The past couple of months have been pretty busy because we’ve been putting together papers for the Fall conference season. However, little by little I’ve been working on installing a new CV1800 cyclone dust collector in my garage shop (pardon the noisy iPhone photo):
Powering this thing is a serious 5 HP, US made, Leeson motor. It also has two large 9L300BL pleated cartridge filters from Wynn Environmental (approx. 3’ tall x 1’ diameter each). The goal with this purchase is to have a dust collector that I basically can’t outgrow at the hobbyist level. I was having lots of trouble with wood dust, taking lots of the fun out of my hobby and worrying me about the long-term health issues.
Once again, I have to thank my father-in-law for some help with the planning and assembly on this project. He came over one Sunday and we assembled the bulk of the cyclone itself and roughed-in the electrical conduit feeding the cyclone. During a second (shorter) visit later on, we hung 3 10-foot pieces of 6-inch diameter SDR-35 sewer pipe for use as ducting.
Current status:
- electrical - done
- mounting bracket - built and attached to wall
- motor and impeller - mounted
- main cyclone body, blower housing, and transition - assembled, hung, and leveled
- trash can - lid attached to cyclone, weather stripping under lid
- filter stack - assembled but not attached to cyclone
- filter clean-out box - to be built
- ducting - WIP
Today I ran my first actual power-on test. I could only run it for a brief time (< 30 s) because w/o any ducting or filters attached the motor will draw very high current and runs some risk of burning up. It was much louder than I thought it would be, although it should be quieter with ducting and filters attached. I’m only planning on running it when I would normally wear ear protection anyway, so this shouldn’t be too big of a deal. But if it’s too loud for neighbors or others inside my house, I might need to look at some sort of muffling setup.
I went with the Clearvue instead of some of the other options out there after much research and deliberation. I went with it because I felt like it would deliver the best performance for a reasonable price and actually had the largest amount of trustworthy technical information available on the web. The system is setup to work with 6” pipe throughout the system, simplifying design and purchasing decisions. The Oneida product looked a little easier to assemble and very polished, but the website is short on details in some cases and more expensive for a roughly equivalent amount of power. Also, this comparison page was way too aggressive and painted an inaccurate picture of the Clearvue. Distorted information like that makes them look desperate, rather than letting a supposedly superior product stand for itself. Also, the CV06 patent dispute makes them look like bullies, although I am not familiar with any specifics of the case.
(FWIW, I’ve never seen an Oneida system in person, and I have no relationship with either company other than my sole purchase from Clearvue. This is just my personal opinion as a consumer in the market for this kind of product.)
The kit nature of the Clearvue meant a little bit more work, but it’s been a fun project so far. I need to wrap it up soon though so that my garage can return to normalcy and I can get to work on actual woodworking projects. I also am planning on building an ambient air filtration device using a spare attic fan, some 1/2” plywood, and some other (rectangular) filters from Wynn Environmental.