Toroidal spiral dust separator

Can’t afford a dust deputy right now, so I build my own version. A torrid spiral from a 2" dia. plexiglass pipe, cut it into wedges and pvc glued them together with a slight twist off horizontal and whallaw a spiral tube. I used a plastic mixing bowl for the separating chamber with slots in the bottom like a thien and an old plastic pretzel bottle that I’ve been saving for 3 years. The bottle immediatly collapsed under vacuum so I coiled a heavy wire I had hanging arround. It works better than any cyclone separator I’ve built before. It actually separates the sawdust from the plastic chips as the plastic chips hang in the top of the mixing bowl while the sawdust spirals down into the bottle. Long plastic threads tangle up in the bowl and I can open it and pull them out by the handfull, when I shut it off, the plastic falls into the bottle. Very little escapes into the filter bag. I’ll call it 98.7% effective because it is mine. Here’s some pictures for all those who love to see pictures.



It all cost one can of pvc glue. Jude

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Very clever Jude, congratulations.

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Thanks Pat, why buy when you can build it. All from scrap and leftovers. Probably won’t endure the long run but it will suffice until I can afford a (well afford to build my own dust deputy). I did see that spiral on Ron Walters youtube channel a couple years ago and have saved that tube for one all this time. There is also a bare wire through the spiral for static discharge. On that note, while cutting the pvc I noticed the chips clinging together and magnetizing to my arm and saw that I had not reconnected my frame ground wire. So I reconnected it and the static within the chips dissipated into the frame through the base board and the chips stayed separated and flew every direction, but not very far. Thanks, Jude

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Thanks Jude, I bought a cheap Chinese knock-off of a Dust Deputy. I think it cost me about $25 AUD at my front door from Banggood.com.


With my shop vac it works a treat and I haven’t yet had to replace a bag in the vac although having said that it doesn’t work all day or even every day!

I originally wanted to purchase one of these, but they are out of production at the present and have been for a while. Supposed to be very good, effective and designed by Bill Pentz, a man who knows what he is about.

http://www.clearvuecyclones.com/cv06-mini/72-cv06-mini-body-only.html

Bill Pentz’s pages on dust control are well worth reading.

https://billpentz.blogspot.com.au/2011/07/dust-collection-basics-blog.html

http://billpentz.com//woodworking/cyclone/index.cfm#index.cfm

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I found the same thing, and would have bought the Pentz CV06 if it had been available…waited, contacted, waited again, received an intangible answer and bought a Dust Deputy from Amazon when the need was actually 3 days out-just in time delivery…

I hear the Macgyver theme every time I see a Grumpa post…wish I could attach it…like a special ring tone! I love to see the spirit that made our country great.making do with what you have…and not dwelling on what you don’t! That is too cool Jude!

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That’s really cool Jude!!! I’ve got very little McGyver in me and I’m always amazed at how people repurpose things they have laying around, this is one of those times!

Dan

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Thanks William, good to hear (read) from ya… I’ve built the B Pentz cvo6 plan but my little shop vac didn’t have enough suck and it only clogged, a larger one from a 5 gallon bucket worked great for 4 yrs, never cleaned the filter but needed that space and redesigned it into the table saw which is now back in for a newer redesign. Like Dan says, why built stuff when you can build stuff to make your tools better, not really a quote. How’s your dbl controller working out? hope it’s good. Jude

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Thanks Dan, Years ago I had to take 5,000 lbs of “good stuff” to the dump each year just to make room for the “newer better old stuff”. Now I have no room to keep “stuff” so it’s almost like hiding it from myself so I don’t accidentally throw it away, than I need to find it and than remember why I kept it. McGyverism takes a lot more work than people think but it really is rewarding to read how others appreciate that “I can do it” attitude. So remember like in the movie Water Boy,…“Yhu kan dhu et !”, Jude

Jude, have you got a sign in the front yard? You are obviously clairvoyant-as I was thinking almost exactly that as I have been cleaning up the work area…and thinking of the storage room… I am cleaning out years of previous distillations of “good stuff” to be able to put together some better stuff!

The switch is going slow…Trying to work out proper switch contacts for the steppers and power connectors. Not working on that today, working on clearing the work area and catching up the small SO3 updates (drilling tapping and mounting the second controller, the drag chains), to keep the work flowing through the too frequent frustration of too much stuff in too little space! Trying to get things back where they go instead of where they got left as I ran out of available time…

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I cleaned out my little attic in the workshop to have room for plywood stock, filled 5 trash cans w/good stuff that I haven’t looked at in five years. re organized the attic and when I finished, I still didn’t have room for the plywood. If we were neighbors than we’d probably be too busy sorting out your good stuff I need and my good stuff you need. An old warehouse would only provide more room to not be able to locate what we needed the warehouse to store. “Last time I “remember” seeing it, it was right there, or over there, or what was it again???” Jude

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“I know I have it, It was right here until I put it up for safe keeping…Now what did I-Crap! (tripped over the dang thing)-oh there it is…” Next time I can’t find something, I’ll see if you found it in a post!

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BULL’SEYE, oye ve 20 char’s