Losing suction

[jonnyfontaine]

I have a 1& 1-2 hp dust collector but I noticed when I connect it to the "baffle" that's supposed to catch the bigger chips I lose a considerable about of suction, I know it worked fine for the previous owner and he marked the in and so I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong. I run a jointer and a band saw and a blast get for both machines, any help would be very welcomed. Thanks

 

[Mike Davis]

Without seeing it all I can say is check for leaks.

 

[Michael Mathews]

Do you have a filter bag or canister on the DC where the air is exhausted? It could be blinded with a cake of dust. I have a Wynn filter on top of my DC and it'll get blinded with dust and virtually drop the suction to the point it won't even suck dust up. Plan to resolve this problem soon!

 

[Jeff]

Name and model number of your DC is usually a good place to start looking at the schematics and the "troubleshooting" section.

 

[McRabbet]

I would suggest some steps to determine where the loss of suction occurs: (1) disconnect the duct entering the DC and check for suction (as compared to the outermost connection); (2) Next, disconnect at the DC side of the "baffle" (which I assume is a Thein-type separator) and compare the suction again; (3) Next try it at the inlet side of the baffle and compare; (4) Check any of the flex hoses and machine ports for accumulated chips. As Michael suggested, perhaps your filter is clogged, which should be obvious if the first step above shows low suction. I have found several times that smaller capacity dust collectors like yours will really suffer suction losses from too much use of flexible duct (1 foot has the loss of nearly 10 feet of straight pipe), clogged ports or flex duct and clogged filters. And as Mike suggests, leaks can be a major demon as well.

HTH

 

[KenOfCary]

Being the 'previous owner' mentioned. I can tell you it has the same Wynn filter as Mike M's and it does get clogged with fine dust and needs to be cleaned occasionally. The thein baffle pre-filter drum might have developed a leak sitting in the storage unit. Check the seal at the top and also make sure the silicone caulk around the viewport doesn't need to be touched up. If it starts losing suction when the pre-filter is attached, maybe the problem is there.

I think I marked the in such that the machine you're collecting from goes into that (which would be the outside port) and the out should go to the DC itself (the inside, middle port) on the drum with the thien baffle.

You've received a lot of other good advice. Hope you get the problem resolved and sorry you're having a problem with it.

 

[JimD]

I used a Wynn filter on my old 1hp DC and was not satisfied with it's need for cleaning. I made a paddle cleaner for it but that was not enough. I had a pre-filter but that seemed to only get the big pieces that would not clog the filter anyway. I've now sold it based both on my disappointment with it and space considerations. I use a shop vac with a cyclone pre-filter and like it, at least for now. It will not flow the air of a DC but I use my track saw a lot and I don't think a DC would work well with it. So I will need the shop vac anyway. It does about as well as the DC did with the table saw which has a 2.5 inch port (Ryobi BT3100). I may end up with another DC and if I did it today I would get the HF 2hp, put the Oneida super dust deptuty on it, and discharge it outside. Even with a filter, I think the cyclone will get more fine dust than the thein pre-filter. The dust deputy gets even a lot of the drywall dust when I use it with a sander on drywall.

Short version is I think your filter is clogged and your pre-filter isn't helping much with fine dust. You should consider first cleaning the filter (reverse air) to confirm and then think about outside discharge and/or a cyclone pre-filter.

 

[jonnyfontaine]

A sorry for the delay in response I'll check it later tonight, as for now I just am hooking the machines straight to the dust collector and it's working great. I'll let ya know what it ends up being, and thanks again for such a great deal on it Ken

 

[KenOfCary]

Glad you're still happy with the purchase. If the problem only occurs when you connect the drum with the Thien Baffle the problem almost has to be there or in the connections to it. The view port window is just plastic that is mounted with pop rivets and sealed with silicone caulk. That caulk may have developed a leak and needs to be touched up. That would be my first suspect. Good luck finding the problem.