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Cyclonic dust catcher.
Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2014 3:39 pm
by travelphotog
I do a fair bit of CNC work and the dust can be murder on the shop-vac filters. I downloaded and modded a cyclonic dust catcher design. Printed up in natural PLA and went together great. Just a few screws and the hose connectors left and it will be up and running. More pics when it is mounted and a few shots of the Vacuum and dust bucket once I give it a test. So far I have less than $20 in it. Cheapest system I could find (and what mine is partly modeled off of) was over $200. So far it is a win. Really looking forward to hooking it all up tonight and milling a job to see how it does. It is 17" X 6" unmounted and without the hoses attached. Since it is based off of
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:31595, it can be expanded up as needed to capture more dust if this height fails to do the job. I did how ever find the connecting rings a bit too small for my taste. I made them both touch wider and tall in Solidworks and now they fit great. The stock ones were too small and FAR too short for my liking. More pics to come as it gets put together today.

- The bits and bots of it all.

- Dry fits nice and tightly. Few screws and some silicone should have it running nicely shortly.
Re: Cyclonic dust catcher.
Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2014 7:26 pm
by Mac The Knife
Nice find. I hodge podge one together when I was machining a lot of mdf on my cnc mill, It made a huge difference with the vacuum.
Re: Cyclonic dust catcher.
Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2014 8:30 pm
by teoman
And you open it up to remove what it has collected?
Re: Cyclonic dust catcher.
Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2014 9:06 pm
by Mac The Knife
You mount it to the top of a 5 gallon bucket, the debris falls into the bucket. When you get to a computer, click the link. The guy posted pictures of how it goes together.
Re: Cyclonic dust catcher.
Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2014 10:00 pm
by travelphotog

- This is how it looks on my small bucket. As I mostly do PCBs and 6061 Aluminum, I did not need a large bucket. Notice it is grounded also by a screw towards the base. That made a huge difference also.

- This is the empty vacuum bucket which used to be full of dust all the time.

- And here is the nice cyclone bucket full of all the dust I tested with. From course to super power fine dust. It all got stopped by the cyclone. LOVE IT!
I thought I might have to make a few more mods to the design but I have to say that it was pretty spot on. Will be doing some long overnight prints shortly to give a larger on to my father for his woodworking. THIS is the sort of thing I bought my Rostock Max V2 for.
Now just time to work up a vacuum manifold for the pickup system and tie it into the PCB vacuum table I am about to mill along with a balance valve and I will be all set. I bought my Max to make parts like this for my CNC even before I bought my CNC. So far it has done a perfect job!
Re: Cyclonic dust catcher.
Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2014 10:04 pm
by teoman
Make another bucket with water in it so you can catch the smaller particles.
Re: Cyclonic dust catcher.
Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2014 10:15 pm
by McSlappy
That's using the Rostock build size perfectly!
And that's an awesome creation, well done!
Re: Cyclonic dust catcher.
Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2014 10:57 pm
by barry99705
[youtube]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkS6vGCRN94[/youtube]
Dust Deputy, $50 from my local wood working place. Also found out you can't use a metal garbage can for the receptacle! A standard shop vac will collapse it.
Re: Cyclonic dust catcher.
Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2014 11:29 pm
by travelphotog
barry99705 wrote:[youtube]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkS6vGCRN94[/youtube]
Dust Deputy, $50 from my local wood working place. Also found out you can't use a metal garbage can for the receptacle! A standard shop vac will collapse it.
This is pretty much what I was aiming for. I printed it out ona spool of PLA that cost my $14.99 + tax. Only used about a 1/3 or 1/2 the spool over all. I told myself that if I could not make it and have it work well, that is what I would buy instead.
I think half the fun in this thing is watching the dust and stuff fly around the inside edge as it heads to the bucket. watching it! Will love to go visit my dad while he uses his and watch all that saw dust be caught. He is going to love this thing.
As an aside... This is my largest height print so far. Right at 14". Just a fun single wall print to show off at the Geek Gathering coming up to showcase the great size the Max can print to.

