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No matter how extensive the range of vacuum cleaners on the market is, not everyone can afford to provide themselves with the appropriate units for industrial and domestic needs. The reason for this is often the high cost of industrial vacuum cleaners. On the one hand, cleaning a garage or workshop takes a lot of time, and on the other hand, a vacuum cleaner costs from $500 to $1000 with a large dust collector and good suction performance. Great solution A homemade vacuum cleaner for the workshop, made by yourself, can be a problem. It’s enough to remember how well we know how to make something. The same principles can be applied when a factory-made home assistant fails in terms of compromising the integrity of filters or dust collection devices. For implementation similar project You will need to be patient and have some available tools that may be gathering dust idle in the far corner of the garage. A homemade vacuum cleaner is easily suitable for cleaning indoors, will help collect construction waste, and will remove dust flying out from under work surface power tools.
Homemade filter for a vacuum cleaner
Initially, before you start stocking up on materials for making the unit, you should clearly define the tasks that the vacuum cleaner must solve. Thus, a container for collecting waste can be a couple of liters for cleaning in an apartment and other domestic premises, or several tens of liters for cleaning construction waste on work sites or in garages. A large barrel or a small bucket from under any building material is perfect for such a container, the main thing is that you have the opportunity to ensure the sealing of this container during the garbage collection process. If the required degree of tightness is not achieved, small fractions of dust sucked in by the air flow will enter through the holes. air atmosphere home space or air working area. The situation is much worse when removing harmful chemical substances And building materials, since in the form of dust or aerosol in the air of the work area they can worsen well-being and harm human health.
Besides air pollution, poor sealing will result in loss of suction power. If instead of a garbage container, you decide to make homemade bag for a vacuum cleaner, it must also retain dust and not allow it to escape into the environment.
The size of the cells between the fibers must be such that dust of a certain size is contained within the bag and is not blown back into the room. Of course, that in household premises The type of dust and its size are larger than dust from construction waste and dust flying out from under a working power tool.
How to choose a pump?
The device for creating an air flow can be taken from a ready-made vacuum cleaner that has been used, but for one reason or another is unsuitable for further use, or you can use any pumping device, meeting the requirements:
- Must operate at rated load for a long time, sufficient to complete the assigned tasks and all manipulations;
- It must withstand overload, both short-term and long-term, so that a clogged hose does not lead to overheating and failure.
- Must provide sufficient suction force, taking into account installed filters and other obstacles in the path of air flow.
In areas where it is not required high strength suction, the role of a pump can be performed by a regular home vacuum cleaner, for example with a bag dust collector. To do this, the bag dust collector is removed, and the necessary components are attached to it.
Making a filter
The optimal solution for creating a filter device for homemade vacuum cleaner will become a cyclone filter made by yourself. The manufacturing principle is quite simple: You need to make a structure from a cylinder with two holes for the inlet and outlet of the air flow sucked in by the vacuum cleaner and a truncated cone directed downwards. Any material from metal to plastic can be suitable for these purposes. The only requirement for the entire cyclone design is high-quality sealing of all cracks and holes. The reason is the same as for the dust collector: the appearance of a dust fraction in the air and a decrease in the performance of the unit. Consider the option of making a homemade cyclone for a vacuum cleaner from plastic pipes. The only difficulty in manufacturing will be the conical part, which will have to be selected from finished parts or make it yourself. To make it you will need:
- pipe with a width of 100 mm and higher, the larger the pipe, the more quality work it will be possible to obtain a cyclone filter;
- two small diameter pipes for inlet and outlet. On average, pipes from 50 mm and below are taken, depending on the diameter of the working hose.
- a conical part, a larger diameter that corresponds to the diameter of a large pipe (cylinder).
- For wide cylinders, 150 mm in diameter or more, a cord or flexible tube of small diameter will be required to guide the filter.
- A cap that will fit snugly into the top opening of the cylinder.
- glue or soldering material, sealant.
