Quiet Dust Extractor From Scavenged Materials

As with many of the projects covered on hackaday, [bongodrummer]’s Dust Sniper came about because of a lack of effective commercial solutions, in this case to the problem of quiet dust extraction.

Workshops are generally full of dust and noise, both of which take their toll on the human body. This is why safety regulations exist for noisy and dusty workplaces and–as [bongodrummer] rightly points out–we have to take precautions in our own home and community workshops. Hearing protectors, dust masks and safety goggles are integral, but reducing the amount of dust and noise in the fist place is paramount.

Using mostly scavenged materials [bongodrummer] did a quality job building the Dust Sniper–and all for a bill of materials totaling £20. It has an integrated work surface, automatic switches on 2 vacuum lines to sync up with power tools, a cyclonic air filter that prevents clogging the HEPA filter and reducing suction power, inlet and outlet soundproofing, and a plain old power outlet for good measure.

Whether or not you’re interested in building an integrated workbench/extractor system like this one, we recommend you check out the details of the cyclone filter and the sound reducing components. Not only are they an interesting read, but they could be useful to apply in other projects, for example a soldering station with fume hood.

We think it would be really neat to include more cyclones in our projects. Stick around after the break to see [bongodrummer]’s prototype cyclone filter in action.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o850ATauMDM&w=470]

11 thoughts on “Quiet Dust Extractor From Scavenged Materials

  1. I made a dust sep for around $8.

    1 5-gallon bucket
    1 2-gallon bucket
    2 6-9 inch lengths of PVC that will fit your vacuum’s hose and a few screws and some duct tape/silicone sealant.

    Screw the bottom of the 2 gallon bucket to the bottom of the lid for the 5 gallon bucket.

    Cut hole through lid/bottom of 2-gallon bucket the size of the PVC.

    Cut hole in side about 4 inches from the top of 5 gallon bucket the size of the PVC

    Put a piece of PVC through the lid/2-gallon bucket, cut a piece of the PVC with a 45-60 degree angle and put that in the hole on the side at an angle. Seal any holes around the PVC.

    Hook it up and you’re done. Seriously, that’s all it takes to get.

    You don’t need a conical shaped anything, you simply need to force the incoming air to move in a circle and you do most of that with the 45 degree cut, and the angle of the PVC. The air moves in a downward circular path then has to rise through the middle of the 2-gallon bucket to get to the “exhaust”, dropping the dust/dirt at the perigee thanks to gravity and centripetal forces.

    I haven’t bothered posting an instructable, etc. because it’s just too damn easy to build these.

  2. Ehrichweiss, I think it is worth remembering that different design cyclones can have very different efficiencies – especially when it comes to the smaller, more harmful particles. You can read more about this on the instructable, or check out Bill’s site posted above.
    Peace, Bongodrummer.

  3. The cyclones look a lot like the Bill Pentz design, which is highly regarded. That being said, it would seem you can build a cyclonic separator out of almost anything and as long as you have the air moving in a circle, it works fairly well. The one I built 18 months ago out of plastic cups and duct tape is still going strong: http://hackaday.com/2009/07/19/cyclonic-dust-seperation/ which is ashame cause I have the parts already to make the next one and do an instructable :) As for noise, I can barely hear the vacuum over the cnc router.

  4. Thats pretty cool now only if we can make the power tools quieter.

    On a side note I wonder if the vacuum would overheat inside of that box if it’s left on too long. Couldn’t hurt to add some sort of temperature sensor inside the box to be safe.

  5. I didn’t read whole article from instructabliss but looks like the builder has done quite a lot of research beforehand and nice writeup too.
    Only thing he/she (?) missed before the build is that plastic can be problematic (better to be considered dangerous without absolute certainty) in dust collection systems if static build-up is not handled (grounding). Some metal in the mix and it’ll be fine.

    “When in doubt – C4” -Jamie Hyneman

    Still.. whole lot of information and even links in that writeup.

  6. Effective yes, but outside of hand sanding and pushed chisels every power tool screams bloody murder. I will stick with old Electralux canisters, and 5 gallon buckets.
    Torit made the big separators for years.

  7. If I was going to set up a dust extractor I imagine I would use “bong filtration” – suck the air/dust through a big water-filled bucket. When it’s full, drain off the water by filtering through a mesh screen, then leave the dust to dry out before using it as fuel or something.

    For the moment, I’ll just stick with using a 3M half-face respirator. They’re surprisingly comfy and you get used to them if you do a lot of composites layups, painting, gluing etc.

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