Now I finally get to test out the cyclone dust collector system I've put together.
There's a guy on Ebay who makes a cool sheet metal cyclone seperator made to fit a Harbor Freight 1 HP dust collector. The idea is to mount the blower directly on top of the cyclone. The cheapest way is to use a cheap 30 gallon trash can from a Home Store, but since this thing is a little tall, I opted for an open top drum for a little more weight down low.
The concept is that the cyclonic flow will make the chips fall into the drum so that there is no need for a bag. I figure that if I can put this thing outside I'll have a quieter system and if at least 90 per cent of the chips land in the drum I could live with a little bit of dust to sweep up occasionally outside.
Well, after cutting the signs out of blue extruded foam I didn't see any evidence of blue outside by the exhaust of the blower, so it seems to work perfectly!
I DO need a longer vacuum hose so that I can route it out the garage vent opening...I temporarily ran it through the side door for now.