Hi all.  I hope you can provide a bit of advice.  I just started using Alumilite full time in my shop.  Love casting with it, love turning it, but my dust collection system hates it.  I have an Oneida Dust Deputy with its own dedicated shop vac.  Up until this point the system worked flawlessly, everything in the bucket and little into the shop vac itself.  

 

I was going to build a shop vac silencing box last weekend and took the system apart to measure the shop vac.  I opened it up and was surprised to find it full of long, thin ribbons of Alumilite.  So I set the system back up and did some testing and found that the ribbons are so light they just spin at the top of the dust deputy and eventually find their way into the shop vac vice falling into the bucket.

 

Of course I did what any respectable tinkerer would do and attempted to fix it.  I found some screen door material and put it over the center suction of the dust deputy and voila! No more ribbons in the shop vac.  Now they gather on the mesh and clog the suction limiting the suction at the point of collection (lathe).  So now I have to stop every 5 minutes or so, stop the shop vac, smack the dust deputy (or worse, take it apart again) to clean it, then go back to work.

 

Am I the only one having issues like this?  Wood, acrylic, and everything else works as intended.  Alumilite seems to be so light and thin that it just goes right up the top suction and out  to the shop vac.

I haven't turned many acrylic items. I planned on trying my hand at Alumilite casting/turning in the near future.

 

Truthfully, I don't attempt to use my dust collection system for the lathe shavings/chips. I found my collection setup wasn't efficient enough in collecting the chips and any collection hood seemed to get in the way. I do use the collector when I sand on the lathe.

I use the Rockler Dust Right system.  I is fantastic for sanding, ok for turning, and a PITA for collecting shavings when turning.  I am trying to get in the habit of catching as much as I can at the source because I have to share the garage.  The smaller mess I make, the smaller mess I have to clean up later.  With the Dust Right system I probably get 60-75% of my turnings while turning.  A square blank for pens will spread chips everywhere initially until I get it round.  Once blank is round I am pretty good at collecting everything else.  I find it frustrating to use because most of my turnings are smaller, and there is only so much space between drive and tail stock.  Trying to cram this in there as well is an art to say the least.

1 minute ago, Joe Candrilli said:

because I have to share the garage

I'm lucky in that way. My shop is in the basement and the lathe is off in a corner area. I can usually just clean at the end of the day, except when turning bowls- man, they make a pile of shavings!

Dust collectors were never meant to collect lathe shavings, it just ain't going to happen. Even so, if my lathe is running so is my dust collector.  I don't know if it would work any better but you might want to check into making a Thien baffle. I have one in front of my collector and it is very effective. In fact, the guy came up with the design because his cyclone separator wasn't efficient enough.

Thien Baffle

 

I watch guys turn acrylics on youtube and without ever trying it, I know it's not for me, what a mess!

 

Steve

@CharlieL, perhaps could have an answer for this dilemma! Charlie is our dust collector guru around these parts.

I feel the same as @Steve Krumanaker.  I have turned PVC and other plastics.  The ribbons cause dust collection problems but are a problem in general also.  What a mess they make.

I do not turn plastics but have heard it is best to just clean up after turning. My dc gets some chips but most go on the floor for a sweep after the day ends and floor gets vacumed once a week. You might want to look at Reed Grays Youtube on DC (aka Robo Hippy) . He used a barrel cut in half but if I remember right only for sanding.

Member @Cliff built a dust/chip collector for his lathe. I think his dust collector is so powerful he needs to wear a harness, anchored into the wall, to keep from being drawn in 

I'll go along with Steve on this one. The separators that I've built have a Thien style plate in them and they work good, they fill right up to the bottom of the plate, very little if any thing gets to the impeller and bag. But, I don't do any turnings, and haven't dealt with those types of shavings. If the Thien plugs up in the slot around the plate, there may be a remedy for it by channeling the inlet to the plate. 

Edited December 15, 20178 yr by CharlieL

Joe, out of curiosity, do you have any pictures of what you have going on ? It might give us a better perspective of the size of shavings related to everything else.

 

Edited December 15, 20178 yr by CharlieL

Since you have found that screen material will stop the strips then my suggestion is to add a Y connection before any filtering apparatus. attach the screen at the angle of the y so that the strips will slide past the screen into the Y. Depending on the amount of material the strips represent, either add a cap (detachable) to the end of the Y or a short length of ducting with a cap (to provide a "pocket" for the strips to collect in. At the end of a turning session, empty the pocket.

Alright, pics uploaded.  First one is the setup.  Pretty simple, straight to the separator.  Next 2 show the unit in operation.  Notice how it all just bundles into a ball and sits in the DC.  Next one is the ball itself.  It is stuck to the mesh I installed.  Last 3 are more operational pics.

 

I have started to just pull the top suction hose off the DC and blow air backwards into it.  Time consuming but effective.

 

Since this is only an issue with Alumilite I guess it really isnt much of an issue.  Wood and Standard acrylic work fine.  

Joe, thankyou for the pictures. What are you using for a vacuum ? Also I can't tell how much of a bend that you have in the vac hose coming out the top of the cyclone and going to the vac. Oneida makes a Dust Deputy made of steel, I wonder if it would be less susceptible to static electricity if it was mounted to a steel pail, and grounded.

Edited December 17, 20178 yr by CharlieL

On 12/15/2017 at 10:41 AM, Steve Krumanaker said:

Dust collectors were never meant to collect lathe shavings, i

most of the time my DC has to wait till I am sucking 'em off the floor. but it  gets a lot of 'em at the lathe. it doesn't get 'em all, but it gets lots of 'em, really it depends on from where the shavings arise and how I incline the tool. I have considered trying to do the DC from the front where the tool is heaving shavings off the exterior of a turning, but I think it'd be it'd the way.

 

 

32 minutes ago, Cliff said:

most of the time my DC has to wait till I am sucking 'em off the floor. but it  gets a lot of 'em at the lathe. it doesn't get 'em all, but it gets lots of 'em, really it depends on from where the shavings arise and how I incline the tool. I have considered trying to do the DC from the front where the tool is heaving shavings off the exterior of a turning, but I think it'd be it'd the way.

 

 

Okay, I made a general statement that maybe should be qualified. I can see if a person is turning pens or other small spindle projects a dust collector pick up may capture a fair bit of the shavings. However, if a person is roughing bowls or larger items, maybe not so much.

 

Now I think about, I wouldn't want my dust collector capturing those kinds of shavings, wouldn't get anything done for emptying it every 15 minutes or so.

 

steve

when you turn small parts do you even use a DC for fear of the DC grabbing the parts???...

6 hours ago, Stick486 said:

when you turn small parts do you even use a DC for fear of the DC grabbing the parts???...

DC cannot grab because small parts are between centers or in chuck. However cut the DC off when parting off and don't ask me how I know that.

45 minutes ago, Gerald said:

However cut the DC off when parting off and don't ask me how I know that.

1 hour ago, Gerald said:

However cut the DC off when parting off and don't ask me how I know that

 

I seem to loose a lot of sand paper to mine.