Cyclone build

[javeria]

folk I decided that I would finally build my own cylone, I decided to do the bill pentz design and followed the build shown in the below link

http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/cyclone2.htm

some of the flanges I have done for the cyclone.

Next week I will get some 22 gauge GI sheet to make the cylinder

BTW I am using a 2HP 2800 RPM motor and a 14inch dia impeller from the bill pentz site (I have asked vishnu to laser cut the impeller parts :) )

Thats it folks thanks.

RGDS
irfan

[vishnu]

Hi Irfu,

Thats really nice. Working on the Impeller and want to see them in One piece before i start them. Nowadays i think you working a lot buddy. I think you can have 2 inlets so you can use them paralley when you finish your Mechmate build.

Vishnu

Discussion on blower impellers moved to own thread
http://www.mechmate.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1013 (http://www.mechmate.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1013)

[Robert M]

Irfan, Thanks for sharing this built of your, surly some will appreciate seeing more of your steps, Robert ;)

[Doug_Ford]

That's great Irfan. I wanted to build one too but there was so much info on Pentz's site, I couldn't plow through it all. I finally gave up and just ordered one from Clearvue. I applaud you.

[javeria]

Folk's thanks for the thumbs up,

The cyclone I am building is a 18 inch dia one.

Today we are celebrating Eid, so work will start next on Monday and meanwhile I am finalizing BOM for my Mechmate and me and Vishnu have finished finalizing the electrical BOM.

RGDS
Irfan

[Allegheny]

Irfan,

Here is a thread - with many photos - from a woodworking chatboard on how to build a Pentz cyclone:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=81021

Brian

[javeria]

hi folks a few updates - was able to get a guy who worked on teh AC ducting - forced him to do the job :)

I have to now get my motor and impeller - :)

actually I did not take the picture of the cone below

RGDS
IRfan

[javeria]

a minor updated picture

[javeria]

cyclone mounted on to the wall

[sailfl]

Irfan,

I like you cyclon build.

[javeria]

thankyou nils - if you observe - i got the intake on the wrong side :( (if compared to bill pentz design) the guy who made me this screwed up!

anywayz I just had to reverse the direction of fins for the impeller and the motor. simple fix.

I got a 3hp 3 phase motor new for USD 120, now to get the impeller welded and balanced.

RGDS
IRfan

[Allegheny]

Following Irfan's last post about the "wrong-handed" construction of his cyclone, it occurred to me that cyclones in the southern hemisphere should be constructed for reverse air flow. Anyone remember the G.G. Coriolis Effect from physics class ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coriolis_effect )? While I doubt it makes much actual difference, the air flow should flow clockwise (when looked at from above) in the northern hemisphere and counter-clockwise in the southern (just like water going down the drain).

Brian

[Gerald D]

For the induced cyclone, Uncle Coriolis will have no noticeable effect. :)

Where Coriolis does affect us woodworkers, is in the twisting of planks when they dry out. Equatorial timber doesn't twist as it dries, but our average sawn timber twists opposite to yours in the northern hemisphere. :D

[javeria]

here is my motor mount frame - where you see the bolting will also have rubber bushes. It will be mounted on the wall vertically.

any comments and suggestions are welcome -

also how to wire the starter - can anyone help me here by drawing a sketch on the starter picture.

A 6 A MCB is not shown.

RGDS
IRfan

[javeria]

Folks I need some help - I was originally intending to mount the blower vertical - but now considering the weight of the impeller with center hub being around 10 Kilograms - and mounted direct on the motor shaft - I am sort of afraid the impeller may come out of the shaft -? while running -

do you folks think I can still mount it vertical as in Bill's design - else will just mount it with the motor in horizontal position..

any inputs are welcome.

RGDS
IRfan

[Gerald D]

How did you plan on attaching the impeller to the shaft? A grubscrew would not be enough. "Taperlocks" would be good. If your motor shaft has a center thread, this can be used for a safety washer to prevent it from falling off.

Watch out for an excessively heavy impeller - it puts a high starting current on the motor for a long time and your circuit breaker may trip.

[MattyZee]

Irfan, Can you use a pulley drive and mount the impeller its own shaft with bearings to take the load?

[Gerald D]

A 10kg (22 lbs) axial load is not worth worrying about. . . . . . . unless it falls off.

[javeria]

Yes G' my motor shaft has a center bolt with 8x8mm key to drive - if the load is heavy then I will go with star delta - one of my electrical colleagues promised me to design a start delta using 3 contactors, a load relay and one timer.

the MCB I have is a 6 AMPS one.

I will mount it vertical - lets see what happens :)

RGDS
IRfan

[HomeMadeCnc]

I built the same machine, you'll be happy with your results, I am.

[javeria]

Tim - can you share pictures of blower mounting and motor mounts.

