quick description
- Woodstock W1049 Dust Separator
- Price: $20.00
- Construction: Single piece of injection molded ABS
- 4″ inlet and outlet
- Intended use: small/medium wood shops. For use with a 20-21″ diameter metal waste can or the like.
introduction
Dust collection and handling is a large part of the safe operation of any wood shop…small or large. We’re always looking ways to make our dust collection systems more efficient and/or lower maintenance.
Adding a dust separator before your dust collection, effectively removing the bulk of the dust and chips from the air stream, can dramatically extend the intervals between filter cleaning and maintenance, and the need to empty the final dust collection bag. Effectively, adding a dust separator to your single stage dust collector turns it in to a 2-stage dust collection system.
Of course, cost is a important factor in choosing any piece of shop equipment. We all want to get the biggest bang for the buck, so when there’s a budget option for what would otherwise be a relatively expensive piece of equipment, the budget option can be very attractive. For reference, the Super Dust Deputy 4/5 Cyclone (without fittings) is $180, where the Woodstock W1049 is $20.00. At approximately 1/10 the price of a Dust Deputy, there’s little to lose in giving it a try.
review
I’ll start by saying that if I knew installing and ultimately modifying the dust separator (ominous foreshadowing) was going to be so involved, I would have taken a lot more photos along the way, and probably made a few videos. Unfortunately I don’t have images of several of the interim steps that were made before the final modifications.
The design of the W1049 is relatively simple; a single piece of injection molded ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene) plastic, with a 4″ inlet and outlet intended to be connected to a dust collection hose and dust collector.
The obvious difference between this and just about any other dust separator is that most dust separators have a tangential inlet, and a center outlet. The placement of the two creates a cyclonic action inside the separator, which pushes the dust and chips to the outside of the receptacle where they fall out of the air-stream.
In the case of the W1049, the inlet and outlet are placed opposite of each other, and angled slightly downward with a divot between the two which would be assumed to be used to separate the inlet and outlet air streams. It should be noted that the image on the label shows the same cyclonic air movement inside that you would expect from a traditional dust separator.
Another discrepancy you might notice with the dust separator when you open the box is between the description of the product on the manufacturer and various web sites that sell this product, and the description on the label; “Dust Collection Separator” vs. “Removes large chips before entering separator”. This is an important difference, as the job or a dust separator and chip separator are very different.
Configuration 1 – (almost) no modification
So once again I’ll apologize that I didn’t take any pictures before I started to modify this dust separator as initially I didn’t think the experience would be worth posting about.
Out of the box, the only modifications I made was the addition of a strip of closed-foam weather stripping along the bottom of the dust separator so that it made a good seal to the top of the metal garbage can, and I cemented in a couple of 4″ sleeves to the inlet and outlet so it would connect to the piping of my dust collection system. As is, the separator is designed so that you can just thread flex-hose in to the inlet and outlet.
After everything was connected, I tested the separator but planing a pine board through my DeWalt DW735X planer. Keeping an eye on the collection bag on my dust collector, I’d estimate that about 70% of the dust and shavings ended-up deflected in to the garbage can by the W1049. The issue was that after I was done planing and before turning off the dust collector, I noticed that there was a decent trickle of chips still entering the dust collector bag, and even waiting a while, the stream of chips/dust didn’t stop.
Disconnecting the piping and removing the separator from the garbage can (chip receptacle), it was obvious what the problem was; instead of creating a vortex in the receptacle allowing the chips/dust to settle to the bottom, the downward angle of the incoming air stream creates turbulence that reaches all the way to the bottom of the can, which slowly scoops-up the debris in the bottom and allows it to reach the outlet and the dust collector. Leaving the dust collector running eventually causes all of the chips/dust in the separator to be pulled in to the dust collector bag.
Configuration 2 – Thien Cyclone Separator Baffle
So, not satisfied with the out-of-the-box performance, I decided to try and improve the separator so that it would leave the dust/chips on the bottom of the can instead of pulling everything in to the dust collector. My initial solution was to make a crude Thien Baffle and see if that would allow the dust stream to setting to the bottom of the can. My baffle consisted of a scrap piece of plywood cut with my jigsaw to fit the can with three legs to support it…about 10 minutes of work.
While definitely an improvement as the baffle now allowed chips/dust to settle to the bottom of the can forming a (mostly) even mound of debris, a fair amount of dust and chips were still making it in to the dust collector. The issue now is from the basic design of this dust/chip separator, which the inlet and outlet are placed opposite each other. The dust stream from the inlet simply doesn’t have enough time to drop in to the can before being captured by the air stream out of the separator and in to the dust collector. The inlet and outlet sit about 120 degrees from each other around the perimeter of the separator, so chips/dust have very little time to drop out of the air stream.
Configuration 3 – center exhaust w/ thien baffle
My ultimate solution to modify the W1049 was to take a 4″ hold saw, cut a hole in the center of the unit, and add a 4″ dust port to connect the dust collector piping to. By moving the outlet to the center of the dust/chip seperator, my intention was to create a vortex inside the seperator which would allow the cipps/dust settle out of the air stream and not get sucked in to my dust collector. I used a piece of clear polycarboinate to block-off the outlet, which also gave me a window to see what was going on inside while the dust collector was running.
Total time to cut the new opening and add the 4″ dust port was about 20 minutes. I sealed the fitting with some white RTV and let it set overnight.
So how does the 3rd configuration work? Passably. Without getting out scales to weigh piles of sawdust, I’d say the W1049 now captures 85% of the chips and dust, which is certainly better than nothing.
conclusion
So, knowing what I know now, would I have purchased the W1049? While experimenting with with this was fun, in the end when you add up time spent, depending on how you value your time, purchasing a mainstream dust separator probably would have been the way to go. If you’re not prepared to make some significant modifications to this, then I wouldn’t’ suggest it at all.
references
- Woodstock web site – W1049 large dust collection separator
- Creative Mechanisms – Everything you need to know about ABS plastic
- J. Phil Thien – Thien Baffle
- Rockler – 4″ Universal Dust Port