A homemade cyclone vacuum cleaner will thus be much cheaper than a factory one due to a cheap filter, the cost of which will cost 8 - 10 dollars in contrast to the original factory cyclone filter. Initially, a wide pipe is taken, chosen as a cylinder, and cut to the required height (if you were unable to purchase the right size). The holes for the inlet and outlet should be cut as carefully as possible, avoiding chips and uneven edges. If the air suction hole should be located in a horizontal plane, then the air flow outlet hole can be located both on the pipe itself and on the top cover of the cyclone filter. It is worth starting from where it is most convenient to ensure high-quality sealing. If the cover material is much easier to cut and the sealant adheres normally, then it is better to give preference to the cover; otherwise, the outlet should be placed on the body. The main condition is that the outlet pipe must be located above the inlet. This will allow the debris to fall down, allowing only air and fine dust to reach the outlet. To catch such dust, you can use some homemade filters, for example, fabric or adapt a car filter, this will protect your homemade construction vacuum cleaner from types of debris hazardous to the engine.
To create a turbulence in the air flow that is sucked into the cyclone, a flexible hose or cord made of waterproof material should be glued in a spiral pattern over the surface of the cylinder. Such a spiral will increase the efficiency of the cyclone filter. It should be noted that such an addition can only be made for a large diameter pipe, which you can easily penetrate with your hands. The inlet and outlet pipes are fixed in the corresponding holes using sealant, heat shrink, adhesives or pieces of pipe, which are sealed with a soldering iron. The main task of this material is to firmly secure and seal the tubes. The top cover should fit snugly against the edges of the cylinder; you can secure it with sealant if desired, but then the cleaning process will become more complicated internal surfaces cyclonic filter from accumulated debris. We should also not forget that the surface can become electrified and accumulate a static charge, which will retain dust. Therefore, it is better to immediately install the lid on the door seal, this will prevent dust from entering the room and will make it possible to freely open the lid at the right time. The conical part can be strengthened with sealant or glue, since it is unlikely to have to be removed. Through the hole in the truncated cone, garbage will spill into the garbage container.
Such a device can be useful not only for those who are thinking about how to make a homemade vacuum cleaner, but also for owners of factory-made working vacuum cleaners. If you are tired of constantly changing the dust collection bag or the filters become clogged, then installing a homemade cyclone will help solve this problem without extra costs to purchase a new vacuum cleaner.
If you decide to make an industrial vacuum cleaner, then you can mount a socket on it to connect a power tool, which will allow parallel operation of the vacuum cleaner and the tool. A system for automatically turning on the vacuum cleaner can be connected to the socket circuit, which will ensure dust suction when starting the tool. In addition, such a system can provide a delay in turning off the vacuum cleaner after opening the power circuit of the power tool. This will allow the industrial vacuum cleaner to collect flying debris and dust within a few seconds after turning off the power tool.
What should you consider when making a homemade vacuum cleaner?
When making homemade vacuum cleaners, some craftsmen, in order to save their own time and effort, include factory parts and spare parts in the unit. In most cases, such a step is quite justified, with the exception of cases of installing filters. For a homemade vacuum cleaner, you should avoid installing the notorious HEPA filters at all costs. These filters work on the principle of trapping small dust particles in the pores of the filter itself. Because of this, as the filter fills with debris, the suction power and, consequently, the quality of cleaning will gradually be lost. All possible attempts to clean such filters do not lead to the expected results, since the dust is not completely blown out, and when washed and washed out, it leads to rotting processes and the development of bacteria. It is clear that these bacteria are blown back into the room during operation; this process is expressed in unpleasant smell while the vacuum cleaner is running.
To optimize the operation of the vacuum cleaner, you can connect two hoses - one for suction, the other for blowing, the blowing hose will allow for effective cleaning various surfaces And hard to reach places, since the immediately blown dust will be collected by the retractor hose. However, the absence of a filter in a regular vacuum cleaner can also lead to the opposite effect, because in order not to use it, it is necessary to provide the device with an ideal cleaning system, and doing this at home is oh so difficult. So if you need real cleanliness, it’s better to save on something else and choose a reliable and filter-free cleaner to clean both the air and the surfaces. And all this about the separator apparatus! So good luck with choosing and using a vacuum cleaner.
