Dust cyclone separator

I always feel cheezy posting something that I can't give direct credit for but here goes.

I looked at a lot of different homemade cyclones and as typical with me I engineered to stock. I went to Home Depot and stood there looking at the ducting available and decided for reasons that were apparent at the time that I'd go with 8" single wall pipe. Forgive me if I get the lingo wrong as I'm not a certified sheet metal man.

The 8" pipe was flat, not in pipe form. I think the length was 24" It did have the rolled over edges for the lock seam, but I was not going to need them because I needed to make the pipe taper from 8" to 4" so I trimmed them off. I got an 8" pipe cap and that is the top. A 4" coupler is the bottom. I rolled up the pipe and put it inside the cap taped the 8" pipe cap on it to hold it with masking tape. With a long welding vice grip c clamp I held the 4" coupler to the edge of the table and what was going to be the bottom of the cyclone skin. It helped to clamp it because it's like wrestling a greased pig with razor blades because of the trimmed sheet metal.

I used a progressive cut and mark strategy of holding the formed taper and marking then use a straight edge make the straight lines. Then trimmed and worked my way down till I had a nice 1" overlap. It should be noted that my cyclone swirls counterclockwise as seen from the top so that side of the skin is on the inside. This presents a smoother way than the other way that would expose an edge to the swirl and cause less buildup of dust.

After getting everything trimmed up(top and bottom because the taper causes misalignment) I pop riveted the body together. Then sealed the whole thing with the real metal duct tape. Next was the inlet pipe. All of it is 2" pvc. I had a couple of feet of it lying around and I also already had a 2" hole saw. Put one hole in the side 3" from the top(this would be the inlet) and one in the middle of the cap(the outlet or vac side).

As you can see from the pic the inlet cutout is kind of a tear drop shape. I did it with aircraft snips and half round file. Keep trimming until you get a nice fit. The object is to get it as close to side as possible to get that stuff going in the right direction right off.
Attachment 9860

Next I cut the straight pvc for the vac side pipe that goes down inside the middle of the cyclone. You don't want to be too short and if too long it also starts sucking up debris so I made mine 14" with the the 2" elbow glued onto it before the assembly on to the cap. The wonderful thing I found is only 2" elbows because of the lip inside will fit the common hose ends of shop vacs. Everything else is your usual plumbing nightmare.

I used a 5 gal plastic bucket because they are easy to find and remember it has to seal or you lose suction. Took the lid and cut a hole big enough for the 4" duct coupler and took some scrap plywood and made about a 9" round piece with the 4" hole in the middle. This is my mount for the cyclone to stiffen the top of the bucket. Put caulk on the plywood mount and used short deck screws under the lid to mount the stiffener to the lid.

Now all three pieces, the inlet, outlet and cyclone base are all ready to be glued. I used 5min epoxy. The outlet is pretty easy, just lake sure it's hanging straight down on the inside. The inlet is tricky and I glued it and held it until the epoxy set. I also glued the duct coupler/cyclone to the stiffener/lid, hold that straight until set. I really gooped it on the make sure each joint was sealed.

I hope that makes sense and hopefully the pics will fill in the rest.Attachment 9861Attachment 9862

Shameless bump as I posted in another sub forum and Jon just transferred to this sub forum but back a page.

wadyagonnado?:embarrassed:

C-Bag,

Fantastic narrative on your thinking and fabrication instructions. It is also fun to read because I laughed out loud imagining seeing you wrestling with this "greased pig with razor blades ". So true about the statement "your usual plumbing nightmare" and my four trips to Home Depot (three to buy and the fourth one to return everything I didn't need) trying to find the correct plumbing thread. I am not very good at plumbing. Thank you for the photos and advice.

Question: How do you know when it is time to empty the bucket below the cyclone?

Thank you,

Paul

Thanks so much Paul.

