As some folks know, my old sawdust removal system wasn't very optimized as it consisted of blowing some of the sawdust into an old grain wagon and the rest everywhere else. I fill this thing up about once a week, and emptying is always a time consuming chore, basically lifting it off the ground and shaking with my tractor.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/21488/image~66.jpg)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/21488/image~85.jpg)
So here's the new sawdust bin, version 2.0. Its an old 1981 F600 beat up grain truck, with a decent engine and good dump bed. It only was run a couple trips a year in the fall to sell harvested grain, and the farmer I bought it from told me it had a "new" clutch, installed only 10 years ago. ;D. It also has a broom stick for a gas gauge, nothing in the dash works except the tach and the oil pressure gauge, and I could go ice fishing through the rust holes in the floor board. :D. The hydraulics are strong, and it cranks right up, whether it's in gear or not. ;D I got it for less than the price of a load of logs, so figured, what the heck. It even had a half a tank of fuel. What a deal!
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/21488/image~11.jpeg)
Anyway, I was faced with the expense of having to buy many thousands of dollars of dirt and gravel for the pad of the new HHAWH, (Hobby Hardwood Alabama World Headquarters) 8) and seeing as I have a gravel pit on the farm, as well as a lot of dirt, I figured if I could get the truck to last long enough to haul and dump a few loads, I could make it break even, or just break :D, pretty fast. Then I would retire it and park it under the sawdust chute, and have a self dumping sawdust hopper. 8)
So with nothing further invested in it than a can of WD40 to loosen things up a bit, I was able to haul dump several loads of dirt yesterday.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/21488/image~9.jpeg)
Most of the blue smoke stopped coming out of the exhaust pipe on the third load, and pretty soon, I was gear jamming and having fun with the non synchronous gears. Who knew I couldn't down shift to first without coming to a stop? I was able to figure out the two speed rear end, in large part, by reading the bouncing, blurry instructions printed on the sun visor as I was creeping up the hills in low gear.
All in all, a lot of fun, and hopefully a quicker way to get rid of my sawdust.
She will serve you well for years.
Good one. 8)
Very cool! Be careful, I watched dump truck fails on YouTube after I bought mine and they just about scared the death out of me. A lot of people working with wet dirt seem to get in trouble with them.
Hobby Hardwood Alabama World Headquarters? Build it and they will come ;D.
That's a Cadillac compared to a few I've had to drive. ;D
I'd bet a dollar it gets used for more than your sawdust.
best thing is all you have to do is just dump it to change from sawdust to whatever you need to haul :)
YH,
Congrats on the "new" truck (and a certain recent football game we won't mention here). I am sure it will serve you well and when finally worn out you can always convert it into a pulpwood truck.
Thats a dandy! not just a one show pony there,
That is multi-tasking in the truest form. smiley_thumbsup
Someone asked me if my (old) sawmill engine always smoked like that? I replied; "only when it is running". ;D
HECK YEA ON THE DUMP TRUCK !! 8)
Up north here in the salt country we us old stop and street signs for new floor boards. they will out last the truck LOL :D Nice truck Should make life easier
Quote from: YellowHammer on January 19, 2016, 11:57:35 PM
<<snip>>
Most of the blue smoke stopped coming out of the exhaust pipe on the third load, and pretty soon, I was gear jamming and having fun with the non synchronous gears. Who knew I couldn't down shift to first without coming to a stop? I was able to figure out the two speed rear end, in large part, by reading the bouncing, blurry instructions printed on the sun visor as I was creeping up the hills in low gear.
All in all, a lot of fun, and hopefully a quicker way to get rid of my sawdust.
Did you check the oil after the smoke stopped? :D Nice truck - I could use one about now...
Quote from: ljohnsaw on January 20, 2016, 11:26:01 PM
Quote from: YellowHammer on January 19, 2016, 11:57:35 PM
<<snip>>
Most of the blue smoke stopped coming out of the exhaust pipe on the third load, and pretty soon, I was gear jamming and having fun with the non synchronous gears. Who knew I couldn't down shift to first without coming to a stop? I was able to figure out the two speed rear end, in large part, by reading the bouncing, blurry instructions printed on the sun visor as I was creeping up the hills in low gear.
