As a way of background, in my former career I was involved with fluidized bed reactors that used cyclones to keep expensive, fine particle catalysts contained. My activities included cyclone design.
I am a huge proponent of cyclone dust collection for woodworking operations. I think it was a mistake to install the Felder as a first stage collection device, but that horse was already out of the gate before I joined DMS. (I’ll add a brief Felder history lesson at the end.)
I’m offering to help DMS add first stage cyclone collection as follows:
If Woodshop leadership sends me a set of minimum specs I am reasonably confident I can design a cyclone based dust collection system that would address these points:
- Take at least 90% of the debris load off the Felder filters & collection bins.
- Capture the cyclone solids discharge in plastic bags sized to hold a manageable weight of debris.
- Alert shop personnel when the bag is full and needs to be changed.
- And provided enough space is available, have the system automatically switch to a second bag after the first one fills.
- Cost friendly.
I can design, design & build, or design, build & install. Would guarantee to meet the mutually agreed to specs. Let me know if you want to pursue.
Felder History …
I’m adding this because there is an unfortunately large amount of mis-information about how the Felder came to be. It started sometime back in 2017 after the Fire Marshall required DMS to better capture woodshop dust. As part of the Fire Marshall conversation, he recommended DMS install a Felder system. There was much debate about size, cost, practicality of a Felder installation (see Talk and BOD discussions in 1Q2018). Eventually a system design was selected and approved for the Woodshop as it existed before the expansion plan came out. DMS made a significant down payment at the time of the order ($5000?). Then the Expansion became a thing which was going to require a significant ductwork redesign. Felder built the system but was requested by DMS to hold off on delivery until the expansion plan was finalized. Many iterations later (and still with no firm expansion plan), Felder issued an ultimatum: take delivery of the unit as initially designed or forfeit the deposit. A Woodshop Committee meeting somewhere in 1H2019 debated forfeiting the deposit versus accepting delivery. There was discussion about switching to cyclones in this meeting, but the fact that Felder was favored solution of the Fire Marshall carried the day. The BOD approved the balance of the purchase. Then just to keep things interesting Felder has the whole system delivered with zero warning on July 1, 2019. Getting it out of the Auto bay and stored somewhere was a circus. Then lots of discussion about the warranty period being wasted as it sat in boxes unused while expansion plans went in circles. At the next Woodshop Committee meeting, it was decided to cobble together a bare minimum installation in the existing Woodshop to: 1. make sure the unit worked, 2. get some relief from dust and noise of the old systems, 3. save as many of the specialty parts (auto gates, etc.) for whatever the post-expansion Woodshop turned out to be. This “minimum” installation took place in August 2019.
Memories being what they are, not a lot of folk remember the initial weeks of operation … quietest and cleanest Woodshop had been in a long time. (There was a major circus around Felder heat generation since the new gadget gets the blame, but turned out to be massive problems with the AC coils on the roof.)
HOWEVER, the expectation that the Felder could be the sole dust collector for the entire shop wasn’t reality. Many if not all the subsequent Felder problems originate from the mismatch of actual dust load versus capability. While the Felder would be a great polishing second stage device … it NEEDS a first stage system to grab the bulk of the load.
