# Super dust deputy not working?



## Rhaugle (May 12, 2017)

Hi everyone,
I have the super DD and finally got to use it all put together today... I have a hard plastic 30 gallon drum with a 3/4" plywood top that the SDD is on. It fits really tight, and I have fun bungies so it stays on tight.. after about 30 cuts I have noticed a decent amount of dust in the bag of my DC.. I also have the smaller dust deputy and have had that going for months with less dust total than what's in my bag after 1 day.. do I have an air leak somewhere or am I expecting to much from the SDD? It's only bean run with the table saw so far, so it's smaller dust


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## retfr8flyr (Aug 7, 2013)

Sounds like your top is leaking. Do you have it sealed or just sitting on the drum? The size sawdust from a table saw is what an SDD works well with, it's the real fine powder from a belt sander that gives it problems.


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## Rhaugle (May 12, 2017)

Its just pressure fitted on there right now.. I guess I can throw some foil tape on it, or some silicone around the fitting


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## Mark Jones Ozark (Feb 26, 2019)

Yup got a leak. That is what the booklet says that came with both of mine. I haven't had a leak so they work as stated. Great product.


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## Mark Jones Ozark (Feb 26, 2019)

I have used my two dust deputy products and fill up the 15 gallon 4" dust deputy bucket. Up until the point the 15 gallons was full the dust filter had no dust in it. Ha.... 100% suction the whole time on both products. Yet when don't empty it.... it has to have some place to go so it goes into my filter. Rule of thumb. If you resaw 5 walnut logs that are 4' long and 12" around and build a 10'x 28" wide resaw table and 3 other projects...the 15 gallon bucket will be full! HA! 

I am very pleased with this dust deputy product. I wished I had known about this product 30 years ago. Having maximum vacuum has my shop the cleanest ever! 


Link to my shop update and down in that is the dust deputy install.
http://readyrangers.tzo.com/2019ShopUpdate/shopupdate2019.htm


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## CharleyL (Jan 13, 2019)

I used closed cell foam Weatherstripping on my plywood top where it seals to my 20 gallon metal barrel. I have removed the top and dumped the barrel, then just replaced the lid with never a leak. Bungies aren't necessary. The vacuum pulls the lid down tight every time that I run it. My plywood barrel top is made from 2 pieces of 3/4 cabinet birch plywood caulked and screwed together, with my Dust Deputy mounted to the center. The lower plywood layer just fits inside the barrel. The top plywood layer is 4" larger in diameter so there is a 2" lip all the way around that sits on the top of the barrel with the smaller diameter piece fitting inside the barrel to keep the cover centered. On the underside of the lip formed by the upper piece is where I installed the 1" wide "closed cell Weatherstrip" so it seals well to the rounded top edge of the metal barrel. Any leak in this seal, between the plywood layers, or under the Dust Deputy will disturb the cyclonic separation action of the Dust Deputy and you will get saw dust in the vacuum's filter. No leaks and the Dust Deputy will work it's best, separating even tiny scroll saw saw dust out of the air stream. The only saw dust that I ever find in my Vacuum's collection container is the micron size and after months of operation this is only enough to leave a trace on the side walls of the container. My vacuum exhausts to the outdoors, so if any of this does get past the filter, it goes outside my shop and not into my lungs. 

Charley


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## Mark Jones Ozark (Feb 26, 2019)

Charley can you take a picture of your dust deputy setup? 



CharleyL said:


> I used closed cell foam Weatherstripping on my plywood top where it seals to my 20 gallon metal barrel. I have removed the top and dumped the barrel, then just replaced the lid with never a leak. Bungies aren't necessary. The vacuum pulls the lid down tight every time that I run it. My plywood barrel top is made from 2 pieces of 3/4 cabinet birch plywood caulked and screwed together, with my Dust Deputy mounted to the center. The lower plywood layer just fits inside the barrel. The top plywood layer is 4" larger in diameter so there is a 2" lip all the way around that sits on the top of the barrel with the smaller diameter piece fitting inside the barrel to keep the cover centered. On the underside of the lip formed by the upper piece is where I installed the 1" wide "closed cell Weatherstrip" so it seals well to the rounded top edge of the metal barrel. Any leak in this seal, between the plywood layers, or under the Dust Deputy will disturb the cyclonic separation action of the Dust Deputy and you will get saw dust in the vacuum's filter. No leaks and the Dust Deputy will work it's best, separating even tiny scroll saw saw dust out of the air stream. The only saw dust that I ever find in my Vacuum's collection container is the micron size and after months of operation this is only enough to leave a trace on the side walls of the container. My vacuum exhausts to the outdoors, so if any of this does get past the filter, it goes outside my shop and not into my lungs.
> 
> Charley


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## CharleyL (Jan 13, 2019)

Here is the only photo that I have at this time.

This Dust Deputy is connected to a re-purposed whole house vacuum unit and they are located in the attic of my shop. The metal barrel is a re-purposed grease barrel, about 20 gallon in size. I have installed the vacuum system pipes in my shop ceiling and walls with inlet ports located in key positions for the original 25' hose. I found that "hub less couplings from the plumbing supply worked very good for coupling the Dust Deputy to the plastic pipe that is used for central vacuum systems. I don't use this system for my heavy saw dust and chip producers, but it gets used for sanding, drill presses, scroll saws, vacuuming the floor, and an inlet port is located in the outside wall next to the passage door for vacuuming my cars and trucks. The exhaust from the unit is directed to an outlet port so it exhausts to the outdoors. This keeps even the micro fine dust that might get through the Dust Deputy and the fabric vacuum filter in the vacuum from ever getting back into my shop.

I now have a second Dust Deputy mounted to a 5 gallon plastic bucket that I use with my shop vac for more portable use. (no pictures yet)

Charley


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## Mark Jones Ozark (Feb 26, 2019)

Thanks. The lid looks solid. The one I use on my wetvac with the 5 gallon lid on it I wonder if it will hold up over the years as when it is turned on it really sucks it down tight. The 4" dust deputy has a different mount so I doubt I will need to modify that. Do you use a 2" pool vacuum hose? I am using a Fast Cap wooden reel to that is about 24" square that has about 25 feet of pool hose on it. I have one of those rubber sewer connectors on my basement lift station. The connections on the dust deputy is pretty tight with the hoses I have on it with out clamps. I am going to need to glue up my bandsaw 4" plumbing at least part of it to keep it from coming apart it's alum taped right now.

Thanks for sharing the picture. 



CharleyL said:


> Here is the only photo that I have at this time.
> 
> This Dust Deputy is connected to a re-purposed whole house vacuum unit and they are located in the attic of my shop. The metal barrel is a re-purposed grease barrel, about 20 gallon in size. I have installed the vacuum system pipes in my shop ceiling and walls with inlet ports located in key positions for the original 25' hose. I found that "hub less couplings from the plumbing supply worked very good for coupling the Dust Deputy to the plastic pipe that is used for central vacuum systems. I don't use this system for my heavy saw dust and chip producers, but it gets used for sanding, drill presses, scroll saws, vacuuming the floor, and an inlet port is located in the outside wall next to the passage door for vacuuming my cars and trucks. The exhaust from the unit is directed to an outlet port so it exhausts to the outdoors. This keeps even the micro fine dust that might get through the Dust Deputy and the fabric vacuum filter in the vacuum from ever getting back into my shop.
> 
> ...


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## CharleyL (Jan 13, 2019)

Mark,

My central vacuum unit was saved from the dumpster when my next door neighbor did a major remodel. When I saw him headed for the dumpster with it I yelled "Hey, can I have that?" and he carried it over to my shop. He said "it doesn't work", and I replied "I'll fix it" which I did at the cost of $16 for a new control transformer. Over the next several days all of the piping, inlets, hose, and attachments showed up at my shop. Installation was quite a task, because it was 98 degrees every afternoon that I was installing it, and well over 100 in the shop attic. I spent about $70 for more pipe, fittings, and misc. to put it all together. So I'm using the original 25' hose that was originally used in the home with it. I plug it into an inlet port the same way and have hooks in my shop ceiling that I hang it from when the nozzle end needs to be some distance across the shop, so I don't have the hose causing a trip hazard. The same hose gets used outside for vacuuming the cars and trucks.