All in all, a lot of fun, and hopefully a quicker way to get rid of my sawdust.
Did you check the oil after the smoke stopped? :D Nice truck - I could use one about now...
:D :D I remember looking out the window, at the big blue cloud coming out of the pipe, and saying, "Oh well, trashed that one..." but I climbed down, cracked the hood, pulled out the duct taped handled dipstick, and was mildly surprised to actually see oil on the mark. So, I just kept keeping on, checked it again later and no problems and no smoke.
Quote from: YellowHammer on January 19, 2016, 11:57:35 PM
... Who knew I couldn't down shift to first without coming to a stop? ...
To downshift -- push in the clutch, shift into neutral, release the clutch, rev the engine, push in the clutch, shift into first, release the clutch.
It'll work perfectly the first time you try it ... because by the time you've done all that you'll have rolled to a stop by the time you get to the "shift into first" bit :D :D.
As you get better at the sequence, you will continue to grind the gears. The trick is to figure out (from the engine noise) what speed the engine should be running when it's in first. Then rev the engine to that speed when you're in neutral with the clutch released. That gets the gears moving to the speed they'll be at when you shift.
It takes a bit of practice, but after a while you'll have no trouble downshifting into first "on the fly".
Once you've mastered that little art, the next challenge is to shift without using the clutch at all. Seriously.
What Brucer says, and called "double clutching" in my day. Even helps when going up in the gears..
YH, that 2 speed rear axle may have a gotcha that can bite you. The later models have a small electric actuator which works fine. The older models used a vacuum pot to shift to high range and a spring to return to low range. These can bite if you roll to a stop, leave the rear axle in high range and shut the engine down. After a bit, the vacuum will leak down, allowing the spring to try to shift to low range. There's a spot between where the gears will drop into neutral, hope you didn't stop on a hill. ;D I saw one pulpwood hauler who pulled into a service station, left it in high range and went inside the building. Came back out to find his truck (loaded) in a creek at the bottom of the hill. :o
drove trucks all my life, maybe not one like that but never used the clutch except stopping and taking off.
xlogger
Know what you mean.. been there, done that too. ;D
Ice fishing in Alabama? I'll bet that would be interesting ;D
That will be handier then shirt pocket
Some great tips, you guys, for sure, thanks. Brucer, I laughed when I read your post, because when I tried the double clutch thing a few days ago, that's exactly what happened, I rolled to a stop before I knew it. So you guys who did this for real, what is the advantage of clutchless shifting? Better control, faster, easier, etc?
Piney, I would consider that an "IMPORTANT SAFETY TIP" so thanks for that. Mine has an electric actuator, but either way I've got a lot to learn about the old girl.
Today, I bought a couple $50 used steer tires as one of mine is a retread that I just noticed was starting to separate. I believe its illegal to run them on the fronts, anyway. I also splurged and bought 8 brand new spark plugs, and a new air filter, as the old one was black with mold.
After I got all the luxury items installed except the tires, I took it out for a spin on our gravel road and tried a little clutch less shifting. Lets just say, I've got a little practicing to do.
I spent many a summer driving a '73 F-600 with a 4spd tranny and 2spd rear end from the age of 12 on up. my job to keep it under the combine auger to unload on the fly. Once ya get the hang of those gears you can float em in your sleep. ;D
After you get use to the gears. Try going down a hill in gear, turn your key off for a few seconds then turn it back on. Then go back and pick up your muffler out of the road, if it is still worth having. You'll get a bang out of it!
Double clutching is simply a way to match the speed of the gears that are about to mesh. You can do it shifting up or down, but it isn't necessary with "synchronized" gear sets. A lot of manual transmissions in the 50's and 60's didn't have synchronized 1st gear or reverse gear.
Don't try the clutchless shifting until you've mastered double clutching.
I learned to drive an 8000 lb homemade forklift when I was 12. Four speeds forward, four speeds in reverse, none of the gears synchronized. You had to pump the brake pedal 8 times before the brakes would grab. That's how I learned to double clutch. (passing my drivers test 4 years later was a breeze ;D).
