Cyclone dust separator

I got the idea for this from a YouTube video by Ronald Walters. It works extremely well, keeping 99% of the dust out of the canister vacuum’s filter and with no loss in suction power. These instructions are for a canister vacuum using a 2” hose.

The first thing to do is order a 2 ½ to 2 ¼ reducer (part #0445 from Peachtree catalog). Also you’ll need three feet of 2 ½” flexible hose and two 2 ½” flexible hose clamps. You will also need a good 5-gallon bucket, two feet of Schedule 40 2” PVC, a 2” PVC street elbow, a tube of construction adhesive, some water based wood filler and 4 swivel casters.

The first thing to consider is the size hole to use at the bottom of the cyclone. In the assembly process you have to fit your hand up in the bottom to work inside the cyclone. My hand fit inside a 3” hole,so my dimensions are based on that. If you have a large hand you may want to adjust your dimensions accordingly, or get your wife to do that step.

First step is to cut at least 45 tapered strips of ¼” plywood, 13 ½” long. Taper them from ¼” at base to ½” at top. Cut one piece tapered ½” to ¾” in case you need it to make a custom fit for the last piece during assembly.

You will want to set your saw for a 1/8” taper in 13 ½” length. Flipping the plywood back and forth for each cut will give you a ¼” taper on each piece.

Then with a belt sander, bevel both sides of each piece a minimum of 3 degrees, taking a minimum of 1/64” off the inside of each piece. Don’t worry about beveling off too much. Too much is better than not enough.

Now it’s time to cut all of your circles. One of my favorite workshop helps is a “Jasper” circle guide attachment for a router.

Disc [1] Cut a 6 inch disc from ¾’ wood. From this disc cut a 3 ½” hole out of the center.

Disc [2] Cut a 3 inch disc from ¾’ wood. If you use a “Jasper” jig with a ¼” bit, this disc would be a product of the 3 ½” hole from disc 1

Disc [3] Cut a 6 7/8” disc from ¾” wood. From this disc cut a 2 3/8” hole out of the center.

Disc [4] Cut a 7 ¾” disc from ¼” plywood. From this disc cut a 2 3/8” hole out of the center.

Disc [5] Cut a 4 3/8” disc from ¾” wood. From this disc cut a 2 3/8” hole out of the center

Hole [6] Cut a 2 3/8”hole from the center of a ¾” x 5” x 5” board.

Disc [7] Cut a disc 3 inches larger than the upper outside diameter of the 5 gallon bucket using ¾” wood. Then cut a 3 ½” hole out of the center (same size as hole from disc 1).

Ring [8] Cut a 2nd disc the same diameter as disc 7 using ¾” wood. Then cut out a hole the diameter of the bucket leaving you with a 1 ½” wide ring.

Groove [9] Cut a ¼” deep groove for bottom lip of 5 gallon bucket to fit into. This groove is cut into the base of the 4 wheel cart. Base is 16”x34”. The groove is 8 7/8” to center measuring from one end.

On the outside of disc 3 taper the edge 7 degrees to match the cone shape of the cyclone. You could do this with a disc sander, router, scroll saw or bandsaw.

On the inside of disc 1 taper the edge 7 degrees.

Now its time to start the assembly. Screw disc 2 to a 2×2. Screw a temporary base to disc 2. Screw disc 3 to the 2×2 using angle brackets.

Tape edge of disc 2 so glue won’t stick to this disc.

With disc 1 laying loose at bottom, using standard yellow glue, begin gluing tapered strips to the top disc 3 and to each other

When finished, glue inside of disc 1 and pry disc up tight around cone. Wrapping wax paper around top, strap the top up snug with a belt strap.

After glue is dried, remove 2×2 and pop out disc 2. Cut excess length of tapered strips under disc 1. The inside needs to be completely air tight and smooth. To accomplish this use a disposable glove and smear water based wood filler inside the cyclone forcing the filler into all the gaps. Using damp paper towels remove excess filler. After it is dry, sand smooth. After inside is set up, repeat the process on the outside.

Now you can glue ring 8 onto disc 7

Glue disc 4 on top of disc 3. When glue is dry, sand ¼” disc smooth with top of cyclone. Then glue disc 5 onto disc 4 for more stability of PVC.

Next step is cutting the 2 inch PVC to the contour of the cyclone, and cutting a matching hole to enter the cyclone uptight against disc 3. Use a metal cutting scroll saw blade so the teeth won’t catch the fragile ¼” wood and break them. The PVC should be flush with the inside of the cyclone.

I angled the PVC downhill into the cyclone to duplicate the design of the “ClearVue” brand. However I doubt it was really necessary since no other manufactures angle their input tubes.

Using hole 6, build a box tight around the PVC for support to the cyclone.

After figuring the length you’ll need for support on the 4 wheel cart brace, cut the PVC with an extra 2 inches for forming a bell end.

Heat the PVC with a wide flame torch and when it softens, pound a cone shaped plug into the PVC to expand it out.

Then pop the plug back out and pound the tapered end of the Peachtree #0445 reducer into the PVC. Before doing this, wrap 2 layers of wax paper around the reducer to increase the diameter slightly and to aid in the removal of the reducer after the PVC hardens.

This will give you the proper size for the 2 inch canister vacuum hose to fit into.

Now using pocket hole screws, to go into disc 3, construction adhesive, attach side mount PVC. Make sure assembly is air tight.

Glue the 2 inch street elbow onto the top PVC leaving 4 inches of PVC to extend below disc 3. Seal this into the top hole.

The Peachtree #0445 reducer is now used to adapt the 2 ½” flexible hose to the canister vacuum.

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