and that would seem to be it’s own issue. I keep running into brickwalls.

OK, how does this sound, maybe someone has a less complex solution.

If I did buy one of the dust collector systems with the bag, such as the one I posted, or the harbourfreight one, if I then fixed large diameter polythene tubing over the bag, sealed one end around the bag/machine for integrity then terminated the other end of the tubing in a hose I would then be able to hang the hose itself though a window (for the durations I would need it done) and the filtered air from the surrounds of the bag, along with the smaller particulates would be expelled that way and I wouldn’t have to be concerned about the machines filtration capabilities so much…

I know there are a few middle steps there equipment wise that would seem superfluous but I’m not aware of any sealed ‘pass-through’ vacuum systems that would allow the wholesale expulsion of all matter it was sucking up.

Yeah, that’s what I was considering. Thanks for actually providing a link to the replacement bag I would be needing. Cheers. My only concern is the strain I’d be putting on the motor trying to pass air through that fine of a filter bag.

Ok how viable does this look?

If I buy the DJM unit I posted remove the bags and the stand I’m left with the centre mechanism (no longer as bulky). I can seal the bottom because the cyclone will be collecting the main debris and I can transfer the bottom collecting bag terminating in a hose to the top to expel the last of the smallest particulate matter via a window then I don’t have to bother about machine filtration capabilities at all.(I don’t want this to look as if I have a wood chipper pointing out of my window).

With this method I have the added bonus of terminating the hose to the Carvey with a much smaller diameter increasing the suction power at cutting end because I no longer have the strain of the DC being used trying to push air through the filter.

(excuse the rough sketch) Does it look airtight? Any undue strain anywhere?

http://s20.postimg.org/a9v5d0fst/dustjpg.jpg

(EDIT… LOL… I have the hoses around the wrong way hose from DJM should go to top of cyclone and hose to Carvey, out of the side, please make allowances.)

You do not want to reduce the size of the vacuum hose, you want the maximum airflow you can get so the larger the hose diameter the more airflow. If you are exhausting the vacuum out the window you really do not even need the collection bag. The large chips will be trapped in the cyclone and the fine dust can be exhausted directly outside.