[aarggh]

It is a big mess cutting wood. I have a dust deputy I am going to try. So far my approach has been lots of air ventilation and filtering. I have (2) 300 clear fans that pull air across the back of the tormach and straight outside. I also have a KDS air filter mounted directly above the tormach. With all of that I still get a good layer of fine dust in the shop.

My only concern is if the dust deputy and shop vac will hold up over time. Some of my wood cuttin ops can be 4-5 hours long (really).

I routinely do quite large 3D jobs in HDPE and MDF for molds and the jobs can run for 8-12 hours at a time depending on the degree of finish I'm after, creating an unbelievable amount of waste. And if you've ever done HDPE, that stuff creates an even finer and grittier dust than MDF does, and the Dust Deputy handles it all beautifully. The only time I ever get any dust escape, is when the job machines at the outer limits at the front or rear of the machine and the dust boot hangs in space a bit. But even the dust there is limited to a little build up at each end.

All in all, I couldn't be happier with the DD, it is worth it's weight in gold.

cheers, Ian

[CadRhino]

Wow, 8-12 hours is a long time to run a dd & shop vac.
My pieces are Mdf and push the envelope so that may be one reason it is hard to contain the dust.

I routinely do quite large 3D jobs in HDPE and MDF for molds and the jobs can run for 8-12 hours at a time depending on the degree of finish I'm after, creating an unbelievable amount of waste. And if you've ever done HDPE, that stuff creates an even finer and grittier dust than MDF does, and the Dust Deputy handles it all beautifully. The only time I ever get any dust escape, is when the job machines at the outer limits at the front or rear of the machine and the dust boot hangs in space a bit. But even the dust there is limited to a little build up at each end.

All in all, I couldn't be happier with the DD, it is worth it's weight in gold.

cheers, Ian

[popspipes]

Don't forget to clean the motor and fan. Mine got pretty heavily coated with wood dust after just a few dozen parts.

Right Mike!

It has been a learning experience thats for sure..

[aarggh]

Wow, 8-12 hours is a long time to run a dd & shop vac.
My pieces are Mdf and push the envelope so that may be one reason it is hard to contain the dust.

It is quite a while, but that's 8-12 hours on one job, and I might run 2 or 3 concurrently so the extractor can stay running for 24 hours or so straight. They're pretty high finish and I generally use a 0.5-1mm diameter ball nose finish pass. Doing HDPE is a breeze though so there's no noise really to annoy the neighbours, and my dust extractor is variable speed so I just dial it down to a bit below 50% and it's as quiet as possible. The steppers actually produce more noise than the spindle or extractor in this mode.

Another good reason for using a VFD/spindle, they rock!

Now if only Festool would add a variable speed control to their Systainer extractor model and that then would be ideal for use with a cyclonic unit!

MDF is particularly nasty stuff, you definitely want good extraction there.

cheers, Ian

[GLCarlson]

I'm a little surprised not to have seen any mention of Clearvue Cyclones here.

Clear Vue Cyclones
Dust Collection Research - Home

Anyone doing woodworking should at least glance over the Pentz website. Bill Pentz published very extensively on dust collection with cyclones, mostly focussed on wood shops. His cyclone designs are highly regarded; the problem is that they're very expensive and take a huge amount of space. Apparently the key to success with cyclones for fine dust is very high flow rates, which means big HP fans and everything else. Read his material.

[aarggh]

I'm a little surprised not to have seen any mention of Clearvue Cyclones here.

Clear Vue Cyclones
Dust Collection Research - Home

Anyone doing woodworking should at least glance over the Pentz website. Bill Pentz published very extensively on dust collection with cyclones, mostly focussed on wood shops. His cyclone designs are highly regarded; the problem is that they're very expensive and take a huge amount of space. Apparently the key to success with cyclones for fine dust is very high flow rates, which means big HP fans and everything else. Read his material.

The Clearvue stuff is great but I was lost at the "Finance Available" bit, especially in OZ as the costs were unbelievable. I also spent a lot of time looking at Bill's site before settling on a Dust Deputy years back, but in OZ we have very little choice, and some years back even less. The DD filled a great niche and I'm extremely glad I bought it.

cheers, Ian

[GLCarlson]

I boggled at the "finance" line too! Though, compared to other commercial offerings, Clearvue isn't really outrageous (look at a big Grizzly, for example). My boggle meter pretty much pinned when I concluded that the dust collector hp would be at least 3 times the size of my next biggest tool motor....

And there's some ranting to get through, though one must be sympathetic to Penz's experiences. Still, it's the best single source of information, backed by data, that I've seen.

Good thing about the Pentz site is that he has drawings, design spreadsheets, etc. One can build a Pentz design (I did- a small one) and it will work well. But- that was before the DD and the Chinese versions were available. Wouldn't build one today.

[David Bord]

Here is one of them from Banggood for $16 and free shipping!

High Efficiency Cyclone Powder Dust Collector Filter Top Quality For Vacuums IA1 at Banggood

[aarggh]

Looks pretty identical to my DD but very slightly lesser diameter. Price is pretty damn good though, my DD cost me very considerably more than that!

When you get the hose, I would strongly recommend to get a flexible one unless the cyclone is fixed into position, I have a very rigid one and it's a pain I find.

cheers, Ian

[popspipes]

Here is one of them from Banggood for $16 and free shipping!

High Efficiency Cyclone Powder Dust Collector Filter Top Quality For Vacuums IA1 at Banggood

I order quite a bit of stuff from Banggood, I missed the cyclone though, I paid 30 dollars for mine and it will be here from mid to late next month from a different supplier-bummer!

I did get a deal on the 6mm endmills they offer, 1.60 each, and for wood they really work well.

[GLCarlson]

Here is one of them from Banggood for $16 and free shipping!

High Efficiency Cyclone Powder Dust Collector Filter Top Quality For Vacuums IA1 at Banggood

That's the Mark 1. The Mark 2 has a better ramp for air inlet (or so goes the claim). Still, helluva bargain. For sixteen bucks, put one on each machine.

[Viriza]

My uncle’s workshop has this model I think, and I haven’t noticed anything particularly bad about it. From what he’s told it’s more of a budget option, so it means that it probably has some downsides to justify the price. I have a Grizzly system installed and it works pretty well. The air passes through a metal trash can where the heavier dust is stored. I placed this system outside the shop since I thought there’s no point of putting it in the same room from where the dust is being collected. You can check out some dust collector reviews and see if you spot something better.