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I have made a cyclone dust separator from a traffic cone and 20 lt plastic drum. I put the cyclone on my Kitty dust extractor, however I do loose pressure / suction. the current motor on the Kitty is .2 kw motor. Should I increase the motor size to a bigger motor?
Are you sure you have a good seal around the collector and drum?
forgive me ? ok i am not sure what a .2 kw motor equals to in horsepower? one good thing to check for is air leakage at connections, what diameter ducting are you using? please if you can answer in english terms ?Quote:
Originally Posted by Hentiev
.2KW is about 1/4 horsepower. Even the simplest dust collector systems boast at least 1.5 horsepower. A Dewalt shop vacuum uses a 15 amp motor, this translates to 2.25 HP or about 9 times the power you have. ( 1.8 KW )
It sounds like you are severely underpowered. I am assuming that you are not connecting this to a duct collection system, but rather connecting it directly to a single machine.
I would recommend you drastically increase the size of your motor. 1.0 kw minimum ( 1 1/4 hp ). 1.5 KW to 2.0 KW would be even better. You should also check if there are any leaks in your connections. A vacuum system can be hard to troubleshoot. A simple way is to take a candle, light it and then blow it out, the smoke after you blow it out would be sucked into a leaky joint. There are special candles sold for this purpose, but an ordinary candle will still work.
If you are connected to dust collection piping system, you can also optimize the system by insuring that there are no 90 degree bends, no connections that have the ridges pointed away from the vacuum itself, no corrugated piping and the piping is large enough, i.e. matched to your dust collector capacity.
Sounds like you have a leak somewhere. The pressure or vacuum should remain the same throughout the system.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hentiev
You should have adequate power for your dust collector. I also would check for leaks. Make a silicone gasket and see if it makes any difference. If for some reason you are restricted from a flat gasket purchase a tube of silicone and add a generous bead around the cone and catchment container and allow to dry.
I concur with the other suggestions that you may not have a strong enough motor, and/or, leaks.
Can you possibly tell us a bit more about what you're connecting the system to? i.e. diameter of the ducting/piping, or of the power tools you're connecting it to?
Also, if you could post a few pictures of your system, etc. that might be beneficial for us to give additional feedback and ideas.
~ "Mr. Measure Twice"
'A day without sawdust is like a day without... air to breathe!'
I believe I read somewhere that a traffic cone is not thick or sturdy enough to use as a cyclone, losing pressure because of the softer traffic cone rubber, instead of a tougher plastic that a 5 gallon pail would provide.
I question the ability of the impeller to create sufficient vacuum as it was designed to be driven by a 1/4 hp motor. The system would have to be meticulously sealed with a very short run and small duct. Pics. And more info could shed light on solution.
Eaglewood
Generally cone extractors do not require a lot of power because they are very efficient. I would look at the cone configuration. A traffic cone may be too small or you may need to look at the inlet and exhaust plumbing configuration.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hentiev
0.2 hp, are you you using a computer fan? get a 1.5 hp motor, no more worries
I had to google what a "Kitty dust extractor" was. We are talking apples and melons here. It would be VERY enlightening to see how the OP hooked up the cyclone to a dust extractor because it works on a totally different idea than my shopvac powered cyclone. My cyclone has the suction from the vac sucking from the center about 14" down from the top ( my cyclone is 24" tall)of the cyclone. An extractor sucks up through the fan then blows it out into the collector. So is the cyclone in front of the motor/fan, or is it blowing into the cyclone?
If it's sucking through the cyclone then through the fan, I'll bet his pickup tube for suction is either too small, or too far down into the cyclone and is being restricted by the cone. You should have the same amount of vac with the cyclone if everything is correct. Putting a bigger motor on a problem is not the answer. The net info on the Kitty said it was a 3/4hp motor. The hp ratings on shopvac are just plain ol silly, it's hype. Mine is supposedly 5hp "peak". Total BS. But it works great for my cyclone and filters my main worry, powdercoat powder close to flawlessly. There's no way that little motor in the top of my shopvac is as potent as the motor I see on the Kitty.
There is a really excellent and complicated explanation of the film flam that is vac ratings on page 3 of this post by our resident Grand Wizard PJs :http://www.homemadetools.net/forum/c...ailure-55228-3
What I don't like about the whole "extractor" thing is like I mentioned, all the dust and debris goes through the fan, then into the collector. How can that not wear out a fan? Sorry, I think it's a very dumb design. I'd add pulling the motor and taking a look at the fan to my list of checks. I'm also not a fan of these little cyclones and to me a traffic cone is pretty small and floppy. That's why I made my cyclone out of sheetmetal ducting.