The Cyclone Dust Separator
The Cyclone Dust Separator
These pages give loads of information about specifying and making your own cyclone dust separators. The transparent cyclonic filtration units in our example are part of a much bigger dust extraction project: ‘The Dust Sniper’, which is a quiet, multi hose, flexible usage extractor system.
These cyclonic filters are carefully dimensioned to be extremely efficient with all kinds of fine wood dust, but they certainly work well with larger wood shavings too. They can be used with regular shop vacs, or even household vacuum cleaners. The two cyclones of the ‘Dust Sniper’ are made to overcome two related problems with using inexpensive household vacuums as workshop dust extractors:
- First, dust, especially fine wood dust like you get from a bandsaw, either flies straight through or blocks regular, and even ‘lifetime hepa’ filters almost immediately. In fact almost all vacuum cleaners come with the stipulation that thou shall not suck dust born of wood, brick, or cement. Doing so will invalidate your warranty, and bring to your house the mockery and scorn of the hoover god.
- Second, household vacuums do not have the capacity to store much sawdust, before filling a bag and needing a replacement (or requiring extremely regular emptying if of the bagless variety).