- Just a fun test. My other half works at NASA so we have lots of silly space stuff all over. So this was a fitting height test subject.
Re: Cyclonic dust catcher.
Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2014 4:01 am
by Eaglezsoar
That cyclonic dust separator looks to be the bees knees for a project for the winter to be used in the wood shop in the sping.
Thanks for the info and links!
Re: Cyclonic dust catcher.
Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2014 4:19 am
by travelphotog
Here is the file for the larger ring. So far I have not used screws on it as it now is a perfect fit. The one that comes with it kept printing too tight to fit for me. I also made the ring taller to hold better. Now it is a firm fit and the ring covers a larger area on each piece. It is working great for me so far. Just make sure you ground it. I had the screws that attach the cone to the bucket mount come from the inside out. This leaves only the screw head inside and also give you something attached to the cyclone to ground it with. I used #4 1/2" screws and bolts. On the bucket mount I used fender washers and it is rock solid now. For the hoses connections I used #4 bolts, washers and nut. You will need 2 wood or sheet metal screws for one of the hose mounts as you can not reach the screw end for a nut. 2 #4 sheet metal screws did the trick for me just fine. Let me know if you have any questions. I did mine at 3 perimeters, 3 top and 3 bottom layers with .2 infill and it is rock solid.
- Cyclone ring.STL
- larger body ring for cyclone dust sytem
- (24.3 KiB) Downloaded 335 times
Re: Cyclonic dust catcher.
Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2014 1:02 pm
by barry99705
travelphotog wrote:barry99705 wrote:[youtube]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkS6vGCRN94[/youtube]
Dust Deputy, $50 from my local wood working place. Also found out you can't use a metal garbage can for the receptacle! A standard shop vac will collapse it.
This is pretty much what I was aiming for. I printed it out ona spool of PLA that cost my $14.99 + tax. Only used about a 1/3 or 1/2 the spool over all. I told myself that if I could not make it and have it work well, that is what I would buy instead.
I think half the fun in this thing is watching the dust and stuff fly around the inside edge as it heads to the bucket. watching it! Will love to go visit my dad while he uses his and watch all that saw dust be caught. He is going to love this thing.
As an aside... This is my largest height print so far. Right at 14". Just a fun single wall print to show off at the Geek Gathering coming up to showcase the great size the Max can print to.
2014-09-19 01.27.17.jpg
It's fun to watch something heavy go in, like a smallish nut or ball bearing. They just spin around at the top! I also found that really light wispy stuff will just skip the cyclone and go straight into the vac. I found this out after my tape backup destruction with a sword test. Didn't have a filter in the shopvac at the time either. Knew something was wrong when tape started coming out of the exhaust! Had to take it apart to get tape out of the impeller.

