DIY Dust collection options

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I can't help you altho I have a small HF system which works for me. It only is only connected to my lathe. There has been lots of discussion on this and I think a search will show quite a bit of information.
 
 
I'ld start off with any old vacuum cleaner you have laying about ... just remember to clean the bag/compartment out and clean the filter as well. If you are lucky enough to find a similar model hitting the street (garbage), grab the filter and other spare parts you want, especially the hoses!

Once you have the extra cash to spend ... pick up the Dust Deputy or make one yourself. It'll still WORK with your vacuum cleaner, it just may not work particularly well. You'll want 4 - 6 HP motor to really make the DD shine like a real dust collector. It'll still separate the dust and debris out with a vacuum cleaner, but it may not pick up a lot at a time or lose things inside the hoses.
 
This is my dust collection system. I purchased a shop vac from a big box store, a drum from Amazon, and the dust deputy. After realizing dragging the two around didn't work very well, I decided to build a cart.
 

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I'll second the suggestion for learning from Matthias Wendel... He's got some awesome toys to play with.


He has several dust collector iterations he's worked through, and they've all worked to some extent. I'ld just start with this playlist and work your way through them all before you get into designing your own, as he has several re-design plans for the same units after he made them, in case he has to make them again.

Matthias Wendel DIY Dust Collection
 
I have two of the dust deputies and for the money they really improve the standard shop vac performance. They really do keep the filter about 90% cleaner and they are kind of portable. The kind of part is because it makes for a big unruly shop vac thing. That being said I can fill the bucket about seven or eight times before I start to lose suction and have to beat the dust out of my filter. I hate filter beating and the associated clouds of filth.

I clean out my wood burner each fall using it, it's sat dormant for months so no fear of embers or sparks. As fine as that dust is I don't have to clean the filter after I do it. They really do work.


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When I started turning I used a shop vac for dust collection. I took a one gallon milk jug, cut the bottom off, jammed the shop vac hose through the top and used that as a dust hood. I was only turning pens on a mini lathe and my home made set up actually worked very well. The biggest issue was the filter getting clogged. A dust deputy, or similar, would have made a big difference.

I have a real dust collector now but I also have a dust deputy hooked to my shop vac now that I use for shop clean up. As mentioned, it works fantastic. It really keeps the shop vac filter clean and is easy to empty.
 
I have been tempted many times to buy the dust deputies and the like, but was concerned that interrupting the hose would reduce the suction (nothing scientific about my thinking....just speculating). I thought it would be better to leave the hose intact/uninterrupted, but replace the bag with smaller micron material. Do you all believe that the dust deputies do not reduction suction? Thank you. Eduardo. I hope you don't mind me asking this on top of your post; I think my question relates to yours. Thanks again.
 
TonyL said:
I have been tempted many times to buy the dust deputies and the like, but was concerned that interrupting the hose would reduce the suction (nothing scientific about my thinking....just speculating). I thought it would be better to leave the hose intact/uninterrupted, but replace the bag with smaller micron material. Do you all believe that the dust deputies do not reduction suction? Thank you. Eduardo. I hope you don't mind me asking this on top of your post; I think my question relates to yours. Thanks again.
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I have a mid sized Shop Vac with a Dust Deputy. I have plenty of power. No problem picking up dust and chips.

A couple weeks ago I even picked up a 6" chunk of 3/4" dowel. It went a couple feet up the hose before stopping at a bend. Just doing some quick clean-up, I didn't think it would pick that up, but it did.
 
Great! Thanks. I will connect to my larger DCs.

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TonyL said:
I have been tempted many times to buy the dust deputies and the like, but was concerned that interrupting the hose would reduce the suction (nothing scientific about my thinking....just speculating). I thought it would be better to leave the hose intact/uninterrupted, but replace the bag with smaller micron material. Do you all believe that the dust deputies do not reduction suction? Thank you. Eduardo. I hope you don't mind me asking this on top of your post; I think my question relates to yours. Thanks again.
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It works like they claim a dyson works, no loss of suction. I did make the mistake of using a really long one piece hose. Getting a chunk of wood stuck in the center of a thirty foot pool cleaning hose just plain sucks. I though it would make a great long hose, it did until I plugged it. I now link 8 foot sections together so I can fish out the big stuff when it goes up the snout and lodges in the hose.