The only reason I did clutchless shifting was to show off (when I was in my teens).
I did use it on one occasion when our next door neighbour was trying to get his car to the repair shop after the clutch linkage broke. I had to start the car in first gear and kill the engine at the stop lights. I probably wrecked his starter but was pleased as anything.
Nice upgrade on the sawdust collection 8)
I found a '69 dump that had been a beer truck in its first go round. Run the blower exhaust through the little door in the tailgate. I can fill the bed in a day if I am jointing/planing all day. The bed in my truck had been hammered by hauling scrap stone from the quarries so it is scalloped and has a couple small holes. When the sawdust is wet it can be a pain to dump. Still better than the small wagon I started with.
Have fun and stay safe :)
It finally happened, my old dump truck finally gave up on me. The brakes didn't work, the head gasket was spraying water (I'm pretty sure it's not supposed to do that), the tires were leaking, the throwout bearing on the clutch was squealing, the fuel pump was dripping gas onto the ground and it needed new windshield wipers. :D. Other than that, it was runnng fine.
Here's a picture I took the other evening, a little white smoke never hurt anything. So I called a man and she's gone.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/21488/IMG_1212.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1518149425)
I am experimenting with a self dumping hopper for sawdust collection. I figure it's like a dump truck, just no mechanical stuff to break down. So first thing I did was plop it on the ground and blow the sawdust in it. With the big Timberking blower, the sawdust was blown in, then immediately blown out. No dice.
So I remember I had an old Grizzly dust collector in the shed and went and got the centrifuge part and mounted it on a piece of plywood and tried that. I put the whole contraption on an old flatbed trailer, and it worked OK but still had a lot of sawdust blowing out, spraying everywhere. To much airflow from the blower. Nice thing is that I'm using wood planks to mock things up, so I can change configuration fairly quickly.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/21488/IMG_1227.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1518149449)
Well, on to plan D or F or whatever. I moved the bin to the ground, and slid the centrifuge to the other side in the bin, and covered all the open holes by moving some wood around in it. Jammed an old tarp to into some holes, the slid one of the top boards open a little to provide a vent on the other end of the bin. It actually started working. I had an old bag that was open on the bottom and tied it to the top of the centrifuge, and I started capturing about 95% of the sawdust. Eureka. About the only stuff coming out was the very fine dust through the dust bag.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/21488/IMG_1229.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1518149461)
So I'll keep tweaking it, and when and if I get it like I want, I'll weld up a hinged bin top out of metal and steel plate instead of wooden planks.
I'm still not sure this is the best way, though, seems if I make a tripod and hang the centrifuge under it, the dust should just spin out and fall in to the bin. Then I wouldn't have to unhook the hose every time I need to empty the bin.
Or maybe I can try...., :D
Any suggestions are welcome.
Windshield wipers are cheap. ;D :D
YH -
Does your cyclone have an outlet on the top and a baffle inside? I ask because I am installing one for a customer who is finishing up a pretty high end wood shop right now. The dust collector is powered by a 15hp 3 phase motor and has a 16" main trunk so she moves a lot of air, and the cyclone is set up like I described above. This unit is on a pedestal, the outlet being about 2' above the top of the collection bin with a large air and water deflector on the very top that looks like a giant exhaust stack from a semi. We made a very simple removable box to go between the bottom of the cyclone and the bin top to keep the wind and such from blowing any around as this place needs to stay very clean. The cyclone is about 7' tall itself, by the time the dust reaches the bottom of the unit it just drops into the bin as the air blows out of the exhaust stack. I will see if I can get a photo of it for you.
Yes, outlet air goes out the top and the sawdust spins around and drops through the bottom. Its a pretty simple design, it has a tangential inlet and it has a baffle ring or a ledge of metal that is a couple inches from the top edge to keep the dust from rising out of the top.
I'd like to see a photo of your cyclone.
