Making a Bucket Mounted Cyclone, part one

Here lately, I've been doing a lot work on the belt sander, which produces a lot of fine dust, which is collected by my shop vac, which in turn ends up with a clogged filter. Then I have to shut down what I'm doing, and clean the filter, which, of course, makes a bit more of a mess in the shop, as that fine dust just billows everywhere. The solution to this problem is something that takes the dust out of the airstream before the air passes through the filter. The best way to do this is with a cyclonic separator. There are at least three on the market that can be mounted on a five gallon bucket and used with a shop vac (one that is made by a well-known company, the other two I found by searching around on the web). The cheapest of these costs about sixty dollars, plus shipping. As a self-respecting tightwad, I just couldn't bring myself to pay this cost. I got to pondering my dillema, and the fact that I have all of this scrap material laying around taking up space, and decided that maybe I could make my own separator. Here's the story of what I did, and how it came out...

I've decided to keep it simple, and just make the body from layers of plywood rings. The board on the left is my initial layout- the conical body will be a little over ten inches high, with a 7 1/2" i.d. at the top, 3 1/2" i.d. at the bottom. (that was the intention, anyhow- it came out a bit different). The piece on the right is the layout for the first ring- note the entrance holes drilled for the scrollsaw blade. I had the scrollsaw table and drill press table set at the same angle to keep things simple.

I used each ring to lay out the next ring...


Here's the first three rings, with a bit of scrap to the right. They are assembled with the glue
and 18 guage brad nailer shown in the pic. I never thought I would enjoy having a brad nailer- doesn't seem like "proper woodworking". I have to admit, though, that for making shop projects like this, it has turned out to be unbelievably useful. Care must be taken to see that brads don't blow out into the interior of the body (of course, some did- I simply clipped them, then ground them flush with a dremel tool).

About the fifth level down, I decided to install this square ring. Despite how odd it looks, this turned out to be the smartest single thing I did in this project. A plain cone would make for very difficult work-holding, but having this one square piece made it quite easy. In later stages, I was able to simply clamp it to my bench with a c-clamp and perform heavy work on it. In use, if need be, I'll be able to secure bracing struts to this part.

Here's the completed cone. It looks good in this pic, but fact, it's all out of wack, and I spent a week trying to get it right with 36 grit sanding paper on a 1" dowel. I clamped it to the edge of my bench, and worked it with a motion like churning butter. It was way, WAY too much work- if I ever do this again, I'll work up some kind of angled router jig and use a flush cutting bit to make sure the rings are perfectly consistent with each other.

I need to drill a large hole at a tangent in the cone for the intake pipe. Here the square section is showing it's usefulness again- I just clamped a bit of scrap to the top, making sure that everying was sitting right.

I pondered a bit, and finally decided to use my biggest forstner bit to drill this hole (2 3/8", which turned out to be the perfect size, anyhow). I was a bit worried about it with the brads (something I should have thought of beforehand), but it turned out that they didn't cause a problem for this big bit. While forstner bits don't tend to catch, I wasn't taking any chances with this odd assembly, and clamped it all to the drill press table to do the work.

This is something you just can't do with any other kind of bit- the bit is cutting on only one edge, and tracking just fine.

More progress, and cutting through, now.

And here we have the hole drilled all the way in to the interior. I had placed it by eye, but it turned out to be in pretty much a perfect location.

Front view. The end of the pipe will fill most of that little flat spot, so it's not a big deal.

Just as I was about to go and buy some pvc pipe, I found a bit of it in a rollaway dumpster. One of the hotels on my route is remodeling, and I think this came off an old jacuzzi. It's just over 2 3/8" in diameter, which is why that drill bit was the perfect one to use.

Test fitting the pipe- note the fitting on the end- I cut that off later.

Here's the cut line, traced with a sharpie. Over to the bandsaw and big belt sander...

And here's the pipe cut and sanded to final shape. To install it, I drilled the pipe into the body, put in one screw, then used putty epoxy to fill in around it (yes, it was Mighty Putty- that's what I had handy). Later, I backfilled from the outside with low-viscosity epoxy, and then silicon sealer. It's strong, and doesn't leak.