A home vacuum cleaner is so commonplace in the household that no one thinks about the principle of its operation. Since the invention of this cleaning assistant, it has been used only possible way separating dust from clean air– filter.
Over the years, the filter element has been improved, from a banal bag made of thick tarpaulin, it has turned into high-tech membranes that retain the smallest particles of debris. However, it was not possible to get rid of the main drawback.
Filter makers are constantly looking for a compromise between cell density and air throughput. In addition, the dirtier the membrane, the worse the air flow through it.
30 years ago, physicist James Dyson made a breakthrough in dust collection technology.
He invented a compact dust separator that works on the principle of centrifugal force. I must say that this idea was not new. Industrial sawmills have been using centrifugal cyclone-type scorch and chip storage for quite a long time.
But no one thought of applying this physical phenomenon in everyday life. In 1986 he registered a patent for the first vacuum cleaner cyclone type, with the name G-Force.
In general, there are three ways to separate dust from clean air:
- Filter membrane. The most widespread and cheap way remove dust. Used in most modern vacuum cleaners;
- Water filter. Air with debris passes through a container of water (like in a hookah), all particles remain in a liquid medium, and a perfectly clean air flow comes out. Such devices have gained popularity, but their use has not become widespread due to their high cost.
- Centrifugal dry cleaning filter of the “cyclone” type. It is a compromise in cost and quality of cleaning compared to a membrane and water filter. Let's look at this model in more detail.
Operating principle of a cyclone
The illustration shows the processes occurring in the chamber of a cyclone-type filter.
Contaminated air enters the cylindrical filter housing (2) through the pipe (1). The pipe is located tangentially to the walls of the housing, due to which the air flow (3) twists into a spiral along the walls of the cylinder.
Under the influence of centrifugal force, dust particles (4) are pressed against the inner walls of the housing, and under the influence of gravity they settle into the dust collector (5). Air with the smallest particles of debris (which are not affected by centrifugal force) enters the chamber (6) with a conventional membrane filter. After final cleaning they exit into the receiving fan (7).
The membrane filter is minimally contaminated and only needs to be cleaned occasionally after cleaning. All dirt is simply poured out of the reservoir, and the vacuum cleaner is ready for use again.
Vacuum cleaners with such a filter are cheaper than water ones, but still more expensive compared to membrane ones. Therefore, many craftsmen make a “cyclone” type filter with their own hands and connect it to the inlet of a regular vacuum cleaner.
Process machining wooden blanks always accompanied by the release of dust or the scattering of shavings and sawdust. Modern power tools provide the ability to connect any installations for the collection and disposal of wood waste, but purchasing them for household needs not always justified. At the home level, a homemade device successfully copes with the problem of dust removal. Let us consider in detail the procedure for making a vacuum cleaner for the workshop.
Required materials and tools
The basis for the project is an old household vacuum cleaner, from which the following components are used:
Motor part;
Power regulator;
Power cord;
Suction hose;
Nozzles
For the homemade body they select polyethylene barrel with a capacity of 50–80 liters, always with a fixed lid. You will also need:
A piece of plastic sewer pipe with a diameter of 50 mm;
Plywood 5–10 mm thick;
M6 bolts and nuts – 14 pieces each;
Strip of galvanized sheet metal;
Air filter from a minibus;
220 Volt switch;
Threaded rod with washers and nuts;
Construction sealant;
Sandpaper;
Glue rods;
Drain corrugated hose for washing machine;
Electrical installation corrugation HDPE 32.
Docking units are made of plastic tubes and fittings, selected depending on the size of the pipes on the tools and the diameters of the vacuum cleaner intake hoses. List of tools used:
Glue gun;
Drill;
Locksmith keys;
Screwdrivers;
Wire cutters;
Electric jigsaw;
Sharp knife;
Files;
Caulk gun.
