Thanks to Phil and others for the great ideas on this Forum.
I have a 2 HP Grizzly 1029 Dust Collector. It is nearly identical to the 2 HP Harbor Freight DC, the Jet DC and several others.
I have recently become concerned about the efficiency of my dust collector. I've read through Bill Pentz's website, here http://billpentz.com/woodworking/Cyclone/Index.cfm, found out about modifying my DC to accept a Wynn Filter, here http://www.wynnenv.com/9e300bl_conversion.htm, considered buying a ClearVue Cyclone, building my own cyclone per Bill Pentz's plans or
buying an Oneida Cyclone. All of these options are $$$$$.
I purchased a Wynn Filter since it would significantly reduce the fine wood dust, could be made to work with my current DC and could eventually be used with the ClearVue Cyclone if I decide to buy one of those.
While considering the cyclone options, I learned about this Forum. I watched Phil's video and read through the posts. I was particularly impressed with those who have adapted the Wynn Filter and a Thien Baffle to the HF DC, just what I wanted to do!
Attached are several pictures which represent a log of my modification of the Grizzly 1029. I hope this may be helpful to anyone considering similar modifications.
The first couple of pictures are of the Dust Collector collar. The filter will be attached to the top and the baffle will be attached to the bottom of the collar.
Next we make the filter adapter out of 3/4" plywood. I used a modified version of Phil's router circle-cutting jig to cut the filter adapter and later the baffle. I didn't have a router bit with a bearing that was tall enough to cut the plywood, so I attached a piece of plywood scrap to my router table and used a nail to hold the center of the circle I was cutting. Phil's idea of fixing the router and passing the piece to be cut past the bit worked WONDERFULLY.
Once I cut the donut hole in the filter adapter, I mounted the filter to the collar.
Then on to the baffle. I glued-up two sheets of 3/16" tempered hardboard. Phil suggests using tempered hardboard, but I was concerned that a single sheet would be too flimsy since the baffle has to be nearly 19" in diameter and, in my case, supported by 3 all-thread screws. I cut a full circle the size of the bottom of the DC collar, then using the circle-cutting jig, I removed 1.25 inches for 240 degrees of the circle. I mounted the baffle on the collar using three all-thread screws, an L-bracket to hold the 120 degree part to the collar, a little clear caulk and we're ready to reassemble the dust collector.
The final picture is the dust collector running. One of the most exciting parts of the process was seeing the saw dust swirling like a CYCLONE at the bottom of the plastic bag while the dust collector was running. I even made a video clip of the cyclone action at the bottom of the plastic bag, but the video quality of my digital camera was too poor to be able to see it on the video clip.
Since I haven't used the modified dust collector very much, I don't have a lot of results to report yet. I did remove the filter after having run the dust collector a bit and the filter had NO DUST, GREAT!
I'll be happy to answer any questions, especially for anyone planning similar modifications.
I have a 2 HP Grizzly 1029 Dust Collector. It is nearly identical to the 2 HP Harbor Freight DC, the Jet DC and several others.
I have recently become concerned about the efficiency of my dust collector. I've read through Bill Pentz's website, here http://billpentz.com/woodworking/Cyclone/Index.cfm, found out about modifying my DC to accept a Wynn Filter, here http://www.wynnenv.com/9e300bl_conversion.htm, considered buying a ClearVue Cyclone, building my own cyclone per Bill Pentz's plans or
buying an Oneida Cyclone. All of these options are $$$$$.
I purchased a Wynn Filter since it would significantly reduce the fine wood dust, could be made to work with my current DC and could eventually be used with the ClearVue Cyclone if I decide to buy one of those.
While considering the cyclone options, I learned about this Forum. I watched Phil's video and read through the posts. I was particularly impressed with those who have adapted the Wynn Filter and a Thien Baffle to the HF DC, just what I wanted to do!
Attached are several pictures which represent a log of my modification of the Grizzly 1029. I hope this may be helpful to anyone considering similar modifications.
The first couple of pictures are of the Dust Collector collar. The filter will be attached to the top and the baffle will be attached to the bottom of the collar.
Next we make the filter adapter out of 3/4" plywood. I used a modified version of Phil's router circle-cutting jig to cut the filter adapter and later the baffle. I didn't have a router bit with a bearing that was tall enough to cut the plywood, so I attached a piece of plywood scrap to my router table and used a nail to hold the center of the circle I was cutting. Phil's idea of fixing the router and passing the piece to be cut past the bit worked WONDERFULLY.
Once I cut the donut hole in the filter adapter, I mounted the filter to the collar.
Then on to the baffle. I glued-up two sheets of 3/16" tempered hardboard. Phil suggests using tempered hardboard, but I was concerned that a single sheet would be too flimsy since the baffle has to be nearly 19" in diameter and, in my case, supported by 3 all-thread screws. I cut a full circle the size of the bottom of the DC collar, then using the circle-cutting jig, I removed 1.25 inches for 240 degrees of the circle. I mounted the baffle on the collar using three all-thread screws, an L-bracket to hold the 120 degree part to the collar, a little clear caulk and we're ready to reassemble the dust collector.
The final picture is the dust collector running. One of the most exciting parts of the process was seeing the saw dust swirling like a CYCLONE at the bottom of the plastic bag while the dust collector was running. I even made a video clip of the cyclone action at the bottom of the plastic bag, but the video quality of my digital camera was too poor to be able to see it on the video clip.
Since I haven't used the modified dust collector very much, I don't have a lot of results to report yet. I did remove the filter after having run the dust collector a bit and the filter had NO DUST, GREAT!
I'll be happy to answer any questions, especially for anyone planning similar modifications.