I like to make hose connections for my shop tools with mdf- I didn't have to get into my stash for this project, as I found a bunch of the stuff sitting by a dumpster. I have no idea what shape was cut out of the one piece- matters not a bit to me.

With the body completed (and after LOTS of sanding of the inside to try to get it straight), I"m ready to move on. With all of the gaps in the interior of this plywood, and the porous nature of the wood itself, it's become obvious to me that I'll need to line this with a smooth, non-porous material. I happen to have the perfect material on hand- some aluminum flashing that I picked up cheap at an estate auction some year ago. I used a bunch of it when rebuilding my shop, but still have quite a bit left.

Above, I'm making a template- this was quite simple. I just cut some posterboard to rough size (and note that even this is recycled- some old medical advertising posters), then put it in the body, and traced it with a superfine sharpie.



After cutting to the lines, it's almost a perfect fit. This was easy to fix on the actual lining. (sorry about the double pic :()

And here we have the lining- my old camera had trouble getting a good focus on it. I cut the straight parts with a straightedge and utility knife, the curved parts with snips, then gently cleaned up the burrs on my 1" belt sander.

Here the lining is being epoxied in. The one clamp is enough to hold it- the spring in the metal did most of the work here. The hole for the intake was easy to cut- while making the paper template, I stuck a scrap of the same material in and sprayed black paint through the hole to get the shape. When I test fit the lining, I traced it with a sharpie, then used the painted template to get it perfect, then cut the whole thing out on the scroll saw. After that, it was just a matter of lining it up on installation.

I tried trimming the excess with an old wood chisel, but that didn't work to my satisfaction. Then I tried using a hacksaw with a steel-cutting blade in it, and that turned out to be the ideal tool for the job- you just have to be careful to take short strokes against the body so that you don't pull it loose- the excess will just curl away. Kind of fun, actually :)

As you can see, even with a lot of sanding and work, I still didn't get the interior perfectly straight- there was still a signifigant gap between the lining and body at the bottom. I filled this with silicon sealer, and it seems to be working fine. I built the body in a hurry, and it caused me a lot of problems and extra work. If I ever build another one of these, I'll take a lot more care in this process.

Completing the bucket cyclone.

At this point, I've built and lined the body, constructed the top (also lined with aluminum sheet), and installed both pipes in the body. I've also fabricated the adaptors to fit my vacuum hoses. I have a Ridgid shop vac, purchased at Home Depot. HD carries plenty of accessories for this line of vacs, and I picked up a spare hose some time back. It's going to come in handy now! Certainly looks proffessionally made, doesn't it? :)




Here's a good view showing the lining, and how the top is constructed. While the body lining is epoxied in, I simply used contact glue to apply the lining to the top. I used my scroll saw to cut a hole in the aluminum large enough to allow the mdf ring (this is to reinforce the pipe) to be glued directly to the 3/4" ply top (I also shot some brads through the ring). A bead of silicon sealer around the top and bottom of the ring completed this. I cleaned up the edge on belt and disc sander to make sure everything was even.

The pipe is cut to extend down past the bottom of the intake pipe.


I was so happy to connect the hoses at this point! Everything fit just right. I decided to test it out by simply putting it on top of a bucket and holding it to make a seal of sorts- then I vacuumed up some debris from the shop floor...

And here's the result- it works!!!! Yeah!!! It's nice to know that I haven't wasted all of this work- now I'll go on and finish it :)


I picked up a cheap circle cutter at Harbor Freight the other day, and I'm using it to establish the hole in the base, which will be just over 3 inchs. I didn't cut all the way through (it's just too much trouble with this cheap tool), but just used it to cut in about a quarter inch, then cut the rest out with the scrollsaw, and cleaned it up on the router table using a flush trim bit.

Here I've got the first two layers of the base glued and bradded together- I'll use the scroll saw to cut out most of the waste...

Then make it perfect on the router table. Note the vacuum held close to the work- this helps a lot in keeping the mess down.

