Hi Owen!

I will make the assumption that what is cutting your lower bag is probably
larger wood chips or chunks. What you may want to try is a garbage can lid
separator. They sell for around $35 or there about. The larger chips will
land there and your dust collector bag should collect - umm - dust. The
added benefits will be fewer times you have to wrestle with your lower bag
and the saving of your impeller in the dust collector.

Just a thought.

- Dan Klima

"Owen Lowe" wrote in message
news
For over a year now I've had the Jet 1.5hp dust collector with the
canister filter on top and the clear plastic bags on the bottom. It
works well but I frequently have a problem of the bag getting cut and
leaking/blowing dust and shavings out. I don't know if it's due to
woodturning's sharper off cut chunks that occur when roughing out or
just the nature of the beast.

Once I spot the ant hill of wood dust and chips on the DC caster
platform, I grab the clear packing tape, patch the hole and vac up the
escapees. All is good for a while until I spot yet another ant hill
forming. After a few times of this I figure it's time for a new bag and
the dance goes on. (BTW, I reuse bags since my city accepts the dust and
shavings in our "yard recycle" can - but that doesn't seem to be a
factor as the brand new bags will often develop cuts in fairly short
order.)

I've looked into getting industrial drum liners, but at almost $200 per
box of 25 or somesuch I've been able to resist. I've also looked at
commercially available cans, drums or barrels that will fit in the bag's
space and making up some sort of fabric chute between the DC's rim and
the can - haven't got a round tuit yet.

This afternoon after carefully positioning and religiously repositioning
my DC hose to pick up as much shavings and dust as possible directly
from some cocobolo I was turning, I noticed after a bit I was only
transferring the cocobolo that would have ended up at my feet to a pile
on the floor next to the DC. Damn, another cut in the bag.

The notion of trying to contain the spillage at that moment fit with my
timetable rather than going through the exercise of taping or changing
bags. I headed to the garage and emptied the rakes, shovels and pick axe
from an old galvanized "shorty" trash can that used to hold dog food but
was converted to a standing yard tool holder some years back. It fit
perfectly between the uprights of the DC, the swiss-cheese bag was
lifted and placed into the can, all the while still attached to the DC,
and I turned the thing back on to get back to turning. The bag inflated
with the pressurized air just fine and filled the trash can like a
balloon. I'm thinking the can will support the bag from being poked
through.

A happy side-note: the DC is noticeably quieter. That whooshing roar
isn't nearly as loud as it used to be. Just wanted to relate one aspect
of my turning day.

--
"Sure we'll have fascism in America, but it'll come disguised
as 100% Americanism." -- Huey P. Long