Here is the big brother to it that we based the install on. This one is about twice the size. A dumpster bin sits under the whole thing and it really does not loose anything as the dust has plenty of time to loose any speed falling through the square unit under the cyclone.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/34297/f082140524510c9508ecb8a66959fb26b0381bf7-1S_1280.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1518316544)
I think Jeff just recently posted something about "tangential" stuff..l.l :D
That's what I would like to get to, park the bin under the cyclone and empty when full. So, is the square unit under the cyclone a necessity of would it work without it? I wonder where I could buy a cyclone instead of having to build it
Basically that is a chamber that gives the dust time to slow down and free fall into the collection bin rather than still have velocity to it. On the one we are finishing up that box became about 2' tall as this blower is pushing about 1/3rd the volume of the one in the photo. I seem to remember you saying you have a blower that is about the size of the one I have at my place - 5hp? So it would not need a giant unit.
I just looked at e-bay and found a number of used ones, $1,500 - $2,500 some come with the blower, motor, and all for that price. One thing to keep in mind - with setups like this you can get material bridging in the unit so sometimes you need to put a Vibco vibrating motor on it to knock the bridges down.
I'm a bit late on this one Yellowhammer but i would have ditched the truck save the dump and frame. You could box the frame add a hitch and run it with your remotes from your tractor.
I think that model truck should have synchromesh tranny but most likely shot due to past abuse, a synchromesh tranny is harder to double clutch without grinding than one without synchro's. Steve
A cyclone separator shouldn't need that lower box under it. I've worked in a couple of shops where we were running blowers set up like Southside's pic and had grain side dump trucks with a plywood top under just the cyclone. We had a canvas tube from the bottom of the cyclone down through a hole in the lid of the truck. From Dave Gingery's "How to Design and Build Centrifugal Fans for the Home Shop" he also shows how to build a cyclone. There are some critical dimensions he mentions. The main body of the cyclone should be 4x the inlet dia, The top outlet is 2x the inlet. The lower cone section is as tall as the main body diameter. The rectangular tangent inlet is the same cross sectional area as the inlet pipe. The lower outlet dia is not critical but needs to be large enough to avoid bridging. There is nothing inside, the ones I've been around are hollow. The dust spins around the outside, loses velocity and drops out the bottom into the dump, the clean air at reduced speed and pressure goes out the top.
Quote from: slider on February 11, 2018, 01:00:21 PM
I'm a bit late on this one Yellowhammer but i would have ditched the truck save the dump and frame. You could box the frame add a hitch and run it with your remotes from your tractor.
I didn't think of that, but I got an offer I couldn't refuse on the truck. The deal was that if the engine was running and it was generally in one piece, they would actually pay me money for it. :D.
If it wasn't running, or in several pieces (the guy noticed the frame had a wee bit of a crack in it, where someone else's decades old poorly welded splice plate had broken loose and was causing a little camel back sag) I would have to pay them money to haul it off. :D
So to quote what Martha told the guy, "Deal!"
Don P, good info. I sure would like to go to a setup where I'm not spraying or leaking sawdust in the grand. The dump truck worked a lot better than the original trailer, but now, I'd like to get to a cleaner, better system.
I can't believe you got rid of your dump truck because you didn't want to change the windshield wipers!! :D :D
Is your main 6" dia? If it is, for $239, buy a Super Dust Deputy XL from Oneida and put it on the end of your pipe to make a quick set up like Southside posted. It would be cheap and quick. Keep it as high as possible and run a pipe down from the bottom to your bin, that will give more time and distance for the chips to slow down while hopefully most of the air will do out the top.
If you wanted a metal unit, Oneida makes and sells them as well, looks like they start around $900.
Only $170.00 on E-bay
K, I *think* that would be for the Super Dust Deputy, not the XL which has 6" ports. If it is for the XL, that's a good deal.
One the Oneida website it says these must be used on intake side with a sealed catch unit. Can they be used on the exhaust side like Southside's photo with no seal, or are the exhaust mounted units a different configuration?
Southsides photo has the fan on the inlet side of the cyclone, the chips pass through the fan. You can mount the fan on the exhaust side of the cyclone (the intake side of the fan), up top where the large exhaust elbow is on Southside's unit, it is easier on the impeller to move clean air so you can use a lighter impeller with quieter blade geometry BUT you can push further than you can pull, in that configuration I doubt a top mounted fan would pull up to the inlet of that cyclone reliably. You need a sealed container if the fan is up top on the exhaust side, otherwise it won't know not to pull air from your dust bin. If the chips pass through the fan you need a good radial impeller that can take hits from knots, hats, cats and the occasional Johnson paste wax can.
the occasional Johnson paste wax can....
