Dust collection question for Alan in Little Washington...

[scsmith42]

Alan:

Doug and I were kicking around an idea this morning, and your name cropped up as someone good to bounce it off of (amongst others...)

I have a 16" jointer/planer which I use for personal woodworking, and it's plumbed into an Oneida 3 hp SDG (the Oliver 25" is on a separate DC system).

Even though I only have to take about 4 steps to empty the drum on the Oneida into the back of a dump truck, it's still a pain (and it fills up rather quickly when I'm joint/planing a lot of boards). What I'd like to do is to suspend the SDG from the ceiling over my dump truck, and come up with a way to auto-dump it into the DT when it's full.

Cyclones work as a "closed" system, so I can't just leave the bottom open. What I'm wondering about is putting a "Y" adaptor underneath the cyclone so that it could dump into one of two different large diameter tubes, and have ports at the top and bottom of the tubes that would automatically open and dump one, alternating the dust flow to the other tube when one is being emptied.

Do you (or anybody else for that matter) have any ideas as to how this can be done efficiently, effectively, and economically?

I figure that you would enjoy the intellectual challenge that accompanies this topic! Thanks much.

Scott

[ErnieM]

Originally Posted by scsmith42

Gee Ernie, it appears that you are well qualified to get a job drafting legislation up in Washington DC....

Nah! The guys writing manuals for dovetail machines are far more qualified than me.

Ernie

[Alan in Little Washington]

Okey, dokey.