[javeria]

Folks I received the impeller a couple of days back - its dynamically balanced @ 4K rpm, now to get teh casing done and mount it up!

RGDS
Irfan

[domino11]

Irfan,
That is a very nice looking impeller. Let us know how it works out. :)

[Doug_Ford]

Irfan,

I was just telling my family how impressed I am with your progress on this cyclone. I wanted to build a dust collector using the information on Bill Pentz's site but didn't have enough patience to wade through all of the verbiage on his webpage. Not only are you successfully doing it but you are doing it in a foreign language. My hat is off to you!!!

[javeria]

Dough - thanks for the Kind words -

and here are the pics of the blower casing top and bottom plate , done on a 19mm MDF board

Will start to assemble it soon!

[domino11]

It must feel weird having built a machine that can help build its own upgrade parts and support equipment. :)

[javeria]

ITs actually funny Heath !

[Jan de Ruyter]

Isn't that the threat to human life: robots building robots?

[hennie]

It starts with a dustfoot and will probably end up making another MM.

[domino11]

You probably only have to worry when you leave with one in the shop and you come home to two of them. :)

[J.R. Hatcher]

And what's the down side or problem with that??? :) Everyday you get to sell one.

[domino11]

Sorta like rabbits. :D

[mikefoged]

Irfan did you finish the blower casing, if so can we please see some pic.
I'm building mine right now and I like to see one finished.

[javeria]

some work done on casing- was in a hurry so did not resize - just zipped and attached

[javeria]

one of the things I have done without wandering around!

[javeria]

some more of the pics - wife helped by painting the primer on the MDF, dad helped me today to put things together.

[Doug_Ford]

Looks great Irfan. I'm impressed. Keep up the good work.

[javeria]

Thanks Doug - need the words :)

[mikefoged]

yes looking real good. what is your plan about the exhaust to the filter ?

[javeria]

no plans yet mike

[javeria]

some more pics

[Doug_Ford]

You're going to love the improvement in your shop's air quality.

[mikefoged]

nice, you are almost there :)
Here is a pic. of my Cyclone build, just need to fit the blower on a bracket and then mount it on the wall. then come all the tubes to the router and dust shoe. also need a filter system, but have no idea what I want yet :confused:

[Doug_Ford]

Looks great Mike. I wasn't as smart as you and Irfan so I bought a cyclone. The filters they sent me were intake filters from a tractor trailer. They seem to work well. The other alternative is to exhaust the unfiltered air to the outside. Unfortunately, if you are working in a heated space, all of your heated air will be sent outdoors. If you recycle the filtered air in your workshop, you get to keep the heated air.

Good luck with your build.

[sailfl]

You guys are doing a nice job on building your cyclone.

I am very pleased with the modification I have made to my Harbour Freight dust collector. It isn't a cyclone but it works like one and I don't notice any dust.

You might look at these filters:

http://www.wynnenv.com/

I replaced the cloth bag with one of these filters and it is doing a great job.

[Castone]

Great looking job guys, thanks for that post Nils. Just what I was looking for.

[javeria]

unfortunately nils - we dont have suppliers like that here in India

[javeria]

mike can we have some closeup pics of the blower and the motor mounting , you are very fast in your build.

for the filter - i will jut put a bag and leave it -that is what I can afford @ this time

[servant74]

I seem to remember that the ClearVue that is similar to the one you are building uses two filters with 300 sq ft of filter material each.

I don't know if you can get material you could pleat to make the filters yourself. Some information is found at Wynn Environmental (http://www.wynnenv.com/cartridge_filters.htm), filter model 9L300BL is what they use.

The really fine material is what is really dangerous, so you need something that will filter .3 micron or better.

It would be great if we could all use systems lile your with really good filters like these.
If those filters are not possible, see if you can get masks with particulate filters that are like that (in the USA they are rated as P100). Again it is focusing at the really fine material.

I hope this helps. ... It would be great to keep all the MechMate users safe world wide, in a less expensive manner.

[sailfl]

Jack,

I am using the 9E110SB Filter that is made of spun material and can be washed. It is more expensive but I will never have to buy another filter or bag again.

[mikefoged]

irfan the motor mount is just a square plate, the blower is some thing I found at work, it's from a baker oven som thing like this (http://www.bakeryequip.com/2020applications/uploads/Revent703U.jpg). and everything was fitted, the only thing I did was to mount it in the casing, very easy:D

[javeria]

made attachment to attach the bag filter.

[javeria]

Today was so difficult - I just about managed to finish mounting the motor rock steady to the wall - doing it up above was very difficult. I have to thank my Dad who helped me to get it up there - I did not take pics as it was late for friday's prayers. Anyways its done and I will start it up tomorrow and probably finish the cyclone work tomorrow - I still need some 6" PVC pipe and the 4" flexible hose , I also have got the bag filters for which clamps were made today.

ah that's some high expenditures :( on that flex hose

Have a great weekend everybody!