There's got to be more to that story....
:D They will just fit inside a loose 6" flex tube. I had the can on a molder bed I had just waxed and had pulled the tube off one of the side heads to do something. The tube came down on the can and woosh, it was gone. For whatever reason I ran down the shop hearing the can bouncing above me till it hit the fan. I looked in the truck and found a beat up can, and a fan blade, bummer! Floor sweeps, although very convenient, can really pick up junk and deliver it to the fan, just something to think about.
Some fan stuff I thought about last night, volume is determined mostly by impeller width, pressure by diameter. You can play with speed if the fan is belt and pulley driven where if it is direct drive you cannot. That runs out if the basic sizes are not right though. You can tune a little more by adjusting the cutoff gap between the impeller and the scroll shaped case where the exhaust flow is directed out BUT tightening that gap mostly creates a lot more noise than improvement.
Since my Timberking blower has all the dust and chips pass through it and is already mounted and plumbed, I'd need to mount the cyclone on the exhaust of the blower, right on top of my bin so the chios would fall into it.
I'm worried about how tight I need to make the bin so the airflow from the cyclone goes up and out instead of down and into the chip bin, similar to when I just pointed the bare hose into the bin and "Whoosh" the chips were all blown out by the airflow. When I put the Grizz cyclone segment part on the hose, I still needed to put boards over the bin to keep the air going up and chips going down. I'm hoping the cyclone would do better. I guess I could install a blast gate on the bottom of the cyclone to adjust the chip hole to force more of the air up the cyclone instead of down, but that might cause clogs.
I guess I need to just buy one and play with it.
I've seen a lot of cyclones emptying into bins and airflow out the bottom was never a huge issue, not even with planer shavings. Yes there was a little bit of airborne debris floating around, but not enough to be a big issue.
That gives me encouragement. Do you know a brand or internal configuration?
I called Oneida and they said due to thier special internal configuration (I don't know what's so special) they said theirs would not work unless sealed. Maybe they've never tried it?
You could put a rotary air lock from Oneida on the bottom of the cyclone, but that is a good chunk of change.
Most cyclones in my experience have had no internal configuration. What you saw from the outside was what you saw the other side of on the inside. The only exception to that was a huge thing with a 2 ½' inlet it had filters and a paddle valve on the bottom, vibrators, and a filter cleaning system. If I recall correctly, it was manufactured by Carter Day. For what you need, simple is better. I've seen good cyclones for sale on Craigslist and eBay. No internal configuration is what you want IMHO.
Exactly, if you are pushing into the cyclone the bottom does not need to be sealed. You're fine.
The Oneida is pulling through the cyclone in their pics, notice the fan is always sucking out of the top. If you suck through the cyclone rather than blowing into it the bin has to be sealed so it pulls from the main tube rather than up through the bottom of the cyclone.
Welcome to the world of plugged dust piping . I will be busy that day but thanks for asking anyway . HEHEHE .
Oneida tech support called, and they said they had an empty interior cyclone like you guys are talking about, but for a thousand bucks! :o
That's a lot of logs to saw for a tapered hunk of pipe. I could buy another fine dump truck for that.
Maybe time to get scrounging and building my own. Sounds like a fun project. Or I may order the EBay ones. I just threw out a big 500 lb cyclone seed spreader with a busted gearbox. It would have made a perfect funnel.
Quote from: Don P on February 13, 2018, 06:34:41 PM
Exactly, if you are pushing into the cyclone the bottom does not need to be sealed. You're fine.
The Oneida is pulling through the cyclone in their pics, notice the fan is always sucking out of the top. If you suck through the cyclone rather than blowing into it the bin has to be sealed so it pulls from the main tube rather than up through the bottom of the cyclone.