The process of making a vacuum cleaner for a workshop
Stepping back approximately 100 mm from the top, mark a hole on the wall of the barrel for the inlet pipe and drill it using a drill. Then use a knife to give the hole an oval shape so that the inner end of the pipe is placed close to the wall and points down at a slight angle. Degrease the surfaces to be joined and, using glue gun, fix the pipe in place.
Using the same “hot” method, an adapter for the suction hose is attached to the outside of the pipe.
Using a jigsaw, cut out two circles from plywood with a diameter slightly smaller than that of the barrel lid. First, two holes are made in the blanks for bolts and the parts are secured on both sides of the cover. Next, drill the remaining holes, remove the circles and remove the burrs with sandpaper. Apply sealant around the perimeter of the workpieces, place the parts on the lid and fully install the fasteners. A hole is made for the pin in the center of the plywood circles, and a little to the side for the air intake of the motor block.
Remove from the air filter with pliers metal mesh, otherwise it will become clogged with sawdust and interfere with cleaning the vacuum cleaner. One end of the cylinder is covered with a plywood plug.
The prepared filter element is secured to the stud with a wing nut.
The motor part usually has round shapes. Therefore, for ease of installation, the plastic parts in which the motor was located are cut out from the body of the old vacuum cleaner. Thanks to them, to secure the unit to the barrel lid, you only need one clamp, made from a strip of tin.
A switch and power regulator are placed next to the engine, placing the latter in a suitable box. All that remains is to connect the elements together with wires and connect the cable with the plug. After making sure that the connections are correct and that there are no exposed contacts, apply power and check the operation of the device.
The standard suction hose of a household vacuum cleaner is too short; it is extended with a corrugated tube for laying wiring or another similar product.
Manufacturing of nozzles and adapters
Cleanliness in the workshop begins with the workbench. To clean the workplace, use a standard brush that comes with the household appliance.
The nozzle is connected using a rubber adapter cut from a tube of appropriate caliber, for example, from a pipe of a car’s cooling system.
One of the most littered power tools is the power planer. The outlet fitting of the tool is large enough; most likely, the vacuum cleaner hose will connect without problems.
The design does not provide a filling sensor - at first you should look inside more often to prevent the vacuum cleaner from overfilling.
Cleanliness and order in a home workshop is the result of work done with your own hands, achieved with a minimum of financial investment.
From the very beginning of working in the workshop I encountered the problem of removing dust after work. The only available way to clean up the floor was to sweep it. But because of this, an incredible amount of dust rose into the air, which settled in a noticeable layer on furniture, on machines, on tools, in hair and in the lungs. The concrete floor in the workshop made the problem worse. Some solutions have been to spray water before sweeping and use a respirator. However, these are only half measures. In winter, water freezes in an unheated room and you have to carry it with you; in addition, the water-dust mixture on the floor is difficult to collect and also does not contribute to workplace hygiene. The respirator, firstly, does not block 100% of the dust, some of it is still inhaled, and secondly, it does not protect against dust settling on the environment. And not all nooks and crannies can be reached with a broom to pick out small debris and sawdust.
In such a situation, the most effective solution it would be to vacuum the room.
However, using a household vacuum cleaner will not work. Firstly, it will have to be cleaned every 10-15 minutes of operation (especially if you work on milling table). Secondly, as the dust container fills up, the suction efficiency decreases. Thirdly, the amount of dust greatly exceeding the calculated values will greatly affect the service life of the vacuum cleaner. Something more specialized is needed here.
There are many ready-made solutions for dust removal in the workshop, however, their cost, especially in light of the 2014 Crisis, does not make them too affordable. Found it on thematic forums interesting solution- use a cyclone filter in conjunction with a regular household vacuum cleaner. All of the listed problems with household vacuum cleaners can be solved by removing dirt and dust from the air to the standard vacuum cleaner dust collector. Some people make cyclone filters from traffic cones, others from sewer pipes, the third - from plywood and everything that is enough for imagination. But I decided to buy a ready-made filter with fasteners.