As far as the bucket I mostly only use this for pulling powdercoat dust out of my little powdercoating booth. It's amazing what it does to that stuff...it compacts it so hard it's just flakes in the bottom. I try to check it once a month. The dead giveaway I've forgotten is when I hear the vac pulling hard because powdercoat plugs the hepa filter in a heartbeat. If I keep the bucket empty my filters don't clog....ever. It's paid for itself many times over because once you get powdercoat packed in a filter, it's done. Sorry I can't be more specific. And if I was doing wood it would fill up quicker but you can blow that out of a filter and it's still good. I wish I was still around gas stations because we used to get our grease in 15gal metal barrels that would be perfect. But it would REALLY be tall then :)

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Thanks C-Bag! We've added your Dust Cyclone Separator to our Cleaning category,
as well as to your builder page: C-Bag's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

<div id="blocks"> <div class="block b1 pngfix"> <div class="bimg"> <div> <a href="http://www.homemadetools.net/dust-cyclone-separator"> <img src="/uploads/147503/dust-cyclone-separator.jpeg"/> </a> </div> </div> <div class="head pngfix"></div> <div class="left pngfix"></div> <div class="right pngfix"></div> <div class="blockover b1 pngfix"> <div class="title"> <a href="http://www.homemadetools.net/dust-cyclone-separator">Dust Cyclone Separator</a> <span> by <a href="http://www.homemadetools.net/builder/C-Bag">C-Bag</a></span> </div> <div class="tags">tags: <a href='http://www.homemadetools.net/tag/5-gallon-bucket'>5-gallon bucket</a>, <a href='http://www.homemadetools.net/tag/dust-collection'>dust collection</a> </div> </div> </div> </div>
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Quote:

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C-Bag,

Fantastic narrative on your thinking and fabrication instructions. It is also fun to read because I laughed out loud imagining seeing you wrestling with this "greased pig with razor blades ". So true about the statement "your usual plumbing nightmare" and my four trips to Home Depot (three to buy and the fourth one to return everything I didn't need) trying to find the correct plumbing thread. I am not very good at plumbing. Thank you for the photos and advice.

Thank you,

Paul

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I'm with you Paul, busted a gut with the pig and razorblades, the plumbing hit was priceless, and you are so right about trips to the store...think that sums it up!!

C-Bag,

Nice build and presentation, Bud! I've studied these things till the cows went to bed including the Thein type. Love the simple set up you have. Maybe you could come up with a sight glass on the inside of the bucket with some acrylic, say 1/2-3/4 up from the bottom to ease your tensions on when to empty. Tap plastics is a great resourse for me with there scrap bin. You could form some thin flat to the ID and bond it with CA or some caulking(?)...not a lot of pressure in the bucket. A thought¿

I've been working on a hybrid system (way too long) for a friends jewelry blast cabinet. Basically a cone under a Thein in the bucket to lower the pressure more and pull more fine stuff through. Some nasty dust from the tiny media and material, tiny particulates and almost smoke level powder, similar to your Powder coating but not as sticky. The design parameters are a bit daunting because he wants it to run off 12VDC and use a box fan, and a Cheap and Cheerful budget of course. The main difficulty is the static pressure of the fans even though I found an 80mm with 130CFM all the runs need to be short because of the static and it runs out of steam with any type of micro filter on the fan.

Great build and Way Fun write up!! Thanks, ~PJ

Thanks Wiz. Ok, you got me I'm going have to look up a "Thein type" cyclone!

I've thought and still am thinking about a sight glass or something but you can't believe what a mess it is inside that bucket. It's all black (that's the main color I use) and it literally coats the inside of the bucket. It's worse than when it went straight into the vac. So I'm thinking I'm not going to see through a sight glass setup. Dunno. I also forgot that it's really easy just to unplug the hose from the top vac hose and look into the white PVC elbow. If there's any black dust there....it's time. It is a bit of a hassle to pull the top of the bucket with the "razor pig tower" attached. But whatchagonnado? Depending on how many runs of powdercoat I do it could be a month, sometimes two before I have to empty it.

Wow, your buddy doesn't want much, eh? My rig I've also used for my HFT sandblast cab and it works great. Keeps the air clear in the cab so you can see what you are doing and not even a hint of that totally nasty dust in the shop. But 12v and no filter? You crack that nut Wiz, I wanna see!

