In 2002, wood dust went from simply being a nuisance dust, to becoming an official health risk. Collecting wood dust at its source, before it reaches the machine operator, is the most efficient way to deal with wood dust. That’s why woodworking machines, from table saws to disk sanders, come with exhaust hoods or ports. The exhaust hood creates a capture point with a velocity that effectively grabs the dust particles and transports the recovered material away from the worker.
Managing wood chips and dust is essential in all workshops. A typical shop equipped with the usual array of wood processing equipment (table saw, bandsaw, planer, jointer, and so on) you need a more capable dust collection system. Ideally you want a system that’s effective at two things: handling large volumes of wood dust, and, keeping as much of the fine dust particles out of the shop air, and your lungs.
Cyclone Dust Collectors
Cyclone collectors are gaining in popularity because they are the most effective way to capture wood dust at the source. Cyclone Dust Collectors treat wood chips and dust in two steps, which is why they are often referred to as two-stage collectors.
The body of a cyclone collector incorporates a cylindrical funnel (aka the cyclonic pre-separator). The impeller, which typically sits on top of the collector, creates cyclonic (centrifugal) action, causing the air to spin around in the funnel. Heavy wood chips fall down the funnel of the cyclone and into a waste container, while the lighter dust particles are drawn up through the impeller into a canister filter. As air is vented out through the filter into the shop, the fine dust particles fall into a poly bag, or are trapped in the pleats of the filter. This two-stage process of pre-separating the heavier material also means that the filter will clog up much slower than with a single-stage collector. Less clogging helps to move more air through the collector system.
Our cyclone dust collectors are equipped with pleated canisters filters. These high-efficiency filters remove dust down to 1 micron. There is a noticeable increase in airflow between a pleated canister filter and a traditional cloth bag filter used in the past. This is due to the relatively large surface area of the pleated canister filters. Considering it’s the smaller dust particles that cause the damage to our lungs, this is an important consideration.
Choosing the right size dust collector for your application:
Our 1.5 HP model (UB-1500) can handle the dust extraction requirements for most small professional and avid hobbyist shops, which typically use one machine at a time. The UB-1500 is equipped with a flapper arm that makes it easier and more effective to clean the filter than using compressed air. The flapper arm is integrated in the filter cartridge for manual cleaning. It helps to eliminate build-up that would otherwise reduce airflow
If your shop is running multiple machines at the same time, or if you have long ducting connected to your machines, then you’ll want to look at our larger 2Hp or 3HP cyclone models such as the UB-2100 or the UB-3100. These models feature a motorized automatic filter cleaning system ensures that the canister filter is always ready for the next use. The remote control allows you to start the dust collector from anywhere in the shop and activate the filter cleaning system.