Re: Cyclonic dust catcher.
Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2014 4:09 pm
by Gr8Scott
Very nice work! I like that a lot. May try it if I have need for it. I need to get a vacuum setup for my router and compound sliding miter saw as well. May make some adapter attachments for them (the shop vac was free, but it has odd sized hoses etc.) while I'm at it.
Re: Cyclonic dust catcher.
Posted: Fri Sep 26, 2014 5:13 am
by travelphotog
I have done six large wood CNC mill jobs and two aluminum jobs and there is only a TINY amount of SUPER SUPER fine dust on the vacuum filter and the dust bucket is about ready to be emptied. So far I am in love with this think. Already have a guy who mills carbon fiber on his CNC asking me to print him one. Best part is I used only part of a $15 roll of PLA and it is working great. I love 3D printing!
Re: Cyclonic dust catcher.
Posted: Fri Sep 26, 2014 9:39 am
by geneb
I use one of these
http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/page.a ... at=1,42401 on a 33 gallon trash can for my ShopBot. It's fantastic. At some point I want to add a Shapeoko2 to my little collection of mechanical nightmares.
g.
Re: Cyclonic dust catcher.
Posted: Fri Sep 26, 2014 9:13 pm
by Jimustanguitar
Semi OT...
What ShapeOko spindle mount is that. Got the file?
Also. Root Cyclone shop vac anyone?
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:66308
Re: Cyclonic dust catcher.
Posted: Fri Sep 26, 2014 11:21 pm
by travelphotog
I worked it up myself to hold a 400W Dc spindle. It allows the spindle to clear the Z motor plate and also has an attachment I am going to turn into my vacuum attachment point. Can you work with a Solidworks file?? I would think you might want to look it over and make a few changes. I used some odd sized scews and such. Or I can make the changes if you are unable to open Solidworks files.
Just let me know.
Re: Cyclonic dust catcher.
Posted: Fri Sep 26, 2014 11:31 pm
by travelphotog
So far I have been extreamly pleased with mine. I did do a few upgrades. I went with the Z axis upgrade right off the bat. I also went with a TingY controller which over all I am pleased with. I also did the T slot bed (
http://us.misumi-ec.com/vona2/detail/11 ... -15250-500) and it made a HUGE difference in getting the mill squared and over all usage. I just took some 5/16" carriage head bolts and made my T bolts. They are working great and were FAR cheaper over all. As I only do 1/2" aluminum and smaller stuff, they are working great.
Re: Cyclonic dust catcher.
Posted: Sat Sep 27, 2014 9:07 pm
by Jimustanguitar
There are guys at the MakerHive that can do solidworks, that should be fine.
This post got me itching to make my own separator! I did some searching and decided on this one's little brother for 1.75" hose.
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:285743
2 prints in, 3 to go.
[img]
http://i.imgur.com/Ae73jjQ.png[/img]
[img]
http://i.imgur.com/mndJonC.png[/img]
Re: Cyclonic dust catcher.
Posted: Mon Sep 29, 2014 2:57 am
by travelphotog
Sorry this took so long to get up here.. Been slammed this weekend with tons of projects for clients.
- dust foot holder.SLDPRT
- This is will hold a chute for dust extraction. Allows it to slide up and down as needed. If not needed then remove the two mounting holes on the side of the Spindle mount.
- (360 KiB) Downloaded 272 times
- dust foot holder.SLDPRT
- This is will hold a chute for dust extraction. Allows it to slide up and down as needed. If not needed then remove the two mounting holes on the side of the Spindle mount.
- (360 KiB) Downloaded 272 times
Re: Cyclonic dust catcher.
Posted: Mon Sep 29, 2014 4:12 pm
by BONE
What temps, speeds and layer height are you running for the PLA. I tried doing a cyclone over the weekend and it clogged on me. I'm thinking is my layer height and feed rate did not compliment each other.
Mine was:
Hotend 195C
Bed 50C
.3mm layer height with .4 nozzle
60mm/s
Re: Cyclonic dust catcher.
Posted: Mon Sep 29, 2014 4:25 pm
by Jimustanguitar
I'm doing .2mm layers, 50c bed and 220c hot-end with a .4mm E3D V6 nozzle.
I'm only printing at 30mm/sec though. I haven't experimented with cranking up the feed rate since I switched to PLA a week or two ago.
Re: Cyclonic dust catcher.
Posted: Mon Sep 29, 2014 4:35 pm
by BONE
OK cool. I was trying to get the print done before mid-night. That's my cut off for sound in the house at the moment. I was printing a different one also, it required support. I'll probably slow my speed down and go back to .2 layer height.
Re: Cyclonic dust catcher.
Posted: Thu Oct 02, 2014 11:52 pm
by travelphotog
So how did the smaller blue dust catcher work out for you?
Re: Cyclonic dust catcher.
Posted: Sat Oct 04, 2014 7:31 pm
by BONE
The PLA clogged on me. Got other projects to jump onto. Will have to try in again in the future.