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If you connect it and seal it properly, the only thing a Dust Deputy does is help contain 95% - 99% of the dust and debris before it reaches your vacuum source. You'll still want a micron filter in place to catch the finest particles, but your vacuum's other filters will get very very little work to do. You will still want to keep them in place just in case you aren't watching your DD and it gets overfilled ... :)
 
I'm in flux right now I have a generic Dust deputy attached to a 5 gallon bucket and a bucket head on top of a Matthias Wendel's home made 2 bucket cyclone .

Plan is to maybe use the two bucket cyclone under my lathe bench sucking the dust down through a hole in the bench using 2" PVC.

Either way I'm going to remove the filter from the vac and just send the fine dust out through a hole in the outside door.
 
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I started with a Ridgid wet/dry vac connected to a dust deputy that served me very well until I was able to upgrade. The Ridgid vac had an exhaust port that also accepted a vac hose so I installed a drier vent in the wall of my shop and exhausted anything the vac didn't get outside. This also worked very well for doing CA finishes because most of the fumes were exhausted off of the work and out through the vent.
 
I have had no issues with suction. I have had mine for almost 2.5 years. And have emptied the 14 gallon drum out probably 2-3 times. I also initially upgraded my vac filters to a 3 layer filter and added a bag filter. There is some fine dust particles in the bag, but I am still yet to change my bag. Other than being bulky in the shop, I have no complaints.
 
chartle said:
I'm in flux right now I have a generic Dust deputy attached to a 5 gallon bucket and a bucket head on top of a Matthias Wendel's home made 2 bucket cyclone .

Plan is to maybe use the two bucket cyclone under my lathe bench sucking the dust down through a hole in the bench using 2" PVC.

Either way I'm going to remove the filter from the vac and just send the fine dust out through a hole in the outside door.
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That works great till it's waaaaaayyyyyy too hot/cold outside to be wasting all the conditioned air.


I like David's setup as well ... it's got portability and keeps it in a fairly small package.

I bought a 2-tier metal cart at Harbor Freight... 16" x 30" ... Red enameled. My idea is to see if I can mount my Dust Deputy and the Shop-Vac I got 2 months ago on top (with a hole cut through the top "shelf" for the DD) and mount a bucket underneath that locks into place with a good seal directly under the DD ... I'ld probably re-use some type of bucket lid in order to get the best seal I could. The DD on top and the lid on bottom would be sealed all round with silicone gel.


The other half of the bottom shelf would be where I could store additional hoses, attachments, ect... But when I get my shop built, I'll build a large cabinet with some sound insulating materials where I can keep the entire unit and have it near my lathe, as that generates the majority of my dust and wood shavings.

I do plan to run a line over to my table saw too, if can ever get that thing out of the box, lol ... and the bandsaw and 4"x36" belt sander as well. Those are my really dusty work areas. I'm waiting for some connectors and a hose that I ordered so that I can put this DC to work dedicated to my lathe, at the moment. Also waiting on the bucket.

For everything else, I have an old vacuum (with the cyclone action and a dust bin to clean out) and I can just move that around and spot clean like a mini dedicated DC system. These locations will be ... power miter saw, drill press, and my small 1"x30" belt sander.
 
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Skie_M said:
That works great till it's waaaaaayyyyyy too hot/cold outside to be wasting all the conditioned air.
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Well the basement area I have right now barely gets anything you would call conditioned air. No AC in the house and I run a small heater that maybe gets it up to 50 in the winter even with the furnace vent open.

My thought was to not worry about filters and keep the max airflow I can from my little setup. I have no space and what space I have has accumulated years of crap I can't find the time to get rid of.

A Dust Deputy on a 5 gal bucket with a shop vac next to it just doesn't fit my tiny space.
 
Running with no filters at all? That will jam up your vac's motor and your dust collection efforts would break down pretty fast ...


At the very least, you should use the normal vacuum filters that came with your vacuum to control how much dust and debris could make it into the motor.


