Dust Collector System for Edger

[YellowHammer]

My edger has an option for a dust collector.  It's a long pipe mounted to the lower sawdust sump, and when hooked up to my blower, removes most of the fine sawdust.  However, the big splinters, edging strips, wooden spikes remain in the sump and eventually create a beaver dam of debris, which clog up the sawdust extraction and I have to periodically clean everything out by hand, a little too frequently.  If any get into the dust collector hose, they jam up also.  After talking to a few others with different make and model edgers, this seems to be a common problem, and most just don't use a dust collector at all, and let the sawdust and edging spikes fall to the floor where they manually sweep and shovel them up.  I like using the dust collector because it removes most of the very fine, respireable dust I don't want to breath, I just want it to get more and clog less.  Has anybody got a solution to this?  

My  Staight Line Rip Saw (SLR) solves this by having a downward facing heavy debris exit chute (like a coal chute) coming out of the bottom of the machine, with the dust collector mounted to the top of the machine.  Sawdust goes up, sticks go down. Never clogs.  Has anybody mounted a suction hose to the top of an edger?  

[Percy]

The system I seen that worked well with an edger was a bunch of what looked like 1/2 inch by 1 inch by 15 inches long bars at about a 55 degree angle. These bars, right under the edger saws, were spaced about a half inch apart. (Imagine your anti kickback fingers with every second finger missing)The suction box was right behind these slats/bars/fingers. The chunks would slide down the 55 degree slope into a bin  below the slats and the sawdust would get sucked thru the spaces between the slats. Worked slick.

[Crusarius]

Would it be worthwhile to add a small "grinder" at the exit? Could be something as simple as a rotating wheel with squares cut out.

[tmbrcruiser]

Same problem here. I have a 10' vertical rise in first leg of the duct, so spikes seem to raddle around in this pipe and drop when the blower is shut down. With the flex hose connection to the edger it is a simple thing to open the clamp and remove the spikes that make it to the duct. Inside the edger is another thing. Have a long wand attachment to the air compressor hose and (while edger is shut down and blower is running) I can reach in thought the small openings and help the dust to move. By the time spikes need to be cleaned out the edger is due for grease and I am able to remove the spikes at that time. Not great system but it works. 

[Just Right]

YH  For the life of me I can't remember what kind of edger you have.  I have been looking and may have found one myself.  So I am interested in how you fix this problem.

[Southside]

What about something along the lines of how peat moss is separated. The raw product has a lot of sticks and other debris so it is dropped in front of a cross fan which blows the fines to the side and lets the course drop. 

So maybe an open/ slanted bottom collector with a blower on one side and the suction on the other? Pickup the sticks from under the collector when finished. 

[YellowHammer]

It's a Baker 20 hp three phase, twin blade, twin laser with a lengthened outfeed belt and powered pinch roller to spit the board onto a conveyor.  Very nice and fast machine.  

I see how the dust box with the grizzly bars would work.  I'll try to mock one up.  

I will also try South Side Loggers approach, I have a two hp blower I'm not using, which may work as a separator blower.  We edge a lot of wood with this thing, much of it kiln dried, and are doing thousands of bdft at a session, so clogging up the system is a pain, and slows things down.  Two days ago, I clogged up the main feed to the big blower and when I pulled the main trunk line pipe pipe and got it flowing it sprayed sawdust all over me, like I was in blizzard.  What a mess.  I need to do better.  

[paul case]

I use a ear corn conveyor. It has a ''funnel'' on the down end of it and I have a skirt hooked to the machine that makes everything go in the funnel. It isnt clog proof but we have been using it for a couple years and it works pretty slick. It goes too fast so I only run it every 6 or 8 boards. The out end of it is outside the building and is held up by a wooden stand in the middle of it. 2hp motor runs it. Bought mine at a farm sale for 25 bucks and motor cost $159. The last 2 hp blower I bought for the mill was over $300.

PC

[YellowHammer]

I hadn't thought of that.  Lots of cotton gins and seed and feed places that use seed conveyors around here.  Maybe a screw feed like for a silo.  I'll have to look around.  Looks like I have a few options.  

[tmbrcruiser]

YH, we have the same edger. Great machine with one issue. I'll be looking forward to hearing about your solution.

[paul case]

Mine actually has a flat square link chain with paddles on it. I used a square bale hay conveyor that just has spike teeth before and it worked, but not as well as this. we modified it with sheet metal on each side of the chain but it never had much of a funnel on the end. it ran slower so we ran it all the time we were edging.

PC

[moodnacreek]

I have seen a small auger running flat in the sawdust box bringing everything out to another box with the blower intake there. It would leave the sticks and vacuum the saw dust.