Dust separator, Triton dust bucket conversion


davestanton

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You might want to check out the Dustless Technologies HEPA vacuum. That is what I have, they have some pretty impressive videos you might like. Not to say they are in line with what you are attempting but they are state of the art in their own way and might give you some ideas. If you do send the dust under water send in in a way that sends it down at an angle and around at the some time. Note the angle I drew.

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You asked for ideas so I offer this also.

You are going to 1" you stated.

If you can put a pipe on the outside rather than the inside you might be able to get a bigger pipe than 1" and not restrict the flow any.

Some times that is easier said than done though.

Another: can you port the OUT on your vac cabinet out of the shop?

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I checked out the Dustless Technologies HEPA vacuum and from what I can see, their strength is in their wounder bag. Apart from that, it looks like a standard shop vac. Would that be fair comment? I could look at just buying their bags for my vac as well as the initial cyclone.

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I checked out the Dustless Technologies HEPA vacuum and from what I can see, their strength is in their wounder bag. Apart from that, it looks like a standard shop vac. Would that be fair comment? I could look at just buying their bags for my vac as well as the initial cyclone.

There is more to it than that perhaps. They have a true HEPA filter and that filter is covered with a sub micron bag also and the filter itself is in it's own plastic compartment (outside of the main drum) so it can not get wet/submerged and is less likely to get wrecked if the vac tips over during use. This is a real/certified vac for abatement work like lead or asbestos.

The bags are NICE though, they help keep you from getting toxic dust all over when you empty the vac. The bags also filter like you said to sub micron. I really like this vac as I might vacuum odd ball things that are not related to wood. For example, if you saw plastic, concrete or sheetrock or even painted wood on occasion. I think the dustless is also sealed better than the common shop type vac and it can handle water. If you use bags make sure you do not vacuum up sharp things like nails as they will puncture the bag.

One factor to also consider is just that, do you need to keep the wood dust/shaving separate from the other stuff like plastic, concrete, sheet rock etc? I plan to use my wood shavings for either covering garden paths, for mulch or to compost so I do not want the toxic stuff in that. I like to wheel the Dustless vac over to the tool and use it for the toxic stuff (or remote out of the shop stuff) and the cyclone for wood. If you only have one vac you might need a different strategy.

I bought mine on Amazon and really like it.

http://www.amazon.co...ASIN=B000WJMV4C

The vacuum is expensive but it is one of the most used tools in the shop and for home remodel. What job can you think of that does not require clean up? Not many... When you think about things like aluminum oxide sand paper/disks/belts, titanium in paint the glues in ply and MDF and the countless other things you will never even know about, you really do not want to breathing dust.

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A lot in that last post, but here I go.

Glue is going to go through my cyclone whenever I cut MDF, particleboard or plywood, which is most of the time. I guess at this stage of my shops' evolution, the shop vac is going to be the only form of dust collection which is better than my previous situation, no collection at all. As things progress and the machines become larger and more plentiful :rolleyes: , then a DC system with a large cyclone will appear. So for the present I am still thinking Dust deputy as first stage, water trap for fines in the second stage, filter bag (wounderbag?) as 3rd stage and then the motor corrugated filter as 4th stage or as an option on the 4th stage to do away with the corrugated filter and port the vac to the atmosphere through a flexible hose in such a way that it does not clog, place to much back pressure on the system and also doesn't just blow back in an open window.

The dust in the water trap would be flushed down the toilet as it will be in a wet state already.

I would probably go with chips from my thicknesser on the garden as the material that travels through that machine is always solid timber.

Having lived through the ignorant years of asbestos removal and been exposed to plenty of it, I am conscious of the associated risks that dust has, especially from sources that contain glues and resins. To this end I am being obstinate about trying to find a solution that will work and also will be at a minimum outlay of money. Time on the other hand, I have plenty of.

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I like what you are doing and I understand on the costs. I am merely bringing up points to consider in the long term strategy.

For me they were:

I can not filter all the dust out so port it outside.

If trapped inside with the dust (like removing sheet rock from a basement) get all of it you can by using the HEPA vac made for abatement.

If making toxic dust (like removing sheet rock from a basement) get all of it you can by using the HEPA vac made for abatement.

I need to keep separated my clean and toxic dusts and they are used or disposed of in different ways.

It often takes more than one 4" hose to get all the dust from some tools like table saws and miter saws.

Dust collection is an ongoing process.

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Now I wait.....could be 4 weeks, maybe 5 before my dust deputy arrives. In the meantime it has just turned to Spring in Australia and I can feel the place defrosting and coming to life. Other things that I do become busy around this time of year. My other cap that I wear is that of a photographer, http://www.dksphotography.com.au/ I have a couple of weddings booked that I have to shoot, season launch for the sports club I work for that needs me clicking away at and of course the entire cricket season to capture, as well as a few huge presentation nights at the university. As these things usually take up the weekend and maybe Monday and sometimes Tuesday, I am left with a few days to play in the toy room and make stuff and experiment. I will not leave this post unattended. As things progress I will keep anyone who is interested updated :)

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I have been using the dust collector for some time so I thought I would peek in the drum to see how full it was - maybe a 1/2" of fine dust on the bottom.

Fired up the planer (Woodmaster) and the dust collector today and started on the 2x12 cedar planter box boards.

At one point I looked out the window and saw some shavings flying around.

Hmm, not supposed to be shavings out there...

Turned off the DC and looked at the outdoor OUT port. The port was barely clogged where the hardware mesh is at the bottom with perhaps a 1/4" of shavings.

I have hardware mesh to keep animals out.

Opened the drum to find it was nearly overflowing! Looked at the boards and realized I had only sent three through the planer (both sides) and took them from rough sawn to smooth.

Shavings_640x360_1.jpg

Wow, 35 gallons (two wheel barrows full) of shavings from three boards!

I need to surface only two boards and then empty the drum, as the drum over filling caused a hand full of shavings to go out the OUT port and fly around outside.

I covered the garden paths with the shavings but will have more than I need for paths when I do the next 10 boards...

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  • 2 months later...

Vital, this is the latest video I did, needed some tidying up!

The grounded earth is a weighted wire that drags around on the concrete floor. It is fixed to the cabinet, not to the floor. The hoses are not grounded as yet, but don't feel the need at this stage.

No dust mask used, but maybe when I start putting larger volumes through I will wear it. Really couldn't detect any airborne dust and I am usually well aware if there is any.

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Your video quality keeps getting better over time. The lighting is better also and if I am not mistaken the sound quality is quite a bit better. Other than your "land of oz accent" (which I enjoy) one can hear what your saying more clearly than before. It is kind and thoughtful the way you convert from metric (ya!) to the US (archaic) units of measure. Nice job!

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First videos were using a web cam. It is high def, but not as good as I could manage. I am now using a wireless lapel mic as Marc does. This tends to isolate my voice from the background sound, but the frogs outside tend to have a pitch that carries very well!

The Oz accent comes free of charge, lol.

Thanks for the praise, makes it all worth while.

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  • 2 weeks later...

you said i n the video that if you wanted to you might use duct tape i found that electrical tape works better since the duct tends to let the air pass through more readily. our blast gates kept geting cloged so i had to cut off the very end of where the gate slides over and now when i close it it will shove out all the small dust particles. gave up a small amount of suckton to save myself the time and effort to clean out that little grove each time the dust collector is used. i realy like the idea of using water to collect you dust.............do you add bleach to your water to keep it from geting unhealth?

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