The way vacuum motors are designed, all the air travels through the interior of the motor, straight through the fan blades. This is to help keep that motor cool and prevent it from overheating and melting down. Debris getting sucked in there would also cause problems ... additional friction, blockage of air flow, higher heat retention, and plain old damage ripping the wiring to shreds. Plus, if you're sucking up things that are potentially conductive, or even things that are damp ... that's a recipe for disaster.

Last, but not least, if you are working with things like epoxy resins, that dust can get extremely fine and it can tear up your lungs. Wear a breathing mask and/or upgrade to a micron grade HEPA filter if you're going to be working in a confined space like that.
 
Skie_M said:
Running with no filters at all? That will jam up your vac's motor and your dust collection efforts would break down pretty fast ...


At the very least, you should use the normal vacuum filters that came with your vacuum to control how much dust and debris could make it into the motor.


The way vacuum motors are designed, all the air travels through the interior of the motor, straight through the fan blades. This is to help keep that motor cool and prevent it from overheating and melting down. Debris getting sucked in there would also cause problems ... additional friction, blockage of air flow, higher heat retention, and plain old damage ripping the wiring to shreds. Plus, if you're sucking up things that are potentially conductive, or even things that are damp ... that's a recipe for disaster.

Last, but not least, if you are working with things like epoxy resins, that dust can get extremely fine and it can tear up your lungs. Wear a breathing mask and/or upgrade to a micron grade HEPA filter if you're going to be working in a confined space like that.
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Well the cyclone gets almost all the dust and I think the motor has its own fan and is separate from the impeller that's used for suction. And yes I use a 3M P95 (?) and may start to use a sand blast hood contraption with positive pressure since I haven't turned in months due to what I think is a severe CA allergy that started around this time last year. Thats another reason I want the sucked up air out of the shop.
 
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Ahh ... ok, so you ARE using filters, then, and the exhaust air leaves the shop completely ... that's a much better situation. :)


You could hook up the exhaust port of your dust collection setup to a dryer vent hose and put in a standard wall exhaust vent to push that right outside the shop... just make sure to set it up to automatically close when not in use in order to keep creepy crawlies out of your wood shop! :)
 
Skie_M said:
1. Ahh ... ok, so you ARE using filters, then, and the exhaust air leaves the shop completely ... that's a much better situation. :)


2. You could hook up the exhaust port of your dust collection setup to a dryer vent hose and put in a standard wall exhaust vent to push that right outside the shop... just make sure to set it up to automatically close when not in use in order to keep creepy crawlies out of your wood shop! :)
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1. Not on my Bucket Head cyclone configuration.

2. The creepy crawlies get in anyway. If I put flap on it its just one less way for them to leave. :)
 
Cliff,

How well does your cyclone work with bucket head vac on it? I was thinking about making Matthias' cyclone, but adding the bucket vac would seem to make it more compact. Any chance of pictures?
 
swcrawford said:
Cliff,

How well does your cyclone work with bucket head vac on it? I was thinking about making Matthias' cyclone, but adding the bucket vac would seem to make it more compact. Any chance of pictures?
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Well after not being in my shop for months I have some expected late Xmas presents to make so I got a heater going in my shop as we speak and should be down there soon.

Haven't done much testing but it works way way better than expected. Without a filter I've tried sucking up fine dust and I see nothing coming out the exhaust.

The current Issue I have is that the inlet is just way too small. I think its more like 1" vs the normal 1.25" and anything more than dust clogs it up since it also has a sharp 90 into the bucket and then another to get the air moving around.

I plan on making an inlet just like Matthias's with 2" pipe and long bend pipe fittings and plugging up the inlet.

I'll be back.
 
Here it is. I think I got the idea of using two buckets this way from another video. At the time I didn't have any gal buckets. But now have one so I'll probably use a gal for the bottom. Also need a better way to hold them together to make easier to empty it. Probably get some sort of latches.
 

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chartle said:
Here it is. I think I got the idea of using two buckets this way from another video. At the time I didn't have any gal buckets. But now have one so I'll probably use a gal for the bottom. Also need a better way to hold them together to make easier to empty it. Probably get some sort of latches.
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its should say 5 gal buckets. my 5 on my keyboard not in the num pad is broken.

But wanted to add the person I got the "Plans" for had a specific reason for the size of the baffle. You can see my cyphoring layout.
 
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