maplehillfrm

hi guys,I obviously dont post much here, but look at the site just about everyday, lots of info and teh work is awesome,
Here is my question, I have my dust collector hooked up,its a fairly small one , with a canvas bag on top, and a canvas bag on bottom ,, it has a 1 hp motor @ 3450rpm,, it fills up fairly quickly, mostly planer and sander, jointer used, the saws just get the sawdust on teh floor,,,

is this unit big enough to hook up say a 35 or 55 gallon drum in between the machine and the unit to try to catch more material? or do you think the unit is too small,,,

thansk pat

dbhost

Let's start with the problems and address them right down the line...

1Hp is a bit small. I personally am not a fan of any DC smaller than 1.5HP, but that's my preference... Most of those size DCs pull somewhere near 650 - 800 CFM if I recall right...

Your canvas bags, upper and lower restrict what you do want through, and don't restrict what you want stopped. Simply put, they throttle air flow pretty badly and allow not just fine, but pretty coarse dust through. They gotta go. At a minimum, you want a plastic lower bag, and a 1 micron upper bag. A better option would be an add on 1 micron of smaller filtration canister type filter for the top.

To keep that air flow up, your filter from plugging, and your sanity from not having to empty the lower bag every half hour... you would then connect to a pre separator on a 30 gallon drum, or trash can. You can easily go to a 55 gallon like I have on my 2HP HF DC. I have yet to need to empty it...

(I REALLY need to get rid of that tight bend out of the top!)

The lid on mine is the original lid from the barrel. I got a 55 gallon open head barrel from Baytec Containers in Bacliffe Texas (They were close by). The baffle is Phil Thien's design http://www.cgallery.com/jpthien/cy.htm, and it is the 6th one I have built (the 3rd for me, 3 for / with friends). I reinforced the holes where the threaded rod goes through the lid with fender washers, the baffle on mine is tempered hardboard so it is VERY light and puts very little stress on the lid.



With a DC that small, I would suggest only using it for machine to machine connection. Don't bother trying to plumb this thing up...

__________________
-- Trying to follow the example of the master...

maplehillfrm

thank you for your detailed response I appreciate it. I also agree taht a bigger unit would be better, I am going to add that to my list for christmas,, I currently only go machine to machine with this one , I may try a smaller drum,,

I picked this one up at an auction a while ago,, didnt use it for a while and then said :hey try that out",, what a difference, so I know a bigger one is in order for sure..

thansk again,pat