RGDS
IRfan

[javeria]

WOW what a sound it makes - the whole casing shudders bcos its just made of thin GI sheet and MDF,

I am so afraid to put it on!

well it worked alright though!

now just need to attach the bag filters and the bottom container and its done then!

[javeria]

Ah : running the blower a couple of times has made it to loosen the anchor bolts from the wall - I think I need to put on the thru the wall bolts.

a near disaster was averted when the blower started making wierd noise and I went over to chk it and the frame holding the motor was all out - away from the wall!

I have to do thank you prayer to Allah!

[Lex]

Glad you are still with us Irfan!
Use some M10 threaded rod and 50mm sq plates bolted 'thro' the wall. That should hold it.

[javeria]

:) yes I am still with all the folks - I have got all the hardware required - need to put in the man hours now!

[Gerald D]

In addition to the through-bolts at the top (bottom doesn't need them), I suggest adding either
- a pair of diagonal stay bars (yellow), or
- 2 rectangles of MDF (red)

5595

[javeria]

You are right G' need to do that too.

[javeria]

finally we ran the blower successfully with full confidence after every bolt and nut was secured fully.

now just need to get the dust container connected to the cyclone.

[domino11]

Irfan,
Very Impressive. :)

[javeria]

Ah the bolts sheared this time

I had 4 M6 bolts with rubber bushes in between the motor and the mount and they (2 of em)sheared - like it were butter due to the vibrations. tomorow will get some M10 and nylock nuts to clear this out and btw after sealing the container perfectly there is hardly any dust coming out of the blower.

R/
IRfan

[Doug_Ford]

Great job Irfan. Hang in there.

[AkPirate]

I have built a cyclone from Bill's site and it works great!!! Mine is 22" in dia. and over all 9 ft tall from blower motor to chip drum(trash can). I made a filter bank out of eight filters that I purchased from Surplus Center. Hard to beat the $5 a filter price!! Works wonderful with absolutly no dust in the shop.

[javeria]

Any pics you can share of yours???

RGDS
IRfan

[javeria]

Hurrah! now my whole system works perfectly!

no more vibes - the MDF blower enclosuer is holding good and the cyclone is working wonders.

[KenC]

IRfan, congrats! You sounded like a happy man and you should.:) Your lung will be dust free from now on!

Some really simple questions, is there any problem with small jobs get sucked into the duct? or jobs moved by the suction flow?

Thanks in advance.

[Gerald D]

Ken, our worst problem is normally when trimming the edge of a board and there is a long, thin piece of waste. This tangles in the pipe/fan and makes a blockage.

A general solution is to keep everything "tabbed" together.

[javeria]

I only clean up after jobs, so I run the flex pipe manually around sucking dust - intention is to save on power. I am planning on a quarter hp shop dust filter - if i can make that to keep the shop air clean - this run's continuously.

i need to make a proper intake to the flex pipe - I got a wipe cloth and a bag filled up with small nails got sucked up - :)

luckily in a cyclone they drop in the bin and not move over the fan :D

so advantage cyclone here - :)

and I am really a happy man here.

[AkPirate]

Well, here is some pics of my set up. As for things getting sucked up, if it's not bolted down it will get sucked up. I am useing the airfoil blower that I got from Sheldons Engineering. It REALLY sucks!!!!! :D He He!! 2 hp motor and it will suck a baseball up to the ceiling and into the cyclone thru 6 inch pipe!!!! As far as things getting to the blower, if they are there is something verry wrong with you're cyclone. Nothing but the finest dust from cutting things such as MDF are all that go into my filter bank.;)

[danubcustom]

ak pirate: does the filter get plugged up eventually and if so how do u clean those filter?

or u just throw them away and buy new replacement?

[AkPirate]

You can see in one of my pictures, there is a white box on the bottom of the filter bank. To clean all you have to do is spray the filters with low pressure air. The dust falls to the bottom and into the box. I plan on drilling an hole in the box and placing a 1 1/2 pvc pipe with cap in the hole. I then plan on vacuuming out the dust into a shop vac. The vac is easy to clean out into a garbage bag outside. I did purchase two sets of filters incase one set gets damaged. I have not yet had to clean the filters, even after doing some fiberglass work in the garage and sucking up the dust.:)

[sailfl]

AkPirate,

Interesting set up. Why did you choose to use so many filters?

[ger21]

Did you have to cut a larger hole in the one end of the filter?

[AkPirate]

AkPirate,

Interesting set up. Why did you choose to use so many filters?

sailfl,

Bills site recomends stacking two 12.75 dia. x 26 tall filters, these smaller filters gave me something similar, mabey more surface area.

[AkPirate]

Did you have to cut a larger hole in the one end of the filter?

Ger21,
Yes. I was a PITA but worth th effort concidering the alternative price for the suggested ones.:)