# My New Dust Separator



## CafeenMan (Jan 13, 2015)

I wasn't sure which forum to put this in so here it is.

I was going to make a separator using PVC pipes going into the drum as I have the materials and it's a lot less expensive.

But I decided on a commercial separator because I thought it would let me use bags in the drum.

That isn't working out - the bags are getting sucked into the vortex. I see with the Festool there is an auxiliary air line between the bag and the container that sucks the bag to the sides of the container so maybe I need to do some trick like that to make it work.

Or maybe that will screw up the whole project and I should leave well enough alone. It's working great.

What I don't understand is why guys are using puny 5-gallon buckets.

I was using bags for my Shop Vac. I'm a model-builder and sand a lot of balsa and birch plywood creating lots of fine dust. So I use the bags for drywall which are expensive. And I go through about 5 or 6 bags a year.

I found a place that sells generic bags slightly cheaper. The thing is my filter is always clogged anyway - the bags don't really stop that.

So I didn't even know separators existed until a couple months ago. Man am I amazed!!!!


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## CafeenMan (Jan 13, 2015)

More photos


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## CafeenMan (Jan 13, 2015)

Still more...

By the way, the drum is 15 gallons. I originally selected a 20 gallon drum but the 15 was a little lower aspect ratio (lower and wider) so I thought it would have less tendency to tip. In fact, it will be difficult to tip over even when empty. I think it was a good choice.


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## CafeenMan (Jan 13, 2015)

The hose is 35ish feet. It's longer than my shop which is 10 x 30. The hose from my shop-vac is 2 x 10 feet hooked together. So I have a lot of reach. I roll my saw out to my porch fairly often as I do with my router table. So no problem getting dust extraction out there.


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## tvman44 (Dec 8, 2011)

Nice job! :thumbsup:


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## mengtian (Nov 8, 2012)

Do you have enough air movement with a shop vac? I have a Ridgid 16 g (6.5 HP) which is rated at about 200 cfm. A 35 foot hose seems pretty long for efficeint flow.

BTW: Nice looking build! I need to make a bigger one for my Dust Deputy


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## BWSmith (Aug 24, 2010)

Looking good,thanks for posting.


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## CafeenMan (Jan 13, 2015)

mengtian - I can't tell the difference from just using it as a shop-vac. It's probably better since I tend to not clean out the filter often enough. By the time I get to it all you can see is dust - no pleats. I have to flake off an inch of dust before I get to filter and then clean out all the pleats.

So hopefully it will take a lot longer for it to get to that state.

Edit: It's about 55 feet of hose altogether.


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## CafeenMan (Jan 13, 2015)

Less than 8 hours for the whole deal by the way. The hardest part was routing the 45 degree dados.

I started with a square and drew the 45's with a drafting triangle. After sending it through my router table for the 90's, I cut off the corners using my track saw. That gave me a stop sign shape.

Then I VERY CAREFULLY sent it back through my router table. I didn't have a lot to register to the fence but I managed it.

Then I just used a circle jig after cutting away most of the waste on my band saw. I got all the circles routed and cut in about 1-1/2 hours. I had to work fast because I'm nocturnal and I didn't get started until about 8 pm. Since I was working on my front porch I wanted to be done by 10 pm.


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