Inadequate pressure in cyclone dust colector

[Hentiev]

I have made a cyclone dust separator from a traffic cone and 20 lt plastic drum. I put the cyclone on my Kitty dust extractor, however I do loose pressure / suction. the current motor on the Kitty is .2 kw motor. Should I increase the motor size to a bigger motor?

[C-Bag]

Are you sure you have a good seal around the collector and drum?

[frances-ho]

I have made a cyclone dust separator from a traffic cone and 20 lt plastic drum. I put the cyclone on my Kitty dust extractor, however I do loose pressure / suction. the current motor on the Kitty is .2 kw motor. Should I increase the motor size to a bigger motor?

forgive me ? ok i am not sure what a .2 kw motor equals to in horsepower? one good thing to check for is air leakage at connections, what diameter ducting are you using? please if you can answer in english terms ?

[Prairieboy]

.2KW is about 1/4 horsepower. Even the simplest dust collector systems boast at least 1.5 horsepower. A Dewalt shop vacuum uses a 15 amp motor, this translates to 2.25 HP or about 9 times the power you have. ( 1.8 KW )

It sounds like you are severely underpowered. I am assuming that you are not connecting this to a duct collection system, but rather connecting it directly to a single machine.

I would recommend you drastically increase the size of your motor. 1.0 kw minimum ( 1 1/4 hp ). 1.5 KW to 2.0 KW would be even better. You should also check if there are any leaks in your connections. A vacuum system can be hard to troubleshoot. A simple way is to take a candle, light it and then blow it out, the smoke after you blow it out would be sucked into a leaky joint. There are special candles sold for this purpose, but an ordinary candle will still work.

If you are connected to dust collection piping system, you can also optimize the system by insuring that there are no 90 degree bends, no connections that have the ridges pointed away from the vacuum itself, no corrugated piping and the piping is large enough, i.e. matched to your dust collector capacity.

[myavid76]

I have made a cyclone dust separator from a traffic cone and 20 lt plastic drum. I put the cyclone on my Kitty dust extractor, however I do loose pressure / suction. the current motor on the Kitty is .2 kw motor. Should I increase the motor size to a bigger motor?

Sounds like you have a leak somewhere. The pressure or vacuum should remain the same throughout the system.

[white bear]

You should have adequate power for your dust collector. I also would check for leaks. Make a silicone gasket and see if it makes any difference. If for some reason you are restricted from a flat gasket purchase a tube of silicone and add a generous bead around the cone and catchment container and allow to dry.

[MrMeasureTwice]

I concur with the other suggestions that you may not have a strong enough motor, and/or, leaks.

Can you possibly tell us a bit more about what you're connecting the system to? i.e. diameter of the ducting/piping, or of the power tools you're connecting it to?

Also, if you could post a few pictures of your system, etc. that might be beneficial for us to give additional feedback and ideas.

~ "Mr. Measure Twice"
'A day without sawdust is like a day without... air to breathe!'

[Tonybp]

I believe I read somewhere that a traffic cone is not thick or sturdy enough to use as a cyclone, losing pressure because of the softer traffic cone rubber, instead of a tougher plastic that a 5 gallon pail would provide.

[Eaglewood]

I question the ability of the impeller to create sufficient vacuum as it was designed to be driven by a 1/4 hp motor. The system would have to be meticulously sealed with a very short run and small duct. Pics. And more info could shed light on solution.
Eaglewood

[MustangMatt]

I have made a cyclone dust separator from a traffic cone and 20 lt plastic drum. I put the cyclone on my Kitty dust extractor, however I do loose pressure / suction. the current motor on the Kitty is .2 kw motor. Should I increase the motor size to a bigger motor?

Generally cone extractors do not require a lot of power because they are very efficient. I would look at the cone configuration. A traffic cone may be too small or you may need to look at the inlet and exhaust plumbing configuration.