Dust Collection on Mill

SawDust_Studios · October 16, 2006, 09:55:22 PM

Looking to add some sort of dust collector, blower to the mill when it sits stationary. What does everyone use? Suppliers for such equipment, etc? What is the easiest, best way to rig to the chute on a woodmizer to allow movement with the sawhead.

Dave

Bibbyman · October 17, 2006, 06:11:27 AM

Well, it looks like everyone's talked out on dust blowing.

Here are links to a couple of posts where you may find something interesting.

Blowing sawdust - TK blower

Handy things around the mill

You can also try using the

function with the key word "blower" and restrict your search to "Sawmills and Milling.". That'll give you four pages of stuff to thumb through.

SawDust_Studios · October 17, 2006, 09:00:45 AM

Thanks Bib.. I did that but all I saw, no pun intended :D, was on modifying the dust chute, etc. I'll look again restricting the search to this forum.

OneWithWood · October 17, 2006, 11:10:28 AM

I stole my design for connecting to the chute on the WM from Bibby, who stole it from ElectricAl. I use a 6" pvc 'y', attched to a 6" clear pvc flexible hose which in turn is attached to a 5hp blower I got from Timberking/Woodmaster. I shoot the whole mess out through the wall into the back of a dump truck.
The whole thing can be seen in this thread:
https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=1400.120

scroll down about 2/3 of the page to get to the dust collection set up

SawDust_Studios · October 17, 2006, 11:29:43 AM

Thanks guys. Not cheap, are they. Looking at the ones from suffolk machinery. It would be nice to arrange it to get a large one to take care of the shop and mill, but that is way too much piping. The 3hp grizzly we have barely does the job and I'd like to stop emptying bags.

OneWithWood · October 17, 2006, 12:04:02 PM

When you add up the time you are spending moving sawdust the cost and time to construct the piping system is negligible.

Bibbyman · October 17, 2006, 01:07:15 PM

Quote from: SawDust_Studios on October 17, 2006, 11:29:43 AM
Thanks guys. Not cheap, are they. Looking at the ones from suffolk machinery. It would be nice to arrange it to get a large one to take care of the shop and mill, but that is way too much piping. The 3hp grizzly we have barely does the job and I'd like to stop emptying bags.

If you note the setup I had on our earlier mill - a manual LT40 - it just used a $119 blower taken from a Grizzly dust collector. It lasted something like 5 years and was still going but the housing was wearing out. And it couldn't keep up with the LT40 Super. We've been running the TimberKing blower for 3-4 years now and are very pleased with it. It was just under $1,000.00 when we bought it. Give Will Johnson a call at TimberKing and see what they have available. They offer a couple of sizes. Besides, they're sponsors of the FF.

SawDust_Studios · October 17, 2006, 02:39:19 PM

Yes, but can they paint it orange? :D I'll give them a call to check on price. Always willing to go with a sponsor. I looked on their website and didn't see anything on blowers

http://www.timberking.com

Dave

SawDust_Studios · October 17, 2006, 02:43:59 PM

Just talked with Russ at Timberking. They only carry the 2 dust collectors on the woodmaster website. No blowers. :(

Is this what you meant?

http://www.woodmastertools.com/NS/accessdetail.cfm?PID=88

Bibbyman · October 17, 2006, 04:11:18 PM

That's a bit of a problem with some of these companies - they carry more items than they catalog or advertise. I wouldn't have known about the 5hp blower we got from TK if I hadn't been exchanging e-mail with Will Johnson.

Another example is – you can get a phase converter through Wood-Mizer (or at least you could).

OneWithWood · October 18, 2006, 10:05:26 AM

The DB500 is built around a 5hp blower. When I ordered mine I told the salesperson I did not need anything other than the blower. He sold me just the blower without the piping, bags, and stand. It was under 5 bills if I remember correctly.

Stump Jumper · October 18, 2006, 03:55:02 PM

if you are going to hook a planer or something that might throw a knot i would not use a cast aluminum impeller because i had one explode

scarry.

Furby · October 18, 2006, 04:25:47 PM

Got 3 phase ???

SawDust_Studios · October 18, 2006, 07:20:56 PM

No 3 phase.

