Cleaning DC filter

[Mike Novak]

I have a HF DC with Wynn Environmental pleated filter, along with a Super Dust Deputy. It works pretty well. Only the very fine dust gets to the filter.

Unfortunately, eventually the filter gets enough fine dust in it that it doesn’t move as much air. Cleaning it is a PITA! I go near the shop air cleaner, and pound on the sides to dislodge the dust. Lots of dust clouds, and takes a long time with much effort. I tried doing it outside using a leaf blower, but created a big enough dust cloud to bother neighbors. This last cleaning, I used a percussion massager to hit it. A little less effort, but still messy and slow.

Anyone have a better way?

 

[Kevin Jenness]

Tube filters.

Cartridge filters are the best way to get a large surface area of high efficiency filter media into a small space. As a result they are a pain in the butt to clean and I haven't yet heard of a better way than a leaf blower. I have used compressed air but it is slow and probably not great for the fabric long-term. Some media are supposed to be washable (garden hose?), check with Wynn.

I had the setup shown for a long time, swapped it out for a larger cyclone and cartridge filter, and got so disgusted with cleaning the cartridge that I went back to a tube system. If you have the space I recommend it.

 

[Mike Novak]

I did a search on google for tube filters, but nothing came up. Do you remember where you got that? Looks like a bag filter but longer. Does it do a good job on the really fine stuff?

 

[Webb Willmott]

Please tell more about the tube filter.

 

[Kevin Jenness]

The ones pictured came from Oneida. My present ones were custom made by US Air Filtration. American Fabric Filter can also make them.

Here is a link to a post on another site about my present setup dust filter conversion. I hope it is ok to post this link, if not the moderators will know what to do.

The Oneida filters are spec'd at 1 micron, so not as fine as HEPA standard. I can't recall the specs on the new ones but a Dylos meter shows acceptable dust levels.

 

[Doug Freeman]

I have the same HF DC and filter, for ~10 years now. I clean the filter in place, similar to your process. I use my hands and a long thin piece of wood to tap the top and sides. I then use compressed air from a ~3/16” nozzle, regulator turned down to ~25 psi. I keep the nozzle ~ 6” away from the pleats, start at the top and move down, then move over and do the same. The air “floats” the dust down. Tapping as well as blowing as I go. Yeah it takes a while (maybe 30 minutes), but no longer than removing the filter and then trying to get it sealed again.

Just getting the caked on dust is all that is needed. Dust does come out of the suction end of the line - I wear a mask when I do it.

 

[Jim Reynolds]

I have a HF DC with Wynn Environmental pleated filter, along with a Super Dust Deputy. It works pretty well. Only the very fine dust gets to the filter.

Unfortunately, eventually the filter gets enough fine dust in it that it doesn’t move as much air. Cleaning it is a PITA! I go near the shop air cleaner, and pound on the sides to dislodge the dust. Lots of dust clouds, and takes a long time with much effort. I tried doing it outside using a leaf blower, but created a big enough dust cloud to bother neighbors. This last cleaning, I used a percussion massager to hit it. A little less effort, but still messy and slow.

Anyone have a better way?

I am interested in the Wynn Environmental Series 35 (for woodworking) canister filters for a virtually identical planned setup.

I found an Installation, Operation and Maintenance page for these filters on the Wynn Environmental website. Below is a quote from this page, "
When it comes time to clean:

-Leave the filter in place. Do not remove it!
-Blow the filter (from the outside) with 60 psi of compressed air. All of that fine dust and wood flour will pour down into the lower bag.
-Empty the plastic poly bag before it is full.
-These filters are designed to go through hundreds, if not thousands of cleaning cycles."

It sounds like you are using a different procedure. Did the above procedure not work for you? I believe that Wynn Environmental is assuming a canister above and plastic bag below arrangement.

I'd appreciate any clarification or guidance you can provide. Thank you.