Hi C-Bag,

Been thinking about the black goo since I posted the sight glass...have to think about it some more but you are probably right. Better to pull the hose and have a look...then deal with the Razor Pig! :lol: It may be a moisture/temp thing inside the bucket that makes it so messy.

Thein type are pretty cool and got interested in them 3-4 years ago when my buddy G (ghostses) on YT built a big one on a 30 gallon waste can...go back 4 years in his video list to see them. Last time I linked a video it posted the video in the thread. He has the big HFT collection system (coupon of course) and got sick and tired of cleaning the bag. Also Matthias Wandel made one for his shop. The principles are similar to a cone but horizontal and from my research is better at taking the small stuff also. And both types are scalable for this small cabinet.

I'll finger it out I think...It's all about keeping the Yang up to the fan with diameters and lengths to get straight air, I believe...and finding the right filter material. May have to go to a 100mm or 120mm fan though. Also came up with a venturi for the inlet. If I get it to work I'll definitely post it.

Thanks, ~PJ

You know Wiz I forgot one thing. There is a whale of a static charge on the whole thing when it's running. I've gotten zapped so many times I don't even pay attention. That's what makes the powdercoat cling everywhere but also there's the fact when I do a run of powdercoat I set the cyclone unit in the doorway of the garage, in the sun. So it gets hot enough to help it set also.

Thanks for the links. When I have time I'll do some rabbit hole diving see what this Thein thing is all about.

Looks great. It also looks easier than the ones I have on Youtube. I don't think you should feel chessy at all. I will try this myself.

Thank you

Dave Simpson

Wow, thanks so much Dave!

PJ's

I got a chance to look at the Thein and that is one of the designs I looked at. I guess it would be interesting to put the two back to back in use. Mine might be overkill but for the kind of dust we are talking about I'm not sure there is such a thing as overkill. You have to work with powdercoat to understand just how fine of dust we are talking about. I'll make a guess it's much finer than wood dust. It just floats forever and that's what it was made to do. Add that it is statically charged and you have a mess. And when it gets compressed like in the cyclone or in a filter it clumps. Which is good in the cyclone, bad in the filter.

The net is wonderful for this kind of research because you can look at all the different approaches. It's not always apparent how something works though. I felt like while it was inconvenient to have the tall Razor Pig Tower the length and amount of taper was key to function. This is all seat of my pants and I have no way to prove mathematically what's happening. But my prodigious gut tells me coming in at 8" instead of the far greater dia of the trash can is would give me far higher centrifical force initially and the squeezing it down to 4" would really get it going. I was hoping the dust would be separated out for sure by then and then drop into a pretty dead zone in the bucket because it was 10"+ below the vac pipe up inside the Razor Pig Cyclone ( hereby referred to as the RPC :). In this case my gut feelings and the wonders of engineering to stock worked out much to my amazement.

And thanks to your comments Paul and PJ's we've here by dubbed this cheerful experiment the Razor Pig Cyclone! I like it, kinda catchy :)

Is there anything special like baffles or vanes around or under the inlet & outlet ports? I've seen some different models/brands and would swear that there were some vanes directing airflow but they never showed the inside details and I don't know if it was typical, required, or just an added feature that does increase performance.
Attachment 10082

I agree, I looked and read carefully and could never seem to get details. Like I said it was seat of my pants on my part. I could not see how a short cyclone could be able to get the vac pipe far enough away from the inlet to be effective. There are no baffles and I decided to not angle cut or taper the inlet pipe. I wanted to direct it to the top inside of the cyclone and shelter the inlet from anything that was going on in the top of the cyclone so it's just a straight piece of PVC just a little beyond the hole in the side of the cyclone. The vac pipe is just straight, 14" down the middle of the cyclone, no baffles and no support except where glued in the top. I have no idea how the guy in the link(BTW thanks for that ) figured out turbulence. I just vac'ed some powdercoat off the floor and the opened up the bucket and the vac afterward to see what happened. To my surprise the powdercoat was flakes in the bucket and not in the vac. I also vac' the mill and listened and it swirls around for a while. Wood and swarf are no problem and somewhat a test. Fine dust is really the test IMHO.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by C-Bag