I'm making the base from four layers of plywood- three 3/4" inch layers, and one 1/2" layer. I'll be securing it to the base with some 3 1/2 screws that I picked up at a flea market awhile back. Here, I'm getting it all set up- I drilled pilot holes, then used 2 1/2" self-drilling screws to get it all set up on the base- note that the holes are set fairly far out on the base- this is to avoid the possibility of putting a screw through the lining (and I didnt'- phew!). I also used these holes and screws in cutting out the holes in the next two layers, so that it all came out consistent.

Here's the completed base, ready for it's lining. I've applied contact glue to the lining and the inside of the base- then I went inside to have a drink and let it dry. Not the bucket lid in the top of the pic- I've cut the hole, and set up for the inner mounting ring. This is a simple ring of 3/4" ply that goes on the bottom of the bucket lid- then 1 1/4" self-drilling screws are run through it into the very bottom layer of the base. A good layer of silicon between the base and top of the lid insures a good seal.
And here it is with it's brand new base!

And here it is, mounted to it's bucket as described above. I emptied all of the fine dust out of vac filter into another bucket (and it was really an amazing amount), then used the cyclone to vacuum it up- and all of it ended up in the bottom of the bucket!!! WOO-HOO!!! IT WORKS GREAT!!!!!! The only thing I found wrong here was a slight air leak around the top, so I simply removed it (I no longer needed to access the inside, anyhow), ran a heavy bead of silicon around the top, then screwed it back on. No more leak!

Here is my happy painting assistant :) I picked up some spray paint for a quarter a can a week or so ago, and this seems like a perfect use for it.

And here is the finished product, painted (many mistakes disguised, in other words), and ready to go! About all this needs is a stable base for the bucket, as this is a bit top heavy and easy to tip over. All in all, this is one of my favorite and most worthwhile shop projects ever!

Bye-bye rodents!

I'm glad to report that my bait stations have worked to perfection- for a week or so, I had to replace the baits every day. Soon I started finding bright green rat and mouse droppings, so they were definitely getting a good dose.

I've only found two mouse corpses so far, but I know that the rats are being knocked out as well, as I have stopped seeing their tracks in the soft sand near the stations (I smooth it out after every refill).

I prefer spring traps for getting rid of mice and rats, as they are quick and humane, but they are not always practical, as in this case. This method seems to have worked well, and I can recomend it. It was also a good way to use some old material, keep my dogs safe, and clean out an infestation, all at the same time.

Well, as it happens, I haven't been able to accumulate what I need to make a cnc router yet (mainly the cash part for the electronics- I've got plenty of physical materials). Nonetheless, I've been busy. I've been cleaning out the old carport I use to store wood, in order to completely enclose it so that it's a better place to store wood. In the process of this, I've discovered that rats and mice have made it a home (and, in fact, destroyed some stuff). So I need to put out some poison, but don't want to kill my dogs (who would love the taste of the stuff, I've no doubt), and don't want to spring for commercial bait stations. So, off to the junk pile for a bit of plywood scrap....


This was a simple build- the mice don't care what it looks like, after all. I cleaned any nails, etc. out of the wood, squared up the ends, then ripped some 2" strips, and cut a piece to be the base- no idea of the dimensions, as I didn't measure it. I used the bottom piece to cut the sides to length, then cut the ends to leave a small opening for a rodent. All of this is glued and bradded together with 18 guage brads. A finishing nail in the middle provides an anchor for the bait (which is made with a hole through it).







A bit of 1/4" ply off the shop floor cut to approximate size and screwed on (so that it can be removed to replace the bait).



These are going into a cramped area, so I added a handle so that I can get them out easily- these wires are sign hangers from a store (I think), and are pretty easy to bend, so I simply bent one in half, bent eyes on the ends, and screwed it to the box.



As it turned out, the spot I was going to put them was too narrow to fit this in sideways, so I had to move the handle to the end.

I built two of these, and it took about a half hour, including design time. I put them into service immediately. This was yesterday, and one of the baits was almost gone when I got home from work this afternoon! And my dogs are still healthy, so everything is going according to plan.