tired of bear hugging my dust collector

[wowhuh.mike]

I want to build a better solution to the standard bag and clamp system, but as things tend to go I am sure it will be a while before I get to it.

so in the meantime...any of you guys figured out a way to swap out bags without fighting aligning the clamp on the backside of the collector while your face is planted in the frontside? its so much fun when its full of mdf dust.

i finally realized that if you put a trash bag inside cloth bag it works pretty good - I use big rubber band to hold plastic bag, but still fight the cloth one.

I was thinking about some type of hook and grommet around the perimeter, but before I started anything I figured I'd tap into the cumulative wisdom of the forum.

[ken_rychlik]

magnets will hold it till you get the clamp on.

[wowhuh.mike]

i was wondering about that.

I'll give that a try.

thanks

[knight_toolworks]

the plastic bag causes airflow loss so take that into account. a separator may do it for you.

[CNYDWW]

I use a separator made out of a rubermaid tuff can with a modified lid. I only play with my bag maybe once a month. I am planning on modifying another can to use on the base of my dust collector.

regards
Randy

[Ajcoholic]

Invest in a proper cyclone, and a drum or bin to catch the dust. BEst investment ever!

AJC

[donek]

Back when I was in a 2 car garage and only had one dust collector in the entire shop, I set a 55 gallon drum on legs. The dust came in the side at the top, like a cyclone separator and the dust collector hose was connected on top in the middle of the drum. Under the drum was a gate, kind of like the blast gates used to turn on and off dust collection zones, but as big as the end of the drum. We'd stick a garbage can under the drum and pull the gate. All the dust fell into the can and the gate was replaced. It worked really well unless we overfilled the drum and there was too much dust to fit in the garbage can. I think I emptied the dust bag once or twice a year.

[gene]

I agree with andrew . Next best is to put velcro to hold in place until the clamp goes on

[phil_o]

I built separator based on the design in this site. http://www.cgallery.com/jpthien/cy.htm
It does a great job.

Phil

[bcondon]

I have two of these in line, one at the shopbot and one at the dust collector

http://www.grizzly.com/products/30-Gallon-Dust-Collection-2-Stage-Cyclone-Separator/G3376

It is a simple 30 Gallon can (new condition for a tight seal) and one G3376

The result is that the majority of the chips are collected at the shopbot edge where I have a lot of room. I place a plastic bag inside and in a matter of 30 seconds, the can is empty and on the way to the dump.

The second one is in a closet with the dust collector. The separator gets almost all of the chips... I empty my Dust collector about once a year and shake out the bags but empty the separator more often.

The cost is $100 for the pair of them.

[Mike Kelly]

I used velcro on mine - 4" strips every 90 degrees,


Mike

[jim_vv]

Greetings, All

I have a question for Bob Condon . . .

When using the separator lids do you have to do anything to keep the plastic bag in place in the bottom of the can until there are enough chips to hold it in place?

Kind regards,

JIM

[wowhuh.mike]

Thanks guys, great info.

Bob, do you use flex hose in between?

[bcondon]

I just throw some chips from the old bag into the new bag and have not had any problems.

The separator near the dust collector handles all of the chips off the table saw, table router,band saw, belt/disk saw and any overflow from the separator off the shopbot...

[myxpykalix]

The thing that does the best dust collection for me is named...The FLOOR!:rolleyes: I just let it drop and sweep it up (when it gets ankle deep!)

I don't seem to have a problem with alot of dust in the air. I regularly take samples from my Nasogastric tube air filter (I blow my nose!:D)

[bcondon]

I renovated my Dad's house and moved in with my family.

My shop bot room is a heated room behind my two car garage. When I poured my foundation , I had a crawl space of 2 feet. I also have a double thickness of 5/8 sheetrock (firerock) closet to contain my dust collector (in case of fire.)

Over the crawl space, I used 2x12 as floor joist and 3/4 " T/G plywood so I had plenty of room to run plastic (schedule 40) pipe in the crawl space. I have 3 outlets coming up through the floor of plastic with gates.


SO my setup is:

Shopbot dust collector with 4" flex plastic pipe bungie corded to the ceiling to the first separator. I next run 4" flex plastic pipe to the gate. The gate connects to sched 40 plastic pipe, under floor to the dust collector closet.
I convert from fixed plastic to a short length of 4" plastic flex pipe to the next separator. From the separator to the dust connector.

I have a single grounding wire INSIDE the pipe. I drilled a small hole to pass the bare wire from the outside of the pipe to he inside. I also wrap a length of bare copper wire around the pipe and ground to Dust collector.

Under the floor of the DC closet has a T which goes to my basement where
I have another 2000 sft shop with paint room, table saw, band saw, planer, sander etc....Each machine has its own gate valve with plastic pipe to the machine so I only open the gate, start the DC with a remote control and then open the valve.


To control all this stuff, I use S10 controls. The DC has a 220V/20A Appliance module. WIth S10, you have a controller which sends a "command" over the power line, and the appliance module comes on.

I have a small controller (on/off switch) in the basement shop and also one beside my computer for the shopbot so I can simply click a switch and the DC is on. One problem I ran into is that I could not hear the DC in the basement so I put in a lighting module on the same code with a light flasher and a red light. When the DC is on, I have a flashing red light.

There is a module that has two wires coming from the controller and when the two wires are touched (completing a circuit), the DC will come on and
when you break the circuit, will shut off the DC.... This is cool because you can buy the extra relay block from Shopbot, and can turn on and off the DC with a SO command... Gary Campbell provided me the information and I
just need to finish connecting it up.

I disagree with Jack. Dust is dangerous and there is still enough to clean up. I hang a hand made curtain (stripped shower curtains) like an industrial curtain into the paint room. This keeps any dust that escapes the dust system out of my finishes...

I can provide pictures if that helps

Bob Condon

[myxpykalix]

Bob,
That sounds like a nice shop and a good setup. Not being able to hear your dust collection is a GOOD thing! I was being a bit facetious. I don't use my bot as extensively as most and when i do, alot of it is 3d carving. That doesn't produce the amount of dust like 2d carving and most of the time it is 3d carving i'm usually in the house with my eye on the security camera and not really exposed to alot of flying dust.:eek:
pictures are always nice....:D