PJ's

I got a chance to look at the Thein and that is one of the designs I looked at. I guess it would be interesting to put the two back to back in use. Mine might be overkill but for the kind of dust we are talking about I'm not sure there is such a thing as overkill. You have to work with powdercoat to understand just how fine of dust we are talking about. I'll make a guess it's much finer than wood dust. It just floats forever and that's what it was made to do. Add that it is statically charged and you have a mess. And when it gets compressed like in the cyclone or in a filter it clumps. Which is good in the cyclone, bad in the filter.

The net is wonderful for this kind of research because you can look at all the different approaches. It's not always apparent how something works though. I felt like while it was inconvenient to have the tall Razor Pig Tower the length and amount of taper was key to function. This is all seat of my pants and I have no way to prove mathematically what's happening. But my prodigious gut tells me coming in at 8" instead of the far greater dia of the trash can is would give me far higher centrifical force initially and the squeezing it down to 4" would really get it going. I was hoping the dust would be separated out for sure by then and then drop into a pretty dead zone in the bucket because it was 10"+ below the vac pipe up inside the Razor Pig Cyclone ( hereby referred to as the RPC :). In this case my gut feelings and the wonders of engineering to stock worked out much to my amazement.

And thanks to your comments Paul and PJ's we've here by dubbed this cheerful experiment the Razor Pig Cyclone! I like it, kinda catchy :)

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Glad you got a chance to check them out. Not sure if one is "better" than the other, regarding Powdercoat particulates or nasty ALO2/ - SI/carbide dust. Never saw any comparisons of value in my research. A tell tale sign would be how much powdercoat made it to the foam filter in the vac in your case. For me the Thein was more of a design decision for size relative to the jewelry blast cabinet and the hybrid idea was to keep the yang up below the Thein for return to the fan/filter and the Poor SP (static pressure) specs of the fan.

Your cone design on the fly is an obvious win in my book and the logic of sizing/taper make good sense. More so that it can be built in an afternoon with scavenged parts and be so effective on a tough medium!

I agree about the net but find this topic challenging because there is very little detail/technical info about CFM, static pressure, tapers or angular placement/sizing of the port for the Thein design, etc. The physics of flow dynamics is pretty vast and an entire lifetime of study imho, and know just enough to not hurt myself or others...I think¿ For instance the idea of vanes in cone design is valid I think but wouldn't have a clue as to how many, where and how tall/thick or shape of them. A lot of Calcs and Calculus to figure a quality starting point. My thoughts are having Plenty of CFM/SP is the best place to start, experiment, test and refine it...not completely scientific but will get you there. In your case with a "prodigious gut" and 1/2 a day...for the blast cabinet, not so much a half day :rolleyes: but some prodigious gut and a lot of :headscratch: because of the design restrictions! :p

LOL - RPC! Glad we could be of assistance but you started it!! :cool: Thanks C-Bag! ~PJ

If it helps, this is all I could find on specs:

Specifications :

Material: ABS
Color: White
Airflow Capacity: 174-280 m3/m
Airflow pressure: 2.5-22 Kpa
Wind speed: 18-28m/s
Efficiency: 90-99%
Dust particles: 0.3 μm - 40 mm
Dimension: Approx. 320mm /12.6''
Outlet Diameter: 56mm / 2.20''

This was for the latest plastic version. It also gave these circumstances:

Cyclone dust collector Equipped with power in three forms:
1, Connection vortex fans,
Fan Selection: The minimum power is more than 750W, with high dust removal efficiency, dust removal efficiency was between 90% -99%. 24 hours uninterrupted work. After connected filters the power must be more than 1100w.

2, Connected industrial vacuum cleaners,
Industrial vacuum cleaners selection: 220V1200W above, Continuous working time of about two hours. Dust effects above 99.9%.