 

[Ron Solfest]

I have an Oneida 3hp cyclone system, it has a pleated HEPA filter (not just 1micron). Unfortunately I’ve overfilled the canister a couple times resulting in a stuffed filter . When this happens I’ve taken the filter off, dumped out what’s loose, then taken the filter outside with a stick and painfully rap around the filter many times for ~20min, each time creating a pile of dust. After this I use the compressor (again outside) to blow more dust out. It’s probably taken me an hour or more each time I’ve done this…and then SWEAR never to overfill it again!

 

[Kevin Jenness]

When it comes time to clean:

-Leave the filter in place. Do not remove it!
-Blow the filter (from the outside) with 60 psi of compressed air. All of that fine dust and wood flour will pour down into the lower bag.
-Empty the plastic poly bag before it is full.
-These filters are designed to go through hundreds, if not thousands of cleaning cycles."

This is good from a dust exposure standpoint but I can guarantee that if you follow the instructions after overfilling the chip bin inspection will show that the inside corners of the pleats are still packed with crud, decreasing the effective filter area. Perhaps the best way to set up a cartridge filter system is to increase the design filter size by at least 50%, use a simple manometer to monitor static pressure and follow the Wynn instructions when airflow drops.

 

[Roger Wiegand]

I've used tapping and compressed air per the wynn instructions for quite a while on my cyclone type DC, it seems only the finest dust makes it past the cyclone into the filter until you overfill the bin or get a leak. I check manifold pressure with a Magnahelic gauge. In recent times the cleaning failed to drop the back pressure to the value I expected for a clean filter. It seems that the folds had gotten packed with fine dust that did not dislodge with air pressure from the outside. I took the newly "cleaned" filter out into the meadow and applied the leaf blower to it and got a cloud of dust reminiscent of the movie dust storms, darkening the sun. After that treatment the pressure dropped back to that of the new filter.

It seems that the leaf blower is a much more effective cleaning method, but I wouldn't do it without using my PAPR for protection.

 

[Jay Simmons]

I have a HF DC with Wynn Environmental pleated filter, along with a Super Dust Deputy. It works pretty well. Only the very fine dust gets to the filter.

Unfortunately, eventually the filter gets enough fine dust in it that it doesn’t move as much air. Cleaning it is a PITA! I go near the shop air cleaner, and pound on the sides to dislodge the dust. Lots of dust clouds, and takes a long time with much effort. I tried doing it outside using a leaf blower, but created a big enough dust cloud to bother neighbors. This last cleaning, I used a percussion massager to hit it. A little less effort, but still messy and slow.

Anyone have a better way?

Leave it on the DC. Connect your shop vacuum to the bottom outlet of the filter. Then proceed as you have or with shop air at 60 psi or less work your way around and down the housing with the shop vacuum running. Contains most of the dust. Not a quick process but with the price of quality replacement filters worth it

 

[Jay Simmons]

I have an Oneida 3hp cyclone system, it has a pleated HEPA filter (not just 1micron). Unfortunately I’ve overfilled the canister a couple times resulting in a stuffed filter . When this happens I’ve taken the filter off, dumped out what’s loose, then taken the filter outside with a stick and painfully rap around the filter many times for ~20min, each time creating a pile of dust. After this I use the compressor (again outside) to blow more dust out. It’s probably taken me an hour or more each time I’ve done this…and then SWEAR never to overfill it again!

With the time involved and the eventual cost of a replacement I recommend monitoring of the drum/barrel level. I’ve added the Oneida monitor to my drum lid. It seems to be reliable but would be interested to hear the experience with the other monitors on the market

 

[Ron Solfest]

With the time involved and the eventual cost of a replacement I recommend monitoring of the drum/barrel level. I’ve added the Oneida monitor to my drum lid. It seems to be reliable but would be interested to hear the experience with the other monitors on the market

I have the Oneida monitor. It uses a sensor at the top of the barrel to detect dust level and then gives me a flashing red light in the shop. The downside is that the sensor isn’t real accurate and so seems to require constant fiddling and lots of false fails. So while I use it, I can’t say I’m happy with it. And clearly it’s caused me to overfill a few times. Fortunately only once where I had to disassemble and pull planer shaving out of everything, but 2-3 times where I started to fill the filter before I caught it.

