CV06 question

[Mike M]

I just received my CV06 and I have it sitting on a melamine base which has foam weather stripping underneath it to seal it to a 5 gallon drum. The CV06 itself is sealed with silicone around the base where it contacts the melamine surface.

What I'm noticing is that while it does a great job of collecting the fine dust in the 5 gallon bucket and keeping the HEPA filter in my shop vac absolutely clean, there is always some material swirling around inside the cyclone that doesn't drop until I shut off the vacuum or momentarily plug up the end of the vacuum hose. Is this normal?

[Jim O'Dell]

Can't answer for the CV06 specifically, but I think that this is normal for cyclones in general. My 1800 does this. It seems to be a little bit of a no mans land there, and doesn't drop. Jim.

[oilman]

I made a CV06, material swirls round in mine the same as yours. However, fine dust still gets into the vac with mine, and I don't know why.

[mattbell007]

I can echo that this does seem to be normal for cyclones. It's only with the clear ones that you can see this happening.

As to the dust getting past the filters, everything I've read is that it is usually due to leaks around the dust collection bin. There was a post on here not too long ago about how MDF is porous enough to allow air to come straight through it. If you are sure that you are well sealed, but you have an MDF top on your dust bin, it might be that the MDF itself is leaking enough to cause some of the dust to get through the cyclone.

[Ed]

I made a CV06, material swirls round in mine the same as yours. However, fine dust still gets into the vac with mine, and I don't know why.

Can we see a picture of your cyclone. Did you follow Bill's dimensions. Not all 6" cyclones are created equal :). Leaks in the bottom will cause separation problems, but so will the basic design changes. That's why Oneida advertizes that you can sand for "hours" with their shop vac cyclone and as far as I know, using our CV06, you can sand for weeks or even months without cleaning the filter on the shop vac. Bill has worked out the ratios for the component parts of the cyclone i.e. Upper Cylinder, Intake Chute, Air ramp, cone ratio etc. and it "seems" that he did a pretty good job of it based on the test results from Johns Hopkins.

Ed

P.S. Yes, this is an ad for Clear Vue Cyclones.... :D

[John Sprung]

What is the shape of the material that doesn't drop out? Cyclones work fine for compact particles, but for things that are long, like fibers or string, or flat, like cornflakes, there may be an issue with them having more wind resistance for their weight than particles that are sort of pebble-shaped.



-- J.S.

[dwdrury]

As sort of an anecdotal test, I thought it might be worthwhile to illustrate and document my own CV 06 performance. Other places here in the forums I've opined trying to adapt my Shopsmith planer to the larger cyclones might prove problematic, thus reckoned the CV 06 might be the ideal answer. So I cleaned my recently assembled CV 06, cleaned the motive shop vac (a Fein Turbo II), and installed a new CleanStream filter. Then I did a little general vacuuming around the shop. But the real test was hooking up the contraption to the planer and running through some rough sawn 4/4 stock, taking it down to 3/4.

I've added photos of the effort to the photo gallery (DWD's CV 06 Mini). I'm pleased to the point of being surprised about how well the little thing did separating out all but the very finest of particles. Only a very light coating of dust was in the Fein, and a small amount of discoloration on the CleanStream.

The CV 06 Mini showed no hint of clogging on the planer chips, even when it sucked up a wad that had collected off to the side of the planer and was pushed into the planer's vac adaptor by the next board. They were wads big enough to cause the hose to undulate, and an audible "whoomp" could be heard even through ear defenders.

Well done, Ed & Matt! The little CV 06 does an awesome job.

Regards,

DWD

[Matt]

Nice paint job!! I am glad the mini is working well for you and thank you for taking the time to let us know your results.

Matt

[dwdrury]

Nice paint job!!

Matt

Yeah, well, sometimes I even surprise myself. Amazing what one can do with a spray can or two, and more time than brains.

But thanks for the kind comments.

Regards,

DWD