I have an 3hp Oneida cyclone in my wood shop and what Don says is correct. There's suction in the cyclone. My barrel is connected to the bottom of the cyclone with flexible ducting. When it's less than 1/4 full the suction lifts it off the ground. System doens't work if the bottom of the cyclone isn't sealed. I've heard the big ones that dump from the cyclone into a bin have some sort of fancy rotating gate that allows the sawdust to dump while still holding a vacuum.
Alan
I am planning a future dust collection system and I have a question?
do any of you have problems with saw dust freezing in colder weather?
Scott
Yes! it freezes pretty quick too. A good reason not to saw when it real cold.
I can see the look on my wife face when I tell her can't saw today to cold saw dust mite freeze.
How cold are we talking 20-30 or blow 20 degrees.
yesterday a 5 I was having to pry the boards off the cant.
Scott
Around minus 10C is about as low as iu like to go.
I don't like to go much below +15F myself :D.
I've wondered whether a small feed bin wouldn't be close enough to make a tolerable cyclone.
Last June I was @DGK (http://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=7833) in Whitehorse, Yukon and he was shooting the chips from his Logosol molder into a shipping container.
I'm thinking he must have fashioned some kind of vent for it.
I have no idea how he empties it maybe he can enlighten us.
Gerald
YM that truck has the electric split shifter and is a sycro trany except for 1st gear, for a reason. After your outa 1st and rolling you should be able to shift without the clutch. If your on a soft surface should probably use the clutch any way.
In my travels i see cyclones laying around. Feed mills use them alot. They replace them as the grain and or dust is hard on them and they change them out. Scrap yards may have one or will keep one for you when one shows up. With a filter on top and a sealed bin it would just be a larger version of the shop dust collectors. I cam accross a company that makes bag filters any size and for any kind of applications . Will see if i can find them.
Quote from: YellowHammer on February 14, 2018, 10:25:41 AM
......Maybe time to get scrounging and building my own. Sounds like a fun project........I just threw out a big 500 lb cyclone seed spreader with a busted gearbox. It would have made a perfect funnel.
if i had your skills i would build one.
could you dumpster-dive and get that spreader back, or enough sheet metal to build one?
i also want to build a setup like SlowJoeCrow's Whole Shop Stationary Dust Collector
Whole Shop Stationary Dust Collector in General Woodworking (http://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=96516.msg1490315;topicseen#top)
and include collection for my Timberking 2000 and Multitek 1610EZ
Quote from: rjwoelk on February 16, 2018, 12:47:48 PM
With a filter on top and a sealed bin it would just be a larger version of the shop dust collectors. I cam accross a company that makes bag filters any size and for any kind of applications . Will see if i can find them.
Let me try it a different way :).
If you blow into a cyclone that is outside you don't need a sealed bin, nor do you need a filter.
If you suck out of the top of a cyclone, you need a sealed bin.
There is a molding shop near me that has a sizeable dust system, 25 hp. The bin is a three story affair that he can park a truck under. There is a huge cyclone on top with an elbow on it to keep the rain out. The sawdust loses velocity in the cyclone, and the particles drop out the bottom.
Yellowhammer, have you settled on what kind of container you will be using? (dump trailer, dumpster, etc)?
Once you do that, make it air tight or mostly airtight with a 6" or 8" circular flange on the top. Then get a cyclone, mount it permanently to your outlet pipe and attach flex hose from the bottom of the cyclone to the top of your bin. That way its airtight, no chips flying everywhere, and all you have to do is disconnect the flex hose when you want to empty the container. The exhaust will go out the top of the cyclone and it will be what you want.
My $0.02.
Cyclones give nightmares
Anybody up for a good Sawmill\cyclone story tonight. :D
I have been watching for years for a cyclone. That's one thing
I have not found in the junkyard.
Sometime in the fall of the early 1980s my father went to a sawmill auction in Maplesville and purchased a large cyclone. Sawmill auctions were usually on Saturday. I was around 27-28 y.o.. The next Saturday he sent me and our truck driver to retrieve our new used cyclone. Maplesville is just off the 4 lane road that connects Tuscaloosa and Montgomery. We loaded the cyclone on the flatbed trailer. My father had measured to make sure it would be under 13'6", the lowest clearance on the return back to Slocomb. We measured after we loaded – 13'5". We headed home about 2:30 pm. This is a picture of a bridge similar to the bridge on the east bound lane. It had a big sign minimum clearance 13'6".
