I’m looking into using a budget cyclone dust collector so my shop vac filter does not clog up so much.
I found a couple low cost versions on line and a 3D printed version.
wondering if anyone uses any of these and what you like or don’t like about them
1 - dust deputy
2 - dust stopper
3 -5 Gallon Cyclone Dust Collector
Are there any other versions that anyone could recomend?
I use #2. I picked it mostly because it is a shorter solution that allowed my vacuum and collection bucket to sit under my CNC machine. It works well, though I’ve never run any kind of formal tests. It is currently somewhat cheaper at Home Depot than Amazon. It was cheaper still when I purchased it.
Before I purchased this, I did some YouTube research on DIY solutions. Some are pretty simple. Some ran tests against the Dust Deputy and performed as well when the bucket was nearly empty, and did pretty well with a fuller bucket.
I’ve used the second (sans baffle) and the 3rd.
The two bucket deal stirred up enough dust and chips from the bottom bucket that I never got it over 1/2 full. The junk lifted up and ended up in my shop vac. The baffle might help with that, hard to say. Cheap enough to try if you have some scrap wood, a couple buckets, and a hose to try out.
The dusttopper works great, especially for the price. Got that one 3/4 full before stuff started going to the shop vac. I consider it a bargain because it comes with a hose, too ($10 value at home depot) and doesn’t require any work or parts (beyond the bucket) to assemble. I think it was closer to $40 when I bought it, though, so YMMV. As noted, it is also more compact and easier to locate/relocate. Easier to empty, too, just because it’s shorter.
In both cases, I’d recommend a quality filter bag because fine dust still gets through. I had a ton of it clump up on my wall by the vac outlet before I realized just how much. I ditched the pleated paper filter.
I think I win the low cost contest! I made my own cyclone setup, and nothing at all gets in the vacuum bag. I’m suprised at how effective it is. It’s not due to my own skill, I feel very lucky that it workes so well!!
I use the cyclone from an old Dyson Dc07 to reduce the amount of fine dust from my grit blasting cabinet reaching the paper bag on my workshop vacuum, printed adaptors to connect the hoses and it works great.
Only cost was buying some more hose to go from cabinet to cyclone to vacuum.
I had a dust deputy for years. Works great as long as you double bucket. Single bucket will collapse after a while.
All, thanks for the feedback. Very appreciated.
I think I’m going to go with the dust stopper from HD. Mainly because it’s a proven solution and quick. I’ll look at a dust bag too for the fine stuff.
I’ve used the basic dust deputy and have been very impressed at how effective it is. Anything is better than nothing and dust vac filters plug up very quickly with our cncs.
~Year since last update. Curious if people are still happy with the popular thingiverse Cyclone Filter mentioned by @Turbinbjorn. Or, the Dustopper usually stocked at big box stores?
Or, has anyone discovered, or designed, built and used something else that’s even more effective/low-cost?
LR3 doc photos have a Dustopper?
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Low cost? Nope. Fun to watch? Yep!
Kinda disappointing those Dustopper’s are $55 now. Ordered one in 2020 for $35. Not a whole lot to them, but they do work quite well.
Price hike from $35 to $55, oh my. That’s just asking for a cheapskate like myself to throw something similar on to printables. Someone who’s idea of an office is…
I’ve thought about making something that can sandwich between the lid and bin on my ridgid shop vac to save vertical space. I made a cart to hold the dustopper and 5 gal bucket above my vac but it’s so tall I can’t put it under a bench without taking the cart apart. Would be pretty big to print unless most of it could be made of wood or something and you can just print things like the inlet.
Right, I wish we saw more shopvac designs with integrated cyclone prefilters. My shopvac is somewhat large, where the bag volume could easily fit a decent cyclone with container. If there was a cyclone, it wouldn’t need as big a bag volume anyways. I think the reason this doesn’t happen is the shopvac producers are making too much money selling the bags. It may take an outsider, dyson style, to bring those ideas over to shopvacs… maybe dyson just needs to enter the shopvac market? …they’d have to find another more blue collar celebrity to market with though lol.
Most of the time I don’t use a bag in the shopvac.
If I forget I don’t have a bag installed, the filter may get ruined in minutes cleaning drywall sanding dust at work. I do such work often enough that it’s more practical for me to just leave a bag in all the time. If I was only using it with my cnc, I’d probably run without a bag to reduce noise a tad though.
Fun to watch, and there’s a “cut to the chase” near the end where he says Jet makes a “Cyclonic Separator” that’s a more compact version of what he built, just dumps all the separated dust in a single bin, not split into coarse and fine. Unfortunately, a search of Jettools.com for “cyclonic” did not result in any hits. Maybe their “patent infringement avoidance” was not as effective as they had hoped…
Woodcraft has it listed for $199. Amazon lists the JET 717600 Cyclonic Dust and Chip Separator at the same price.
Not sure that slides under the “low cost” bar for me.
I’m running a Thien baffle and Wynn environmental filter on a reconfigured Harbor Freight 2 hp system myself. I’m happy with it for hobby use, but it’s not shop-vac level expense either.
Yea, looks like Jett doesn’t make it anymore. They have the manual still on their site though. Looks like it gets really bad reviews too. Gets clogged easily.
Just came across this topic… i have to say… i thought they were bs, but got tired of cleaning the vac filter frequently. I bought option #1 as a kit with hose and two buckets for $99. I haven’t had to clean the filter in the two weeks ive been running it on my vacuum. Very impressed and nothing makes it into the vacuum either. It all ends up in the bucket.
