I have a Jet Cannister dust collector. I like the unit, except for the periodic messy, dusty, dirty cleaning of the cannister. This is so awful, Jet recently came out with a new model which contains a core separator to retain the dust in the lower plastic bag.
The Jet model is called the "Vortex" and from what I have read it works.
Some months ago I read posts on the site about retrofitting a vortex. These posts used a pre-made cone. One from a chimney top, and one from a wok.
This weekend I decided it was time to empty the plastic bag on the dust collector, and the mess from the cannister was sufficient incentive to get my act in gear and try making a fix.
I thought I would start from first principals and make my own. I have only got to the point of getting ready to cut out the cone, but thought I would start the tutorial thread.
First a shout out to Woodnthings for his post which was my inspiration. This person used a chimney cap. :thumbsup:
http://www.woodworkingtalk.com/f32/jet-vortex-dust-collector-dc1100-27121/
Fine Woodworking had an article where the person used a wok.
http://www.popularwoodworking.com/tools/shop-made-vortex-dust-collector-woks-on
Since I wanted to make my own cone, I had to refresh my old high school geometry on the "development of a cone" which means how to determine the flat shape which represents the cone.
A quick search for "how to calculate the development of a cone" came up with a very good diagram and the simple formula.
http://leonjane.hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Develop-a-Cone
Saving in case my computer or browser crashes. I have lost too many long posts.
Edit adding initial pictures. As I feared, my browser hung when I first tried to attach pictures.
Using the cone development link, I made some simple calculations to determine the "D2" and the angle for my first pass at the D1 cone diameter and cone height.
I prefer to layout designs like this on paper full scale. I keep the paper from inside packaging. Wide, long, useful to protect during finishing, and now for testing my calculations.
I do not have a large compass. I happen to have a rather crude circle/oval tool. Crude but effective. The only problem is I cannot mark the centre, so I had to mark the 4 corners so I could then draw the centre. The pencil was set to approx 8.6in for the "D2" radius.
Tool removed, I then drew in lines between the corners to mark the centre and then scribed the 293 deg mark.
Doing this "after the fact" so my blue masking tape is still on from my first actual steps.
The paper is very easy to curve into the cone and connect the sides with a couple of pieces of masking tape. This allows me to eyeball whether the cone diameter and height are "close enough" since I do not have measurements of the Jet design
I decide to increase the diameter of the cone by 1in and reduce the height by 1in.
New measurements for the next layout, which will be on a piece of aluminium coil stock.
Thanks for looking. Stay tuned for the next steps.
The Jet model is called the "Vortex" and from what I have read it works.
Some months ago I read posts on the site about retrofitting a vortex. These posts used a pre-made cone. One from a chimney top, and one from a wok.
This weekend I decided it was time to empty the plastic bag on the dust collector, and the mess from the cannister was sufficient incentive to get my act in gear and try making a fix.
I thought I would start from first principals and make my own. I have only got to the point of getting ready to cut out the cone, but thought I would start the tutorial thread.
First a shout out to Woodnthings for his post which was my inspiration. This person used a chimney cap. :thumbsup:
http://www.woodworkingtalk.com/f32/jet-vortex-dust-collector-dc1100-27121/
Fine Woodworking had an article where the person used a wok.
http://www.popularwoodworking.com/tools/shop-made-vortex-dust-collector-woks-on
Since I wanted to make my own cone, I had to refresh my old high school geometry on the "development of a cone" which means how to determine the flat shape which represents the cone.
A quick search for "how to calculate the development of a cone" came up with a very good diagram and the simple formula.
http://leonjane.hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Develop-a-Cone
Saving in case my computer or browser crashes. I have lost too many long posts.
Edit adding initial pictures. As I feared, my browser hung when I first tried to attach pictures.
Using the cone development link, I made some simple calculations to determine the "D2" and the angle for my first pass at the D1 cone diameter and cone height.
I prefer to layout designs like this on paper full scale. I keep the paper from inside packaging. Wide, long, useful to protect during finishing, and now for testing my calculations.
I do not have a large compass. I happen to have a rather crude circle/oval tool. Crude but effective. The only problem is I cannot mark the centre, so I had to mark the 4 corners so I could then draw the centre. The pencil was set to approx 8.6in for the "D2" radius.
Tool removed, I then drew in lines between the corners to mark the centre and then scribed the 293 deg mark.
Doing this "after the fact" so my blue masking tape is still on from my first actual steps.
The paper is very easy to curve into the cone and connect the sides with a couple of pieces of masking tape. This allows me to eyeball whether the cone diameter and height are "close enough" since I do not have measurements of the Jet design
I decide to increase the diameter of the cone by 1in and reduce the height by 1in.
New measurements for the next layout, which will be on a piece of aluminium coil stock.
Thanks for looking. Stay tuned for the next steps.