The principle of operation is simple - the air flow swirls in a cone-shaped filter housing and dust is removed from the air under the influence of centrifugal force. In this case, the dust falls through the lower hole into the container under the filter, and the purified air exits through the upper hole into the vacuum cleaner.
One of the common problems in the operation of cyclones is the so-called “carousel”. This is a situation where dirt and sawdust do not fall into the dust collection container, but endlessly swirl inside the filter. This situation arises from too high a flow rate of air created by the turbine of the vacuum cleaner. You need to reduce the speed a little and the “carousel” will disappear. In principle, it does not interfere - the next portion of garbage pushes most of the “carousel” into the container and takes its place. And in the second model, plastic cyclones of this carousel practically do not exist. To eliminate air leaks, I coated the junction of the filter with the lid with hot glue.
I decided to get a larger dust collection container so that I would have to take out the trash less often. I bought a 127 liter barrel, apparently made in Samara - just the right size! I'm going to carry the barrel to the trash can like a grandmother carrying a string bag - on a different cart, so as not to strain herself.
Next is the choice of layout. Some install the dust collection unit permanently and lead channels to the machines. Others simply place a vacuum cleaner and a barrel next to each other and drag them into Right place. I wanted to make a mobile unit on wheels to move everything around the workshop in one unit.
I have a rather small workshop and the issue of saving space is very relevant. Therefore, I decided to choose a layout in which the barrel, filter and vacuum cleaner are located one above the other, occupying a minimum area. It was decided to make the body of the installation from metal. Frame from profile pipe determines the dimensions of the future installation.
When installed vertically, there is a risk of tipping over. To reduce this probability, you need to make the base as heavy as possible. For this purpose, a 50x50x5 corner was chosen as the material for the base, which took almost 3.5 meters.
The noticeable weight of the cart is compensated by the presence of swivel wheels. There were thoughts, if the structure was not stable enough, to pour lead shot or sand into the cavity of the frame. But this was not required.
In order to achieve verticality of the rods, I had to use ingenuity. The recently purchased vice came in handy. Thanks to such simple equipment it was possible to achieve precise installation corners
It is convenient to move the cart while holding the vertical bars, so I reinforced their attachment points. In addition, this is an additional, albeit not large, weighting of the base. In general, I like reliable things with a margin of safety.
The barrel will be fixed in the installation frame using clamps.
At the top of the rods there is a platform for the vacuum cleaner. Next, holes will be drilled in the corners at the bottom and the wooden planks will be secured using self-tapping screws.
Here, in fact, is the entire frame. It seems to be nothing complicated, but for some reason it took four evenings to assemble it. On the one hand, I didn’t seem to be in a hurry, I worked at my own pace, trying to complete each stage efficiently. But on the other hand, low productivity is associated with the lack of heating in the workshop. Safety glasses and a welding mask quickly fog up, impairing visibility, and are bulky outerwear hinders movement. But the task is completed. Besides, there are only a couple of weeks left until spring.
I really didn't want to leave the frame like this. I wanted to paint it. But on all the cans of paint that I found in the store it is written that they can be used at a temperature not lower than +5, and on some even not lower than +15. The thermometer in the workshop shows -3. How to be?
I read thematic forums. People write that you can safely paint even in cold weather, as long as the paint is not on water based and there was no condensation on the parts. And if the paint has a hardener, don’t worry about it at all.
I found in the caches an old, slightly thickened can of Hammerite, which I used to paint a horizontal bar at the dacha back in the summer - . The paint is quite expensive, so I decided to test it in extreme conditions. Instead of the expensive original solvent, Hammerite added a little regular degreaser to make it a little thinner, stirred it to the desired consistency and began painting.
