I've recently become somewhat fascinated with how cyclonic vacuum systems work. I'm working on a design for a cyclonic shop vac system with NO filter but to sneak up on the idea I started with a $35 prototype to see how things worked before I move on to make the large, more complex version. To my surprise the prototype without any filter works REALLY well. 3D printing all of the adapters made it really easy to throw this together.
Parts...
$25 BUCKET HEAD BH01000 vacuum (its a small vacuum head that snaps onto a $5 gallon bucket, Home Depot)
$10 yard sale Bissell Powergroom Cyclone Vacuum (I hacked the cyclone system)
5 gallon bucket
22"x8.5x1/16" polycarbonate (Lexan) sheet. You could use any thin plastic or laminate material for this. I was testing a PC bonding technique.
Several adapters 3D printed on my Zortrax
I tested the effectiveness of the dust extraction using a Dylos 1100 Pro air quality monitor.
Bottom line... the $35 system can vacuum up fine saw dust and not put out many more fine particles than you get cooking some eggs. I can't see or smell the sawdust as I'm vacuuming it but the ambient particle counts do go up but not much. Details are included in the attached pictures. Feel free to inquire if you have questions or post comments if you have some better ideas.
This was a fun project and the Zortax printer made the adapters very easy. I'll be starting on the full size versIon this weekend. I can't wait. Its going to be made completely of Polycarbonate so I'll be able to see the vortex action as it happens. Fun stuff...
Awesome!!! I need this for my Cnc! I’m using a harborfreight dust collector which is very quiet but it uses a bag… Would love to add a cyclone system to that!
I'd like to see the parts printable for the Buckethead including the cyclone. I'd even pay for the files. I like the Buckethead vac, it is reasonably powerful for what it is, and really cheap so you don't feel too bad about sucking up some greasy oil or whatever. But it has no real filter, none at all if you are dealing with any liquids.
Edit: I note that the cyclones themselves are available - and quite cheaply too - from Bissel. I ordered a couple to try out.
Andre... do a search on YouTube for "Thein Dust Collector". You will find some very nice cyclone designs that you can retrofit to your dust collector. There are cone shaped vortex collectors available but they take up a lot more space and aren't much more effective. The best version IMO is a Thien cyclone that feeds a garbage can with a large filter to replace the top bag. If you want more info I can dig up links in a file I'm keeping and post them here or mail them to you. Let me know if you want more info.
Swarf... I did a crude model of all of the parts to this system, as you see in the renderings. However, they would require more time to get the Bissell cyclone parts to a printable form with correct tolerances. My files are in Autodesk Inventor (a 10 year old version). You can have them if you want. The 3D printed parts are mostly dependent on what you use for your cyclone so they wouldn't do you much good without having the same Bissell cyclone that I'm using. I'm pretty sure it would do a good job of not letting any grease or liquids even make it to the Bissell cyclone. They would all be centrifuged out as they enter the bucket.
The inlet adapter is something anyone could use. I need to make one more tweak to it and if anyone wants that file I can post the .STL here if the forum allows .STL's to be posted.
Attached is the results from an air quality test I ran on the system... It pretty much puts out about the same number of particles while sucking up a bunch of saw dust as I see when I cook eggs in the kitchen in the morning but about 10x as many as my Dyson puts out. However, keep in mind that the Dyson includes TWO HEPA filters AFTER the cyclone separation so that's not really a fair comparison. Not bad for a $35 hack ;-) ...
Awesome!!! I need this for my Cnc! I'm using a harborfreight dust collector which is very quiet but it uses a bag.... Would love to add a cyclone system to that!
The Dust Deputy is a good option if you want the least amount of effort to get something going and they sell on Amazon for $50 for just the cyclone and $100 for a full kit including bucket and hardware. Here's a shootout between three types of cyclone separators. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ct5R6_bj80
Personally, I think a homemade Thien type is better than any of these three because it pulls out as much dust and debris but it can be designed more compact if done right.
Here are some links for Thien types...
Go to the 14:20 mark in this one to see a clear one in action... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9Sn7g-vsf8&feature=youtu.be
I don't want a separate dust collector - I want it all inside the Buckethead bucket, and not too deep either. I carry this thing around, sucking up spilled coolant, swarf mixed with coolant, any sort of horrible junk. When it gets a couple of gallons in it, it begins spitting liquid out the exhaust. Usually the metal swarf is too heavy to get spit out, it sinks to the bottom. There were two Bissel cyclones that looked promising, they were <$10 each so I ordered one each. I'll take a look at adapting them when they come in.
Swarf... keep me posted on your progress. I'd like to trade notes with you if you don't mind. If you need any 3D files or dimensions just let me know. I have everything modeled.
I did some more testing with my Frankenvac this weekend and it protrudes pretty deep into the bucket. I'd say its very close to the bottom. There's no reason the fine dust collection cup needs to be as long as it is though so that could cut off a few inches. Another change I'll probably make is to shorten the polycarbonate shield that wraps around the Bissell cyclone and I'll also add holes in the polycarb wrap and totally enclose the bottom. That way, the bucket has to get almost all the way full before it blocks off the airflow.
What you want to do is impossible because particules you will find are too different : size, weight, ... Cyclone are very efficient with large and heavy particules. For different size/weight, you will need several cyclones with different diameters. You can find that in Dyson vaccum. And then you will need a very powerful fon motor because of very high pressure drop (not sure in english, in french "pertes de charge").
And even with several cyclones, smaller particules will remains in the air flow, that's why you can find HEPA filter on Dyson.
By the way, don't use a cyclone to extract the dust on a cnc, specially for wood, and put the filtered air into the workshop, beacause the most dangerous particules are the smallest one ...For information, wood dusts are carcinogenic. If you want tu use a cyclone, put the filtered air outside !
Thanks will look at those files. I need to get the Bissel parts in hand to see what needs to be done.
I don't care about fine dust for what I'm doing - the main issue is that a paper or cloth or HEPA filter cannot be used as it would be ruined within minutes. It seems like the cyclone would be good to separate water/coolant droplets.
My guess is that it would do a great job separating liquids. You will want to be careful about aerosol droplets of hazardous materials. Some kind of material baffle to separate the waste bin from the cyclone inlet would probably take care of that.
What you want to do is impossible because particules you will find are too different : size, weight, ... Cyclone are very efficient with large and heavy particules. For different size/weight, you will need several cyclones with different diameters. You can find that in Dyson vaccum. And then you will need a very powerful fon motor because of very high pressure drop (not sure in english, in french "pertes de charge").
And even with several cyclones, smaller particules will remains in the air flow, that's why you can find HEPA filter on Dyson.
By the way, don't use a cyclone to extract the dust on a cnc, specially for wood, and put the filtered air into the workshop, beacause the most dangerous particules are the smallest one ...For information, wood dusts are carcinogenic. If you want tu use a cyclone, put the filtered air outside !
The new Dyson Cinetic tech claims to be able to get the small particles out even without filters
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxjiLmKCSAA
I have my doubts about that because they never publish any test data to show which particle sizes they remove or to what level. The Cinetic concept is interesting though and something that could be 3D printed with flexible material.
I've been testing some other ideas to see if I can get all of the particles out with heavy forced centrifugation. My first prototype (Form1+ print) disintegrated at around 24,000 rpms so I need to work on a new design ;-) It was quite a spectacular explosion though.
For now I'm going to tinker with the Frankenvac until I can get it to as good or better filtration levels than the OEM version. There's lots of room to improve on what I have so far.