Just now became available in our area. But looks tike the costs of the utility won't justify me having it with only 1 or 2 machines. If I was building and equiping my shop from scratch, it would be worth it.

Tom · October 20, 2006, 12:10:04 PM

Nothing works quite as good as a 15 mph breeze coming from behind your right shoulder. Why don't you build a big Lazy Suzan for the sawmill? If it works, let me know, I'll want one too. :D

SawDust_Studios · October 20, 2006, 08:17:48 PM

Tom, I'll see if I can get us one of them car show-room turntables. That oughta do the trick. :D

customsawyer · October 20, 2006, 08:36:01 PM

I just installed one of the TimberKing blowers this week and learned that it don't really like to get the sawdust from my edger. The LT70 seems to put out all it wants. I am not a electrition by no means so I was wondering if maybe I had wired it wrong. It is spining in the right direction so I would think it is wired right. If one of you guys with knowledge about that shocking stuff could tell if I have it right or not it would help. I did get the hose part working pretty good. I ran 6" thin wall pipe for 10' then got some of the 6" black flex drain pipe with a coupler and hooked it to the mill the coupler is hooked to the mill then the pipe goes in the coupler and this lets the pipe swivel in the coupler like Bibbyman was talking about.

SawDust_Studios · October 20, 2006, 10:28:41 PM

CS,

Did you just ask for the Dust Collector they had without the bags, etc? I'm still trying to make a decision here. I have an extra 1 1/2 hp collector here, but don't think that will do the job.

I'm no expert, but do you have a Y or something going from the mill to the edger? If its 220, its hard to wire wrong.

customsawyer · October 21, 2006, 05:27:50 AM

I had a Y going to the edger but I don't now as I have it going strait to the mill all the way with 6" pipe. Does anyone else have trouble with this blower picking up the wet sawdust?
I did ask for just the blower and they sent me all the other stuff anyway.

Ron Wenrich · October 21, 2006, 07:27:08 AM

I'm not an electrician, either, but I would think if you are picking up sawdust from your mill, then picking up sawdust from the edger has nothing to do with wiring. I has to do with suction.

We tried using a Y for our edger, but it never worked too well. We had too much distance, too many bends and were trying to move more volume of air than the blower could handle. Now we just let the farmers come in and shovel on their trucks for free.

Most guys do build a box under their edgers, if they are using a blower. Most use a seperate blower, just not as big. The box helps to keep everything sliding to the blower intake and is shaped in a V.

Other options on edgers are augers, drags and belts. Low tech, low maintenance and keeps the dust out from underneath the edger.

Faron · October 21, 2006, 07:39:46 AM

The large corregations on the drainage might be hurting you some. They might cause more friction loss than a regular flex hose. Getting the blower as close to the machine as possible is necessary. You can blow dust lots farther than you can pull it. Having the box under the edger like Ron mentioned was the only way we could get ours to work. Are you shutting off the air to one machine at a time, or are you going to use both at the same time?

Bibbyman · October 21, 2006, 08:35:17 AM

We have at least 20' of 4" PVC going to the edger with a couple of 90° bends. It'll suck the dust out but we don't have a good collection setup under it. So every 20 minutes or so, Mary kicks sawdust that has spilled out on the floor back under the edger in the mouth of the pipe.

I 'spec it works much better at the mill because the dust is alread being pushed out by the sawing. We have about 20' of 4"PVC going to where we connect to about 20' of 4" flex hose.

Maybe if you reduced down to 4" it'd suck better?

OneWithWood · October 21, 2006, 08:56:00 AM

I have no trouble pulling from the sawmill with a 6" smooth bore PVC flex hose. I do have blast gates installed so that when I am pulling from the mill that is the only artery open. The only piece of equipment I have that would be close to an edger in volume is probably the Woodaster 718 planer. It is set up with a 4" hose for about 6 feet straight up and then it Ys into the main 6" trunk line. I do not get the suction I would like off the planer but I think it is more a function of the placement of the blast gates then a function of the blower CFM.

customsawyer · October 22, 2006, 06:19:38 AM

Thanks for all the replies I have it working pretty good for right now as I moved the blower closer to the mill got rid of the line going to the edger and changed the angle on the discharge off of the mill going to the blower.