In the summer this paint dried in one hour. It’s difficult to say how long it was drying in the winter, but when I returned to the workshop in the evening next day the paint has dried. True, without the promised hammer effect. It's probably the degreaser that's to blame, not negative temperature. Otherwise, no other problems were found. The coating looks and feels reliable. Perhaps it’s not for nothing that this paint costs almost 2,500 rubles in the store.
The cyclone body is made of good plastic and has fairly thick walls. But the attachment of the filter to the barrel lid is quite flimsy - four self-tapping screws screwed into plastic. In this case, significant lateral loads may occur on the hose, which is attached directly to the filter. Therefore, the attachment of the filter to the barrel needs to be strengthened. People have different approaches to solving this problem. Basically, an additional stiffening frame for the filter is assembled. The designs are very varied, but the idea is something like this:
I approached this a little differently. I welded a holder for pipes of a suitable diameter onto one of the rods.
In this holder I clamp the hose, which bears all the twisting and jerking. Thus, the filter housing is protected from any loads. Now you can pull the unit directly behind you by the hose without fear of damaging anything.
I decided to secure the barrel with tightening straps. When I was choosing locks at a hardware store, I made an interesting observation. A five-meter tie-down belt with a foreign-made ratchet lock cost me 180 rubles, and the bare frog-type lock lying next to it cost me 180 rubles. Russian production would have cost me 250 rubles. This is where the triumph of domestic engineering and high technology lies.
Experience has shown that this method of fastening has an important advantage. The fact is that on forums dedicated to these filters they write that barrels like mine, when connecting a powerful vacuum cleaner, can be crushed due to the vacuum that occurs when the inlet hose is clogged. Therefore, during testing, I deliberately blocked the hole in the hose and, under the influence of vacuum, the barrel shrank. But thanks to the very tight grip of the clamps, not the entire barrel was compressed, but only in one place below the hoop a dent appeared. And when I turned off the vacuum cleaner, the dent straightened itself out with a click.
At the top of the installation there is a platform for a vacuum cleaner
I purchased a bagless, almost two-kilowatt monster as a household vacuum cleaner. I was already thinking that this would be useful for me at home.
While buying a vacuum cleaner from an ad, I encountered some inexplicable human stupidity and greed. People sell used items without a guarantee, with a worn-out part of the resource, defects in appearance at prices lower than store prices by some 15-20 percent. And okay, these would be some popular items, but used vacuum cleaners! Judging by the period of posting of advertisements, this trade sometimes lasts for years. And as soon as you start haggling and name an adequate price, you come across rudeness and misunderstanding.
As a result, after a couple of days I finally found an excellent option for 800 rubles. Famous brand, 1900 Watt, built-in cyclone filter (the second one in my system) and another fine filter.
To secure it, I couldn’t think of anything more elegant than pressing it with a tightening strap. In principle, it holds securely.
I had to get a little tricky with connecting the hoses. As a result, we have such a setup. And it works!
Usually when you read reviews from the first use of such things, people are choked with delight. I experienced something similar when I first turned it on. It's no joke - vacuuming in the workshop! Where everyone wears street shoes, where metal shavings and sawdust fly everywhere!
I have never seen this concrete floor, which is impossible to sweep due to the dust stuck in the pores, so clean. Persistent attempts to sweep it up only lead to an increase in the density of dust in the air. And such purity was given to me in a couple of easy movements! I didn't even have to wear a respirator!
We managed to collect what was left after the previous cleaning with a broom into the barrel. When the device is operating, thanks to the transparency of the filter, you can observe streams of dust swirling inside. There was also dust in the dust collector of the vacuum cleaner, but there was a small amount of it and these were particularly light and volatile fractions.
I'm very pleased with the result. There will be no more dust storms in the workshop. You could say I'm moving into a new era.
Advantages of my design:
1. Occupies a minimum area, determined only by the diameter of the barrel.
2. The unit can be carried and pulled by the hose without fear of tearing out the filter.
3. The barrel is protected from crushing when the inlet pipe is clogged.
After some time of using the installation, I still encountered the problem of a lack of rigidity of the barrel.