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/36609/Image2~2.jpg)(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/36609/Image1~1.jpg)
As we approached the bridge I could see that it was close, so I hung out the window just in case. We were creeping across the bridge, there wasn't hardly any traffic. We cleared the first rung with the expected 1" maybe more. The second rung just touched. The third rung caused the cyclone to tip back a bit and went under. The 4th rung was clearly going to be 4" too low.
About then the Alabama Football game was over in Tuscaloosa. It became apparent where all the traffic was. We had traffic backed up 5 miles. Every state trooper for 50 miles around was there. Thank god he was a great truck driver. The troopers backed and lined cars in one lane. We had 2' clearance for an 18 wheeler to back a mile to the first median. The troopers had a word of prayer with us, but at the end of the day after a lot of measuring we were legal. Over the years the bridge had sagged I guess. We went back to Maplesville and unloaded. We sent a lowboy back the next weekend.
That's a story I'm glad I didn't have to be in.
I filled the dumpster and have emptied and reloaded. So the system I've got rigged works OK, but it takes too long to empty and frankly, looks stupid. :D
I have to pull all the boards off the top, pull the centrifuge off, disconnect the hose, and then I can carry it off and dump it.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/21488/IMG_1229.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1518149461)
Since I'm on the exhaust side, I don't need a vacuum seal, just need something like what Dave and Don are talking about. Big cyclone I can park the dumpster under, no physical,connection between the two, and when it's full, grab it and dump it.
Got the smaller version completed and run today. Had to adjust the cyclone height a bit due to a door issue so the bottom of it sits about 8' in the air, nothing under or around it yet, planed about 200 BFT of smiley_devil and the fall out was about 8' x 8' on the ground. The shavings do come out of the bottom still with some swirl.
I would have left most of the air out of my tires or tied down my suspension springs
to the frame.
Southside, do you have a picture? Are you building the components?
I will get you some pictures. We finished it up last night at 7:00 PM, just in time for his upcoming ribbon cutting, it's a really nice place. We didn't build it from scratch, rather salvage and modify.
Looks stupid to me Yellowhammer. :o
What hp is the motor?
It's a 5 horse Timberking/Woodmaster. It will handle the sawmill and the planer or SLR at the same time, so two people can be working simultaneously. Pretty much hands off, except the DanG things keeps filling everything up with chips. :D :D
Hoever, every time I looks at it, I am torn between the fact that the self dumping hopper/Grizzly centrifuge/duct tape Frankenstein looks totally "inelegant" but works surprisingly well except for the having to dismantle it to remove and dump the chips.
I can rebuild it, I can make it better. ;D
Quote from: YellowHammer on February 17, 2018, 08:40:36 PM
However, every time I looks at it, I am torn between the fact that the self dumping hopper/Grizzly centrifuge/duct tape Frankenstein looks totally "inelegant" .........
Maybe you should read Magicman thread on customers impressions and get your place "elegantnated". :D :D :D
Quote from: POSTON WIDEHEAD on February 17, 2018, 09:13:05 PM
Quote from: YellowHammer on February 17, 2018, 08:40:36 PM
However, every time I looks at it, I am torn between the fact that the self dumping hopper/Grizzly centrifuge/duct tape Frankenstein looks totally "inelegant" .........
Maybe you should read Magicman thread on customers impressions and get your place "elegantnated". :D :D :D
I know exactly what you mean.
"Daddy, this truck looks terrible, why don't we get a new one like all the other builders"
"Son, its about making a good impression. People see this truck and know we are a low overhead operation"
If you do want to make a cyclone I've got layout directions, or, if you have a copy of Foxfire or know anyone who happens to um, as the old timers would say, farm in the woods. Layout is in Foxfire under how to build a still. It's always good to be cross trained.
Thanks for the offer, I will send a PM.
need to make the top one piece and hinge it with some strong hood struts. Then you can just pivot it up out of the way grab the bin go dump and then reset.
