What you say about the "garbage can" variety is right. Only a serious collector is in the 98 % territory. A back yard guy can get by quite nicely with or without one of the can lids.

P D Q


wrote in message ...
On Dec 22, 11:27 pm, "PDQ" wrote:
"Robatoy" wrote in ...

On Dec 22, 11:10 pm, "PDQ" wrote:

"J. Clarke" wrote in ...
PDQ wrote:
"Robatoy" wrote in message
...
The pleated-paper canister filter on my 2HP DC is just overwhelmed.
Better than the old bag. A bag is good for 1 hour.... I really need
to do something.
I figure that if I were to upgrade to a double canister 3-4 HP
set-up, all it would do would buy a little time between dumping.

So, I'm told that a cyclone is the way to go. What do we know about
those things?

r

1. Does not matter what version of dust collection you implement.
The only way to lengthen the time between dumpings is to either stop
collecting or get a bigger container.

The difference is that with a cyclone you just empty a container, you
don't have to beat dust off of the clogged filters, which if I
understand correctly was the issue.

With a properly designed cyclone very, very little gets to the
filters.

Yep. Still say time between dumps is a function of collector size. I have a friend who has a 40 foot tall collector painted to look like a beer can. He does not empty it very often but, when he does, we have a really big bonfire.

As to fines, the cyclone culls out almost all the big lumps (think jointer or planer) but does not do as good a job with the fine stuff as a lot of that still gets to the filters.

My understanding, is that the whole point of a cyclone is to virtually
eliminate ANYthing getting to the filters.
My router doesn't produce a lot of pounds of crap, but so much of it
is fluffy filter-clogging crap. I didn't mean to emphasize the total
quantity of the crap, just that a lot of it is MDF and acrylic
fluffiness. Even the flappers on my canister is rendered useless after
a 1 hour cutting routine.

The theory of the cyclone is like a cream separator, the heavy stuff
falls to the bottom and the light stuff keeps on going (like that rabbit).
All you get is a little more fun before the dump.

Probably will not make much of an impact on the MDF and acrylic.
I would suggest a hepa filter for that stuff. Not good to suck it down
the wind pipe.

Don't confuse the "cyclone lids" with a real cyclone separator. I
have only a vacuum setup, with the mini cyclone from
clearvuecyclones. Before I was using a lid from Lee Valley. There's
at least an order of magnitude difference between the two as far as
getting the fines. Hooked up to my drum sander the lid may as well
have not been there. Maybe a couple hours and the filter would be
fully caked. With the cyclone I can go a month or more without even
thinking about the filter, and even then I'm cleaning it long before
it even gets to that fully caked point. I probably won't clean it all
winter, cuz it's freaking cold outside and I don't have to. And there
is NOTHING in the bottom of the vacuum, unless I let the cyclone
overflow. And you can literally let it fill up completely to the top
before anything comes out.

If you haven't used one you really don't understand just how effective
they are. I think if Rob Lee tested that thing he'd stop selling the
lids and start selling the real thing.

-Kevin