I purchased a more powerful vacuum cleaner. Household, but it sucks like a beast - it sucks up stones, nuts, screws, tears off plaster and tears bricks out of masonry))
This vacuum cleaner collapsed a blue barrel even without clogging the inlet hose! Tightly wrapping the barrel with clamps did not help. I didn't have my camera with me, it's a shame. But it looks something like this:
On thematic forums they warn about this possibility, but still I did not expect this. With great difficulty, he straightened the barrel and sent it, fairly dented, to the dacha to store water. She is not capable of more.
There were two ways out of this situation:
1. Buy instead plastic barrel metal. But I need to find a barrel of a very specific size so that it fits exactly into my installation - diameter 480, height 800. A superficial search on the Internet did not yield any results.
2. Assemble a box of the required size from 15 mm plywood yourself. This is more real.
The box was assembled using self-tapping screws. The joints were sealed using double sided tape on a foam basis.
The cart had to be altered a little - the rear clamp had to be modified to fit a square tank.
The new tank, in addition to strength and increased volume due to right angles, has another important advantage - a wide neck. This allows you to install a garbage bag in the tank. It greatly simplifies unloading and makes it much cleaner (I tied the bag right in the tank and took it out and threw it away without dust). Old barrel didn't allow this.
The lid was sealed with foam insulation for windows
The lid is held in place by four frog locks. They create the necessary tension to seal the cover on the foam gasket. A little higher I wrote about pricing policy on these frog castles. But I had to fork out more.
It worked out well. Cute, functional, reliable. How I love.
Today we will tell you about a cyclone filter for a vacuum cleaner in the workshop, because one of the problems that we have to deal with when working with wood is dust removal. Industrial equipment It’s quite expensive, so we’ll make a cyclone with our own hands - it’s not difficult at all.
What is a cyclone and why is it needed?
In a workshop there is almost always a need to remove fairly large debris. Sawdust, small trimmings, metal shavings - all this, in principle, can be caught by a regular vacuum cleaner filter, but it is highly likely to quickly become unusable. In addition, it will not be superfluous to be able to remove liquid waste.
The cyclone filter uses aerodynamic vortex to bind debris different sizes. Spinning in a circle, the debris manages to stick together to such a consistency that it can no longer be carried away by the air flow and settles at the bottom. This effect almost always occurs if the air flow passes through a cylindrical container at sufficient speed.
These types of filters are included in many industrial vacuum cleaners, but their cost is by no means affordable for the average person. At the same time, the range of problems solved using homemade devices, not at all anymore. A homemade cyclone can be used both in conjunction with planes, hammer drills or jigsaws, and for removing sawdust or shavings from various types of machine tools. In the end, even simple cleaning with such a device is much easier, because the bulk of dust and debris settles in a container, from where it can be easily removed.
Difference between wet and dry cyclone
To create a swirling flow, the main requirement is that the air entering the container does not follow the shortest path to the exhaust hole. To do this, the inlet pipe must have a special shape and be directed either to the bottom of the container or tangentially to the walls. Using a similar principle, it is recommended to make the exhaust duct rotary, optimally if it is directed towards the lid of the device. height aerodynamic drag due to pipe bends can be neglected.
As already mentioned, a cyclone filter has the potential to remove liquid waste as well. With liquid, everything is somewhat more complicated: the air in the pipe and cyclone is partially rarefied, which promotes the evaporation of moisture and its breaking into very small droplets. Therefore, the inlet pipe must be located as close as possible to the surface of the water or even lowered under it.
Most washing vacuum cleaners introduce air into the water through a diffuser, so any moisture contained in it is effectively dissolved. However, for greater versatility with a minimum number of alterations, it is not recommended to use such a scheme.
Made from scrap materials
The simplest and affordable option for the cyclone container there will be a bucket of paint or other building mixtures. The volume should be comparable to the power of the vacuum cleaner used, approximately one liter for every 80-100 W.
