DC Bin Options

[McRabbet]

The majority of you probably have single stage canister or bag filtered dust collectors with a felt or plastic bag to collect all of the sawdust and chips you generate. One common characteristic is that these type of collectors are pushing dust to the collection bin, so it is under positive pressure. Most (but not all) cyclone dust collectors are placed "upstream" of the blower used to produce the suction that draws dust from your shop machines (a few are "pushers", like AlanILW's, so they can use a bag, too). Because the dust that exits the bottom of the cyclone is in a vacuum, the bin must be a rigid structure to withstand the suction and it must be air tight to maintain the efficiency of the upstream runs of ducts to the shop machines.

If you review photos of cyclone installations in the non-commercial workshops (e.g., browse for an hour or so through this gallery at ClearVue Cyclones), you see that the most common bins are either 30 gallon "ash barrels" made of galvanized metal, or any of several sizes of fiber drums, or, in fewer cases, wide-mouth plastic barrels. In each case, an entry port for the sawdust must be made in the top and some form of seal must be provided to minimize leakage. The most elegant solution I've seen -- and I've looked at lots of photos in planning for the installation of my ClearVue Cyclone -- is by our very own PurpleThumb, Jerry Grant.

I visited Jerry's shop less than 2 weeks ago to see how he had installed his ClearVue CV1800 and was impressed by his bin setup. He used a fiber drum from an old 2-stage Delta dust collector (probably a 50 gallon capacity), mounted it on a low caster base and made a self-sealing MDF top for it. Here it is in the alcove in his shop:

The top is hinged to a mounting board fastened to the CMU wall and is held down with a simple bungee cord. As most of you know, fiber drums usually have a rolled metal rim for strength and Jerry used his router on a circle cutting jig and equipped with a box core bit to rout out a nice mating groove on the underside of the top before he cut the hole for the entry duct. Here is a shot of the underside of the top:

The bin is tightly sealed and the top can move up just enough with the flex between it and the cyclone that pulling the bin out is easy. And notice the curved piece of 3/4" plywood at the rear of the top -- that helps the bin "find" the exact position it must be for the top to seat easily. Simple, effective and easy to fabricate.

Great job, Jerry -- I think I might copy your ideas! And I promise to help you make a bin full sensor if you want one to protect those nice Wynn Filters next to your ClearVue!

[Alan in Little Washington]

Now all Jerry needs to do is add about 3" of duct inside the lid so the drum doesn't fill to the top and is easier to dump, and . . . put one of my high dust sensors in the short piece of duct on the outside of it lid as Rob suggests!