Dust problems

[drallred]

Well, I have one quick question, I have a Jet DC-1100 with a canister filer. I use it a lot, primarily collecting dust from my sanding equipment, well, it is not doing so well. I looked into the issue, because when I spin the handles that spin the flaps to clean the filters it worked for a min or two, then the suction goes way down and I have to stop and do it all over again. So, after spinning the flaps I took the canister off and this is what I found.

Not to mention the ton of dust from the filter that I cleaned out. Well, I thought for a sec or ten, lets do a test. So my father pushed all the dust in the picture back into the bag, replaced the filter, and ran it for 2 min with 4 blast gates open. I then spun the flaps 2 times around and this is what I got.

I also got a lot more dust out of the filter again. Well, this is not going to do, stopping every few min and cleaning or finding a better solution. Is this a flaw that no one has found? I have an idea to fix it, but I won't be able to get to it for a while. Have to make some Train Whistles.....

Any ideas aside of buying a cyclone and exhausting out the side of the building? neighbors won't like that....

Help!!!

Here is a pic of the filter with loads of dust, and the unit.

Thanks

David

[Beechwood Chip]

When I read about the Thien separator, Thien said that he started working on his own separator because his purchased unit would stir dust up from the lower bag and he wanted to be able to fill the lower bag most of the way without clogging the filter. Sounds like the same problem you are having. My memory is vague on this, so you might want to check out his site.

It's hard to tell from your picture, but does your Jet 1100 have the "air ramp" which pushes the air down into the lower bag? I seem to recall reading that that design is known for stirring up dust from the lower bag into the filter.

The quick fix might be to empty the lower bag when it's 1/4 full.

I have a similar setup, and I plan to build a Thien separator into the inlet ring (the place where dust is collecting in your unit. It's 90% of a Thien separator already, it just needs the top and bottom baffles.

These are just some ideas, based on what I vaguely remember reading.

[Dyami Plotke]

David,

I'm not familiar with your unit, so these are just my educated guesses, but it seems to me like the biggest issues are the filter and the ledge.

While the internal flaps knock off some dust, they don't do a thorough cleaning. As there presently appears to be much dust caked in the filter and blocking airflow, I would recommend that you do a thorough cleaning by vacuuming out the inside of the filter and then blowing compressed air from the outside to the inside. Blow air through the filter until no more dust comes out. Of course wear a good mask while doing this.

The second thing is the ledge. I suspect that the dust which rests on the ledge every time you turn the flaps (or just turn the machine off) is getting sucked right back into the filter. Try adding a cant to the ledge with cardboard and tape. That way the dust which lands on it will slide into the bag and be less likely to get back into the filter re-clogging it.

Neither of these will prevent the filter from clogging, but hopefully they will greatly reduce the frequency of clogs. Good luck.

[drallred]

Right now the DC has about 8" of chips in the bottom bag, when I run the DC it will stir up the contents in the bottom and suck the fine stuff into the filter again. Thus, cleaning the filter and having the dust fall into the bottom bag does nothing, after a few minutes of running the dust is again sucked up into the top and the DC starts loosing power.

I was up late researching this issue and I might try calling Jet and see if they have an idea as to why this is happening. I think it is common and these are used in the home shop where the majority of sanding is done by hand and the DC only collects the chips...

Well, I have some ideas and will probably work on them over the next week or so.

Thanks

David

[Vic]

Hit it with compressed air from the outside. Be sure to not have the air pressure too high. But, yea a separator would help.

[BillN]

I have a Jet and that's exactly what mine looks like. I thought it was supposed to be like that! Oh, bother.

[drallred]

After looking around, looking at the expensive cyclone collectors and other options, we found a site, Thien Separator and looked in the forum and found a person that fitted the separator into his Jet DC-1100 and with great success. Well after spending $10, could have been less if HD had a 2x2 piece of 1/2" MDF, we made the item and placed it into the DC. We sucked up about 2 gallons of fine dust and chips, ran the planner taking large cuts, ran the drum sander and took off 1/2" of wood, and after all that there was very little dust in the filter. Where before it would plug up real fast. Here is the link to the forum topic DC-1100 refit.

Good luck with others out there. I am still looking into this issue and this was the cheapest fix so far.

David

[Dyami Plotke]

After looking around, looking at the expensive cyclone collectors and other options, we found a site, Thien Separator and looked in the forum and found a person that fitted the separator into his Jet DC-1100 and with great success. Well after spending $10, could have been less if HD had a 2x2 piece of 1/2" MDF, we made the item and placed it into the DC. We sucked up about 2 gallons of fine dust and chips, ran the planner taking large cuts, ran the drum sander and took off 1/2" of wood, and after all that there was very little dust in the filter. Where before it would plug up real fast. Here is the link to the forum topic DC-1100 refit.

Good luck with others out there. I am still looking into this issue and this was the cheapest fix so far.

David

David,

How long did the Thein separator take to make?

[drallred]

Dyami,

From the time we went to the store and the time we finished it was about 3 hours, but that included the time it took to clean the filter, which was a mess.

We just laid out the circles needed, cut in the sides where the diameter is smaller and used our circle cutting jig to cut the circles. The hardest part was making sure that the screws in the metal aligned with the dowel rods.

I will keep posting on the efficiency of the modification.

David

[Dyami Plotke]

Dyami,

From the time we went to the store and the time we finished it was about 3 hours, but that included the time it took to clean the filter, which was a mess.

We just laid out the circles needed, cut in the sides where the diameter is smaller and used our circle cutting jig to cut the circles. The hardest part was making sure that the screws in the metal aligned with the dowel rods.

I will keep posting on the efficiency of the modification.

David

Thanks, David.