The bucket lid must be intact and fit tightly onto the body of the future cyclone. It will have to be modified by making a couple of holes. Regardless of the material of the bucket, the easiest way to make holes is required diameter- use a homemade compass. IN wooden slats you need to screw in two self-tapping screws so that their tips are at a distance of 27 mm from each other, no more, no less.
The centers of the holes should be marked 40 mm from the edge of the cover, preferably so that they are as far apart as possible. Both metal and plastic can be scratched perfectly with this homemade instrument, forming smooth edges with virtually no burrs.
The second element of the cyclone will be a set of sewer elbows at 90º and 45º. Let us draw your attention in advance that the position of the corners must correspond to the direction of air flow. Their fastening in the housing cover is carried out according to the following scheme:
- The elbow is inserted all the way into the side of the socket. Silicone sealant is first applied under the side.
- WITH reverse side The rubber sealing ring is pulled tightly onto the socket. To be sure, you can additionally compress it with a screw clamp.
The inlet pipe is located with a narrow rotating part inside the bucket, the bell is located with outside almost flush with the lid. The knee needs to be given another 45º turn and directed obliquely downwards and tangentially to the wall of the bucket. If the cyclone is made with wet cleaning in mind, you should extend the outer elbow with a piece of pipe, reducing the distance from the bottom to 10-15 cm.
The exhaust pipe is located in the reverse position and its socket is located under the bucket lid. You also need to insert one elbow into it so that air is taken from the wall, or make two turns for suction from under the center of the lid. The latter is preferable. Don’t forget about the O-rings; for a more reliable fixation and to prevent the knees from turning, you can wrap them with plumber’s tape.
How to adapt the device for machines and tools
To be able to draw in waste when using hand-held and stationary tools, you will need a system of adapters. Typically, a vacuum cleaner hose ends in a curved tube, the diameter of which is comparable to the fittings for dust bags of power tools. As a last resort, you can seal the joint with several layers of double-sided mirror tape wrapped in vinyl tape to eliminate stickiness.
With stationary equipment everything is more complicated. Dust extraction systems have very different configurations, especially for homemade machines, so we can only give a few useful recommendations:
- If the machine's dust extractor is designed for a 110 mm or larger hose, use plumbing adapters with a 50 mm diameter to connect the corrugated hose of the vacuum cleaner.
- To connect homemade machines to a dust catcher, it is convenient to use press fittings for 50 mm HDPE pipes.
- When designing the dust collector housing and outlet, take advantage of the convection flow created by the tool's moving parts for greater efficiency. For example: a pipe for removing sawdust from circular saw must be directed tangentially to the saw blade.
- Sometimes it is necessary to provide dust extraction from different sides workpiece, for example, for band saw or a router. Use 50 mm sewer tees and corrugated drain hoses.
Which vacuum cleaner and connection system to use
Usually, you don’t choose a vacuum cleaner for a homemade cyclone yourself, but use the one that is available. However, there are a number of limitations beyond the power mentioned above. If you want to continue using the vacuum cleaner for domestic purposes, then at a minimum you will need to find an additional hose.
The beauty of the sewer elbows used in the design is that they ideally match the diameter of the most common hoses. Therefore, the spare hose can be safely cut into 2/3 and 1/3, the shorter section should be connected to the vacuum cleaner. The other, longer piece, as is, is tucked into the socket of the cyclone inlet pipe. The maximum that is required in this place is to seal the connection silicone sealant or plumber's tape, but usually the planting density is quite high. Especially if there is an o-ring.
The video shows another example of making a cyclone for dust removal in a workshop
To pull a short piece of hose onto the exhaust pipe, the outermost part of the corrugated pipe will have to be leveled. Depending on the diameter of the hose, it may be more convenient to tuck it inside. If the straightened edge does not fit slightly onto the pipe, it is recommended to warm it a little with a hairdryer or indirect flame gas burner. The latter is considered an excellent option, because this way the connection will be located optimally in relation to the direction of the moving flow.