3, Connected Household vacuum cleaners,
Household vacuum cleaner selection is not limited, as long as the power more over 1200W can be used, cleaning is very effective, dust removal efficiency also reached 99.9%. Notice: Continuous use of time can not exceed vacuum cleaner prescribed half hours.
........................................................

Then, I found this:

This new version Turbo charged features a spiral in the air intake, a parabolic body and an improved dust bin exhaust port. These enhancements improve the cyclone's efficiency and avoid the stagnation of particles in the upper part of the cyclone. A tapered exhaust port flange that fits through the collection container lid makes the use of an inner flange unnecessary when using metal or sufficiently resilient plastic lids. A template pictured, for cutting and drilling the collection container lid, and stainless steel fixing screws and washers are included.


Spiral air intake – quickly establishes a downward flow pattern alleviating the previous models tendency to have particles stagnate in the upper part of the cyclone
larger outlet in to the collection bin (66mm, old model 60mm) – improves particle entry in to the bin and better separates the incoming and outgoing airflow's leading to greater capture of dust and cleaner outward airflow
parabolic body shape – dust falls more quickly and loses more velocity than in previous straight sided model leading to greater capture of dust and cleaner outward airflow
manufacturer claims improved efficiency of 10 - 30%, energy consumption reduction of 20% and minimum 99% particle capture.
........................................................................... .
They also had a few videos too, I'm not including those... hope this helps.

A drizzly mid-western mornin' to y'all. Dang, reserved today to paint and post the punch stand. Even DIY stanchion pins to render complete. So a little production delay.
All entries in this thread deserve "Thanks". Really wrings cyclonic dust separation at our DIY level. It's all in the search terms, boys. Prepping shop-vac driven type for decent amount of wood planing. I'm surprised, via web, no one refers to cyclone/ filter/ over shallow water like the Rainbow household vacuum.
Looking in...Spoiler >> humor alert
Squiggle City! Microsoft owes big time improving their technical vocabulary. Bill, check's in the mail right?

re C-Bag's static electricity; a positive bond of components with a continuous bare copper wire run to ground could help. If it works on ESD for sensitive electronics...Form loops around sheet metal screws and terminate with alligator clip to ground rod or conduit connected with physical ground.Attachment 12919 For his part, created functioning system, seat of pants or not. Distinctly not parting seat of pants, though I nearly did about all the iterations butchering a Razor Pig.

For monitoring reduction in flow there are 1.6 gazillion (+/- .002%) of DIY manometers. Many no more detailed than a "U" of small clear vinyl tubing, & telltale fluid taped to a deluxe cardboard panel. The pitot (more red squiggles, my dumazz browser have any vocabulary?:angry:) could be shielded from particles with a fairing and is low pressure side. You could graduate by total time, uses, or other scales.

While I have snips, no full length shear. Cut those thin gauge materials, sharp sturdy knife over leg edge of angle iron, pushing down scissor like in long smooth motions. Clamp project edge with a square edged 1x2, so drop carries most of the burr. Drawfile with a single-cut to a burr free result. Then, roll flat hem, or wire edge around same angle iron. Like burnishing, use dry bar soap on 1'' unfinished (not paint anyway) hardwood dowel. Works so well, you'll b-b-b-b-beam worthy of malt refreshment, literally.

Speaking of dumazz, bet if posting up all PC whatnot on FB, dem der scarlet squiggles wouldn't be so prevalent. Like which prez hopeful, undignified celebrities, or confused characters manage outrunning dogcatchers all these years. Term limits? Sure, year in office, year in jail. Frankly dear, I do give a d_ _m.

and finally, if I have matermark's nome-de-plume correctly interpreted, we might as well direct their kind attention toward "un-bucket tool bag". PJs knows why. No JK, still FAH! Why is this so much fun?