 

[John K Jordan]

I have a tall cone 5hp Clearvue cyclone made to the Bill Pentz design and specs. I bought it as a kit. The thing barely fits into a space with a 10' ceiling. The dust separation amazes me.

It has a tall stack of two Wynn filters. At the bottom of the filter stack is a small canister with clear plastic I can see through, not a bag. In 10 years of use there is still only a small amount of dust in the collection canister. I can't remember ever cleaning it out. I've tried the filter tapping and the compressed air method, not removing the filters. For some reason there almost never any dust in the filters. I know fine dust is not going through the filters and into the shop since I monitor the shop with a Dylos DC1100 Pro air quality monitor. Also, I'm sensitive to wood dust and can't smell any in the closet.

BTW, I once read of a method of cleaning the filters that I haven't tried: conntect a hose to the cleanout port of the collection canister and feed it back into the cyclone input while tapping and/or blowing compressed air through the outside of the filters - sounded odd to me but I was assured it worked, kind of a 2-stage separator.

The only explanation for all this is the cyclone is so efficient fine dust is simply not getting to the filters. In studying Pentz's writings years ago, he described a relationship between the height of the cone and the efficiency of the cyclone, and this one is tall. I use a 30 gallon can as a collection bin and it's amazing how much talcum-powder-fine dust is mixed in there with the shavings, making the bin quite heavy. (I check it often and empty it when it's about 1/2 full.)

The separator is entertaining to watch in operation through the clear plastic cone. Anything picked up swirl around and around with the mass dropping very slowly towards the bin. Very slowly. If I turn the cyclone on and put a handful of chips and dust into a pickup nozzle then put on some ear protection (necessary) and go into the closet to watch, Many minutes later the finest dust is still swirling and around the cone. I usually leave it running for hours when working, bandsaw, drumsander, turning - I read once that it's bad for large motors to be switched on and off too many times per hour (the advice was no more than 5 or 6 times.)

A central cylinder picks up the air after the dust is separated and passes it to the filter. Even when dumping a scoop of fine dust in a pickup nozle I have never seen any dust in the center where it would go to the filters, even with a bright flashlight.

To return the cleaned air to the room I designed a plywood baffled duct and as mentioned, there is almost zero increase in the particulate count with the Dylos and a second, inexpensive monitor. Peeking into the return duct shows no sign indicating any dust has settled out of the return air.

I was told Ckearvue cyclones are no longer available for sale. Too bad.

JKJ

 

[Webb Willmott]

Pictures John, pictures of your setup please.

 

[John K Jordan]

Pictures John, pictures of your setup please.

Hmmm... What do you mean by setup? I have lots of photos of the ducts in the ceiling, electrical, controller, pickup nozzles, connection to bandsaw, diagram of the return air duct layout, and diagrams of the entire DC design when planning the shop, but since the DC and big air compressor are in a small 4x8 closet (below) I have no good pictures of the cyclone itself since the space was so tight. The closet can be seen here - sound insulated with double doors for moving a a full bin through the back room.



These are the only photos I could find of the DC itself, top and bottom. The 5hp motor in the 1st pic is almost touching the ceiling. The inlet at the left is angled down from where I ran all the ducts in the trusses above the ceiling. The picture with the filter and bin does not yet have the big-full sensors mounted.
To plan the exact angles and fitting the DC in the tight space I first temporarily assembled it upside down in a corner of the shop, drew circles, lines and arrows on the floor, then cut the plywood for the closet ceiling with the ellipse for the duct. Good clean fun.



This picture of the whole cyclone was from the ClearVue web site, long time ago showing the filters. These came in left and or right hand construction. The inlet and outlet could be installed rotated as desired. You can see the small dust collecting canister (that gets almost no dust in it) under the filters. The thing is a screaming beast - can't go into the closet without hearing protection. But with the staggered stud insulated closet wall construction, two people can talk in whispers next to the closet when it's running. We tried that. I forget the DB reading.

When I kick off and someone buys this farm with house, barn and shop, maybe they will do woodworking and get some use out of all this this.

JKJ