Re-circulating cleanout

J

jkjordan

New member
Has anyone here tried something like this? (from Penn State Industries)

http://www.pennstateind.com/store/N-CYRCS6.html

They claim "The Premium recirculation system uses the power of your cyclone to vacuum the fine dust from your cleanout can. With this system over 99% of the fine dust will be captured in the cyclone's main debris drum. The 4" hose connects from the input of the cyclone body to the filter can's 4" blast gate. Simply open the gate to your cleanout can for a minute and the dust from the can will be re-circulated through the cyclone and deposited into the trash barrel."

Does this make any sense? I thought the fine dust from the filters would simply tend to pass through the cyclone and go back into the filter stack.

It seems some negative pressure inside the filters could dislodge dust that had collected on the internal filter pleat surface, but I can't see how that could happen with this recirculating method. It might pick up dust that has already collected in the cleanout box

John K Jordan
 

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I have not tried it myself, but it is easy to estimate that it should work very well. Most of the sawdust we woodworkers produce and collect is a mixture of many sizes and not 100% of it is removed, even with this very efficient cyclone we all have. The finest dust is what we usually find in the cleanout below the filters, but remember it did not enter the cyclone segregated into this small size class, but rather with much coarser sawdust and chips. Well over 99% of the dust that comes into your cyclone is removed to the main bin. Recirculating these fines alone will allow them to enter the cyclone's separation cone together and the vast majority will be separated from the air stream and they will end in the main dust bin, not just pass on to the filters and cleanout.

If you don't want to buy the PSI unit, it is fairly easy to make one yourself.
 
I attached a 4" hose to my cleanout and ran it outside thru a dryer vent. I just leave it open and let whatever fine dust settles in the bottom get blown outside. I estimated that about 200 cfm escapes and it doesn't lose enough heat to be a problem.
Bababrown
 
Very interesting - I'm just not sure what problem is being solved. I have so little dust in my clean out that I'm not worried about what to do with the dust. I think/believe that because the hose from the bottom of the cyclone to the chip bin is 10 inches longer than most installations it gives more space for the finer dust to settle out.
 
I installed the same type of cleanout on my old Oneida system with Penn State filters. I'm not sure that it did much good, because when I opened the blast gate, I never could see anything going through the flex duct connecting the filters back to the inlet side of the cyclone. I think with my new Clear Vue system that I am installing now, I'll put a 4 inch duct with blast gate to the exterior from the cleanout at the bottom of the filter stack. That way, I can blow the filters down with compressed air and then just open the blast gate and turn the cyclone on to flush it out.
 
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