Natcherly
TM51

PJ, ALL of us find this topic challenging. There is very little detail/technical info about CFM, static pressure, tapers or angular placement/sizing of the port for the Thein design, etc. The physics of flow dynamics is pretty vast and an entire lifetime of study. Yup, there's that. What isn't visible, why so little application beyond the cyclone or baffle of common aerodynamics like fairings, ailerons or Kamm's spoilers? Heck, even one or two pitch of helical vane would seem to induce solids one way while releasing lesser charged air for other separation means.

Who wants to bet; a dearth of info in commercial sites links involved process of making ones own calculations vice replicating a configuration via specification. Some have more $$$ than ingenuity, interpretation, or just plain fortitude. That sells collectors.
As if science, physics, related mathematics are private domain. Well yes; exclusive (root: exclude) terminology is an act of self preservation to create, instill, and practice those.
So, we can read or experiment and have at it. Steal their main tool- be systematic, note observations, measurement, experiments during tests, and subsequent modding of hypotheses. If old hotrodders could adapt means to sync carbs, we have hope.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Toolmaker51

PJ, ALL of us find this topic challenging. There is very little detail/technical info about CFM, static pressure, tapers or angular placement/sizing of the port for the Thein design, etc. The physics of flow dynamics is pretty vast and an entire lifetime of study. Yup, there's that. What isn't visible, why so little application beyond the cyclone or baffle of common aerodynamics like fairings, ailerons or Kamm's spoilers? Heck, even one or two pitch of helical vane would seem to induce solids one way while releasing lesser charged air for other separation means.

Who wants to bet; a dearth of info in commercial sites links involved process of making ones own calculations vice replicating a configuration via specification. Some have more $$$ than ingenuity, interpretation, or just plain fortitude. That sells collectors.
As if science, physics, related mathematics are private domain. Well yes; exclusive (root: exclude) terminology is an act of self preservation to create, instill, and practice those.
So, we can read or experiment and have at it. Steal their main tool- be systematic, note observations, measurement, experiments during tests, and subsequent modding of hypotheses. If old hotrodders could adapt means to sync carbs, we have hope.

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Yup, proprietary is Proprietary and usually invokes the cost of R&D. The last Flow dynamics program I used was $18K just for the software when I built the 70' wind tunnel to AMCA specs...even designed the static ports for it and had the machinist make them. Even tougher is when you combine 4 refrigerants that all flash at different temperatures and pressures and involve laminar flow...hard to even simulate that...and definitely proprietary.

Interesting that Thein is just a garage/shop guy and I don't know of any commercial versions of his design...but a lot have copied it and got it to work. There is a guy (Bill Penz) that gives a lot of info on the CFM/Static requirements, because he is afflicted with long term exposure (lung issues) to fine sawdust.

HVAC guys have a lot of test stuff that is pretty reasonably priced. I picked up this one on Amazon a while back for this project. Dwyer has a lot of good info and products for SP/DP.

Yepper on the old SU Tool...still have mine. Got it when I had my TR3 and used it for years on SU's, Webbers, etc. For the old 3 duce setup I built a vacuum manifold setup to tie into them...2 quads were tougher but could do them by ear and a sniffer. Bought an SU tool for my Daughter and Son inlaws Ahee 3k a few years ago and helped him learn how to dial them in...still available.

Wow, while I call my experiment the Razor Pig Cyclone, you my friend TM51 are also a whirling dervish! The RPC has nothin' on your ability to spin off great ideas!

I know this is going to sound weird, but I'd rather learn not to mess with the Razor Pig while its sucking than to rig up a ground. I'm lazy that way, and it's no more of a zap that dragging my feet across my SO's wool carpet :) My possibly irrational reason for not grounding it too was in the powdercoat process the powdercoat is charged and the part is grounded......if I ground the RPC, wouldn't that make the pc stick to the inside of the cyclone? As it is right now it doesn't. Dunno....

The manometer is also a good idea, but like checking the vac pipe on the top of the pig for powder coat dust, it's somewhat like an old idiot light in a car. It's going to tell me it's already too late isn't it? So far my inclination to dump the bucket out every other garbage day along with my super stingy pocketbook of not wanting to replace the hepa in the vac has worked. More aversion therapy.

