# cyclone separators



## glycerine (May 28, 2010)

I've seen a metal cyclone separator online for around $200 (Amazon and Ebay).  Looks like it's made of galvanized steel.  It's just the separator piece, so you add your own dust collector, or just the motor from your dust collector and then add your own "trash can" under it.
Does anybody have experience with this type?  I recently ordered just a mini dust collector from HF, so it's basically the motor/impeller with a bag attached to it.  My plan is to get a preseparator of some kind and probably a wynn or dust dog filter as well...


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## Fred (May 29, 2010)

Good move on adding the pre-separator. These devices will pay for themselves the first times that and chunks of wood or a blown out knot hole goes into it and not into the propeller blades of the vacuum.

I do not have the cyclone in my DC system, however I do use the pre-separators at each large piece of equipment. They sure are a lot easier to empty that the DC bags full of real fine dust.


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## nava1uni (May 29, 2010)

Rockler has a dust separator like the steel on for $24.00. Greg from the Northern California Chapter has one and says it is great and does a great job.


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## bitshird (May 29, 2010)

I have an Onida and I love it, it actually traps a lot of the dust, the chips seem to go to the shop vac,, but it's an 18 gal. 6 hP. monster 100 bucks at woodcraft, and now I need two more.


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## darrin1200 (May 30, 2010)

Here is a link to a homemade separator that is easy to build and very effective. It was designed by Phil Thien, but many people have tried and adapted it. Use this link as a start point, but if you google "Thien Separator" you will get lots of hits to people that have built from his design.

http://www.cgallery.com/jpthien/cy.htm

I built one myself and connected it to my shop vac. It was a quick satuday project. I should have spent more time getting the shape and diameter to fit perfectly in the can. Even though it is not a perfect fit, after 2 weeks of use, I filled the can and only a 1/2 cup of very fine dust got through to the vaccum.

Darrin


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## Fred (May 30, 2010)

Darrin ... That is a VERY USEFUL link to a great addition to anyone's DC system. I am in the process of starting one of these this week for my system.

Thanks again for posting the link!


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## jocat54 (May 30, 2010)

darrin1200 said:


> Here is a link to a homemade separator that is easy to build and very effective. It was designed by Phil Thien, but many people have tried and adapted it. Use this link as a start point, but if you google "Thien Separator" you will get lots of hits to people that have built from his design.
> 
> http://www.cgallery.com/jpthien/cy.htm
> 
> ...


 


Second on the Thein Separator, it works great.


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## glycerine (May 31, 2010)

darrin1200 said:


> Here is a link to a homemade separator that is easy to build and very effective. It was designed by Phil Thien, but many people have tried and adapted it. Use this link as a start point, but if you google "Thien Separator" you will get lots of hits to people that have built from his design.
> 
> http://www.cgallery.com/jpthien/cy.htm
> 
> ...


 
I've seen the thein baffle and have been contemplating that or a cyclone style.  I had decided on a cyclone simply because I thought they kept more dust than a baffle system, but that's just based on info I have found on the web.  Have you ever used a cyclone type separator?


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## darrin1200 (Jun 1, 2010)

glycerine said:


> I've seen the thein baffle and have been contemplating that or a cyclone style. I had decided on a cyclone simply because I thought they kept more dust than a baffle system, but that's just based on info I have found on the web. Have you ever used a cyclone type separator?


 

The Thien does operate like a cyclone. Similar in design to the one sold at Lee Valley. But it has a baffle to keep the dust in the separator.

Darrin


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## bradh (Jun 1, 2010)

Separators work by dumping the flow into a larger volume chamber so the flow speed drops and the wood chips fall out. Cyclone and baffle systems add the feature of changing directions so the larger chips hit a wall, loose speed and fall out of the flow.
   I produced the same effect in my home-made collector by aligning the inlet tubes at a baffle inside a chamber. The larger bits of wood fall out in the separator and do not reach or clog the filters.


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## glycerine (Jun 1, 2010)

I guess if anything, the Thein can be made cheaper and easier.  That would leave me more money for the filter on the other side of the collector.  I want to make sure whatever I do traps the finest dust I can...


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## dow (Jun 1, 2010)

glycerine said:


> I guess if anything, the Thein can be made cheaper and easier.  That would leave me more money for the filter on the other side of the collector.  I want to make sure whatever I do traps the finest dust I can...



That it can.  I made mine in an afternoon for my shop vac.  Then when I finally got a DC, I re-worked the Thein separator to fit my DC (took it apart, recut the holes to larger size, replaced all the fittings with larger fittings to fit the DC, replaced the three stand-off bolts between the lid and the baffle with longer sections of all-thread).  I think that if you combine the time and money that I have invested in mine for both builds, it probably comes out to less than $60 total, and about four to five hours of time. 

As for how it works, when I had it hooked up to my shop vac, I never had to empty the shop vac itself or blow out the filter in over a year of use.  The baffle stopped essentially everything.  Since hooking it up to my DC, the bag on the DC has stayed empty.


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## AceMrFixIt (Jun 1, 2010)

*I want one....*

I know what my vacation project is going to be now.......


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