Woodcraft Mini Dust Separator Lid

[oneleggimp]

Buy Mini Dust Collection Separator at Woodcraft.com


Hi All,

Some time ago I think I saw a thread somewhere on modifying this lid for better performance but can't seem to find it now. there's a sale for 25% off on dust collector components at woodcraft on Friday and Saturday so I'm sort of interested in this.

1. Does anyone here have/use/used this item and what is your experience with it?
2. I was thinking of adding a Thien Baffle to it. My concern is that with a five gallon pail there won't be much room left for sawdust etc.
3. I plan to use it with a Craftsman Shop Vacuum. It's an older model but really sucks :biggrin: Is there any reason to need to ground anything?

Thanks for any help you can give me.

Ernie Richardson

 

[plano_harry]

Can't help on the modification article, but here is an improvement:
J. Phil Thien's Cyclone Separator Lid w/ the Thien Cyclone Separator Baffle

The Woodcraft lid is a bad design IMHO. It is turning the incoming air 90 degrees which will drop your flow rate unnecessarily and the exhaust is in the trash stream instead of the center where the air is cleaner. If you are hooking this up to a shop vac, you will have a lot of suction, but barely enough air movement to capture the chips that fly toward you. I got near perfect separation performance out of the Oneida Dust Deputy ahead of a shop vac. It isn't much more money just for the cone and you don't have to do any mods. You will have near perfect separation but still you will have only marginal air flow to capture everything at the tool.

Definitely better than nothing, but if you don't want to wear a mask, you need to move around 1000 cfm from what I have read and filter to around .3 micron or blow it outside. Likely to have lots of debate here. The stuff you can see is not what kills you.

 

[sbell111]

The Woodcraft lid is a bad design IMHO. It is turning the incoming air 90 degrees which will drop your flow rate unnecessarily and the exhaust is in the trash stream instead of the center where the air is cleaner.

My memories of the modifications in that thread were that they moved the exhaust port to the center of the lid.

 

[oneleggimp]

Thank you so very much for your reply. I was wondering if I should wait and go for the dust deputy. I think I will wait thanks to your advice. I really do appreciate it.

 

[oneleggimp]

Thank you! That was my memory as well but I can't seem to find the article. I think I will wait and save a buy a Dust Deputy and put that on a 5 gallon pail. Thanks again for your help. I appreciate it!

 

[sbell111]

For anyone who is interested, these are the modifications that I was referring to.

 

[oneleggimp]

This is exactly the article I was looking for. Thank you for sharing it. I do appreciate it.

 

[Rick_G]

If you are using it with a shop vac. save your pennies and get the Oneida Dust Deputy and a HEPA filter for your shop vac. That's what I am using and haven't had to empty the shop vac for over 2 years. About once a year I take the filter out of the shop vac and clean the very fine dust from it.
I had the Lee Valley lid on a garbage can for my dust collector. Problem was when the garbage can got about 1/2 full the dust and chips never settled and just got sucked straight through into the dust collector bag. I got the Oneida super cyclone
Buy ONEIDA AIR SYSTEMS Super Dust Deputy Metal Cyclone Only at Woodcraft.com for that and haven't had to empty the dust collector bag since and the barrel under the cyclone is much easier to empty.

 

[sbell111]

If you are using it with a shop vac. save your pennies and get the Oneida Dust Deputy and a HEPA filter for your shop vac. That's what I am using and haven't had to empty the shop vac for over 2 years. About once a year I take the filter out of the shop vac and clean the very fine dust from it.
I had the Lee Valley lid on a garbage can for my dust collector. Problem was when the garbage can got about 1/2 full the dust and chips never settled and just got sucked straight through into the dust collector bag. I got the Oneida super cyclone
Buy ONEIDA AIR SYSTEMS Super Dust Deputy Metal Cyclone Only at Woodcraft.com for that and haven't had to empty the dust collector bag since and the barrel under the cyclone is much easier to empty.

The alterations that are being discussed are based on Phil Thien's cyclone separator that Harry linked to above. Phil states that his basically did away with any and all 'scrubbing'. There's no reason to believe that the altered lid won't have similar success.

 

[plano_harry]

There is no question the Super Dust Deputy works very well but you still have to drive it with a lot of air. My shop vac didn't have enough go power. I think the regular DD is more suited to a shop vac, but didn't try the Super because of the cost and I was afraid I couldn't drive it. Since I need both suction and separator, I was cheap and bought a used Delta 50-850 6" dust collector and modified the separator into a Thien baffle for the price of the Super DD separator alone. You can see a drawing in my "photos gallery"

 

[Rick_G]

There is no question the Super Dust Deputy works very well but you still have to drive it with a lot of air. My shop vac didn't have enough go power. I think the regular DD is more suited to a shop vac, but didn't try the Super because of the cost and I was afraid I couldn't drive it. Since I need both suction and separator, I was cheap and bought a used Delta 50-850 6" dust collector and modified the separator into a Thien baffle for the price of the Super DD separator alone. You can see a drawing in my "photos gallery"

the super is designed for a regular 1hp or larger dust collector that does not have a cyclone. Wouldn't even come close to making it work with a shop vac. I've used the larger lid for a full size dust collector and it works well as long as you keep an eye on the chip level in the bin. I used a garbage pail and after about half full the chips got held in suspension and passed on to the dust collector. With the clear bag on the dust collector you can see it happening and stop to empty the garbage pail but with a shop vac you wouldn't see it happening.