While I appreciated matermarks post, it was just like the other stuff I'd seen. There was more sales hype than actual dimensions that are going to help me fabricate the RPC. what I came away with from my search was, there truly is a million ways to skin this cat and understanding the idea of how it works was going to help me more than formulas. I'm a math tard, plain and simple. So I got lucky and I think anybody else if they truly wanted to make a RPC could make one from my pics and brief description. I also have a metal block when it comes to making plans, so what you see is what I got. if I can do it and it works, I'm pretty sure there are way sharper knives than me in the HMT drawer that can do the same.

Wow nice unit. I made one a couple of years ago with almost the same dimensions, and it worked a treat, really well (except for the very fine dust).
That was until I needed to squeeze it into a smaller space, so I reduced the height and it did not perform nearly as well. So, I am experimenting with a Thein baffle model at the moment, results to come.

Cheers

Quote:

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Originally Posted by C-Bag

You know Wiz I forgot one thing. There is a whale of a static charge on the whole thing when it's running. I've gotten zapped so many times I don't even pay attention. That's what makes the powdercoat cling everywhere but also there's the fact when I do a run of powdercoat I set the cyclone unit in the doorway of the garage, in the sun. So it gets hot enough to help it set also.

Thanks for the links. When I have time I'll do some rabbit hole diving see what this Thein thing is all about.

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Have you considered fixing an earthing wire to the metal cone and to an earthing spike? This could save you from a few zaps and a possible explosion.

Fun to read these post above, did not know that Thien Type, but it seems to be a nice idea. Its illustration tells that the guts is how you put the intake port at the top edge of the bin, I really agree to this since i did have sort of the same feeling to this when I tried one of these standard types for my own use;
Attachment 23038
Attachment 23039
Thanks,
Chy

After perusing the input & ideas offered so far, I was somewhat surprised not to see another technique mentioned to indicate a filled state. So here it is, my 'two cents worth'... Next time you find it full, slide a cheap bathroom scale under the contraption; you now have your upper limit. Leave said scale under contraption for use as a level indicator.

Hi Gang:

I spent a weekend with my brother in law and we built this dust collector:
Attachment 47769Attachment 47770Attachment 47771
We started with a floor model Harbor Freight dust collector:

https://www.harborfreight.com/35-gal...dust+collector

He wanted it off the floor and also wanted a cyclone. He had us cut a plastic 55 gallon drum down to form the cone. We divided the circumference into 4" slices, here I made a mistake when I marked each slice to form a wedge by tapering only one edge. This threw everything off center and I had to correct it later. We drilled a lot of holes in the edges of the wedges so we could "sew" it together with wire ties. The bottom was joined to the removable lid for a 5 gallon bucket. The blower was added to the top and the whole mess hoisted to the ceiling. The exhaust still goes through the bag before returning to the room. A bunch of duct tape to seal the joints and brother in law likes it! Good luck, Carl.

Looks like you’ve put a lot of effort into this! For sealing and alignment, I've found that using silicone caulk rather than epoxy can make adjustments easier if things don’t line up perfectly. Also, a shop vac with a decent flow rate makes a big difference in performance.

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Thanks carl blum! We've added your Cyclone Separator to our Dust Collectors category,
as well as to your builder page: carl blum's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

<div id="blocks"> <div class="block b1 pngfix"> <div class="bimg"> <div> <a href="https://www.homemadetools.net/homemade-cyclone-separator-14"> <img src="/uploads/270053/homemade-cyclone-separator-14.jpeg"/> </a> </div> </div> <div class="head pngfix"></div> <div class="left pngfix"></div> <div class="right pngfix"></div> <div class="blockover b1 pngfix"> <div class="title"> <a href="https://www.homemadetools.net/homemade-cyclone-separator-14">Cyclone Separator</a> <span> by <a href="https://www.homemadetools.net/builder/carl+blum">carl blum</a></span> </div> <div class="tags">tags: <a href='https://www.homemadetools.net/tag/dust-collection'>dust collection</a> </div> </div> </div> </div>
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