My first attempt to use it with a 5 gallon plastic bucket went well, until I partially plugged the end of the hose with a chip of wood. Almost immediately I heard a whump sound from the attic and discovered that my 5 gallon bucket had imploded. This was a bit surprising, because I had been using the Dust Deputy with my shop vac and never had this happen, until I moved the Dust Deputy to the central vac unit. I studied the problem for a while and realized that only the top 1/3 of the bucket had reinforcing ribs all the way around it and the lower 2/3 that had imploded did not. I decided to stack 3 of the same buckets together and this not only tripled the wall thickness, but also gave me reinforcing ribs the full length of the top bucket. My imploding bucket was solved, until my son brought me the 20 gallon metal barrel about 8 months later. 

The plastic buckets that I was using came from the Firehouse Subs chain stores. They come to the stores full of dill pickles, and the chain sells the empty buckets for $2 each, which is then donated to the local fire and EMS Services, so a win-win. You get cheap and strong buckets with lids, and the fire and EMS services gets a donation. These buckets are supposed to be significantly stronger than the white, gray, or orange buckets and I think they are, but mostly because of the extra ribs around the upper 1/3 of the bucket. There is a slight down side to using them though. If your vacuum exhaust empties into your shop, it will smell like dill pickles for about the first month of use. I tried many ways to remove the pickle odor and nothing but time in use really worked. Some of the buckets that were left out in the bright Sun did improve faster than the other methods tried though. If you have imploding problems, stack them together like I did (this might help if using the other buckets too, but I didn't try it).

Charley


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## Mark Jones Ozark (Feb 26, 2019)

Thanks Charley. Good info. The dust deputy came with 2 buckets but I am not using it. It was for a mounting idea they had.


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## CharleyL (Jan 13, 2019)

Any inward leak in one of these vacuum systems will disturb the cyclonic air flow and result in saw dust getting past the Dust Deputy. Unfortunately, inward leaks are harder to find than outward leaks. If the vacuum and Dust Deputy is in an area with very little air circulation you can hold a cigarette or smoking incense near the seams and joints and watch to see if the smoke stream is drawn into the leak. Be very careful not to allow sparks to be drawn in. Another possibility is to buy a spray can of smoke test for testing smoke alarms. It is very fire safe as there is no fire at all. 

At any rate, once you find a leak you can take steps to plug it. They make a very rubbery duct sealer that can be painted on the seams of metal ducts to seal them. The silver duct joint sealing tape also works very well if you can avoid wrinkling it. The silver fabric tape called Duck Tape is not ear as good because it deteriorates over time. Careful installation of the closed cell Weather stripping can make a very effective sealer between the lid and container if it is installed on a flat surface where the edge of the container comes up against. Since there is a seam when forming this into a circle, I overlapped the two ends and used a razor blade to cut through both, then removed the scrap pieces and joined the two perfectly cut ends tightly together. Again, my closed cell Weatherstrip is installed glue side up under the lip formed by the upper larger diameter piece of cabinet birch plywood. The smaller diameter piece that fits inside the barrel top just locates the top so the edge lip of the barrel hits the Closed Cell Weatherstrip all the way around. There is no glue on the barrel side of the Weatherstrip, only the top where it is stuck to the underside of the top plywood. Vacuum holds the top tightly onto the barrel, but it has to sit flat on the barrel in order to not leak as the vacuum first turns on.

I used Plumbers hub-less rubber pipe couplings to join my pipes to my Dust Deputy. These couplings come in many sizes and shapes, even reducing couplings and elbows. They are made from neoprene rubber and have car radiator hose style stainless hose clamps on each end, so you can get a good tight fit, even if the pipe is 1/4" smaller or larger than the coupling. 

Charley


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