I've been working on the sawdust collection and finally have it just about dialed in. I ended up buying a cyclone only from Oneida, and welded up a bracket and mounted it to my barn. Oneida said their cyclone wasn't designed for this type of thing, but should work, so I had to decrease the sawdust exhaust by 2 inches to get very good separation. Seems like the mod worked, 98% of the sawdust goes down the drop tube and almost no fines go out the top.
Here are some pics. (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/21488/IMG_1520.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1522812834)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/21488/IMG_1535.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1522812839)
I'm still working on the nozzle, and I need to build a roof for the bin but it shoots everything into the bin with virtually no overspray or spillage.
Remember, I started out with a straight pipe blowing the sawdust onto the ground into a pile. Then I switched to a dump trailer and dump truck sawdust going everywhere.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/21488/image~66.jpg)
Quite an improvement. ;D Maybe the grass will finally start growing.
That is mostly way more gooder! 8)
Just curious Robert, what made you think of reducing the inlet size?
Oneida had designed the cyclone with the their high pressure and low pressure pipes backward to how I was plumbing it, because they designed it as a vacuum system, and I was using it as a pressure system. To make it more complicated, its not a pure cyclone inside, it has a 2 foot long reverse tube inside that kind of threw me for a loop. In my system, the air was going to have to come into the exhaust inlet, spin out in the cyclone, go down a couple feet, then reverse directions and go vertical out the original inlet, which is now the exhaust. I knew I had to resize the inlet and exhaust to balance the back pressure and velocity in the orifice against the sawdust particle's drag and weight. So I went to Lowes and bought a bunch of duct reducers and started playing with it.
First run, half the air and sawdust geysered out of the bottom and the top. High airflow on both ends. Nope, not good, jt was snowing. Then I put on the 4 inch diameter reducer on the bottom, and the back pressure was too high and all the sawdust blew into the air from the top, and almost no air or sawdust from the bottom. I had choked it off too much, but I knew I had it whupped. So I tried the 6 inch reducer and 80% of the sawdust came out the bottom on a semi spiral from the cyclone, but it was still snowing from the sawdust being blown out the top. Then, I tried the 8 inch reducer, and magic, almost all the air was being forced out the top, and all sawdust was being centrifuged and spun out of the bottom. Thing of beauty, better than I had hoped. Heres a picture of the sawdust spiraling out the bottom, with very little airflow, almost like sand dropping out of an hourglass. It just hits the bottom of the bin and piles up, doesn't even blow out the top. I'm a happy camper.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/21488/IMG_1522.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1522812994)
What's with the circle sawn lumber on the hopper? I thought you were an ORANGE man! :D
Looking good
Good eyes! Ain't that somethin? Here I am with a band mill and a reputation for high grade lumber and I get some "sample" circle sawn poplar from a mill who's trying to get me to start buying from him, and the only thing its worth using for is bin boards and dog house wood. I wouldn't sell it to my customers, but I didn't want to burn it, and I didn't need any more pallets. :D I'm always trying out new sources, but most just don't pan out. Look how much wane is on the top boards, and how much bow and its just ordinary, easy poplar. I'm glad the boards have the circle marks because otherwise you guys would think I'd sawn it!
I would bet it was cut into some form of a cant and then went through a gang saw. I was standing in the cab of another sawmill today watching them run a end dog scrag mill. Great machine for what it does but it is sawing ties and pallet lumber. Totally different markets.
Good looking and working set up you built there.
I know you already have a solution now. I was riding down one of the back streets in Slocomb, Al. Were I live and saw this. I haven't been down that street in 20 years. This thread popped into my head. It's been sitting there 40 years. That's how long the gin it belongs to has been out of operation. Anyway if you want me to run down the owner PM me. It still looks to be in good shape other than surface rust.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/36609/Cyclone.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1522956428)
I you look at 173 South Morris Street, Slocomb, AL 36375 on Google Earth you can see another view of it. Just do street view.
I appreciate the thought, but I hopefully am done. This Oneida cyclone should handle a bigger blower if I ever upgrade, and after years, literally, of fighting with the mess, it feels good to finally have a solution.