Woodworking 101: Review and Testing of a G0440 Cyclone Dust Collector

Review and Testing of a G0440 Cyclone Dust Collector

I will start by saying that I am new to LumberJocks. This is my first post and my first tool review. Like many woodworkers, I have a well equipped shop. Also like many woodworkers, I left dust collection until last. This is an unfortunate. I now realize that dust collection should be one of the first things you should consider as soon as you purchase that first tool. As much as you would like to purchase more tools to do more things, a dust collector should be considered after purchasing that first tool. I will also say that a dust collector, no matter how efficient at collection dust, should not be considered the first plan of attack against sub micron dust. A good mask with appropriate filters should always be used.

After 10 years of woodworking my shop needed a change. As like many woodworkers, I did ALOT of research. I’m sure that I don’t need to mention who’s site to visit. However for those new woodworkers, Bill Pentz’s website is where you need to start your research. After reading his site I realized that dust collection is a daunting task. The main key is collection at the source of dust with as much air flow as possible. I am a capable guy, I have made many things in my years of woodworking including CNC machines and wooden gear clocks. I did not have the time to spend building my own cyclone from a plan, so I decided that a cyclone from one of many vendors would be my only option. I live in Torbay, Newfoundland (Canada). Shipping would be a problem and the cost for any of the vendors would be a fairly large chunk of the cost of a cyclone. After reading reviews, considering cost, and dynamics of my shop, I decided on the Grizzly G0440 2 HP Cyclone Dust Collector. I also added the muffler and the stand (H7499)

It was shipped from Pennsylvania by UPS freight to St. John’s, Newfoundland (Canada). It arrived after 2 weeks and the boxes were in pretty good condition. I will mention that I didn’t have to pay any duty and Grizzly paid the brokerage for importation into Canada. I opened the boxed and inspected the parts. There was absolutely no damage. This was probably my main concern about shipping such large crates over a long distance. I started assembly according to the manual. If you purchase the stand it helps to review both manuals before you start. I have read some review where people say that they had problems following the procedure. If you study the manuals before starting the build, there will be no problems. I was impressed by the finish on the machine. The powder coated finish is great and there were no issues with scratches and dents. I was impressed by the heavy rubber gaskets provided to seal the parts of the cyclone that could leak. Foam gaskets were provided for areas that needed to be sealed against flex hose. I was also impressed to see that the junctions of some preassembled parts had already been caulked at the factory. Overall the fit and finish of the machine was exceptional. All parts were accounted for but I did have one issue. I ordered the new model G0440 (post march 2012) which has a switch ganged along side a junction box. The mounting plate that came with my stand was for a pre march 2012 model. I have called Grizzly and I can say that their customer service has been great. The part will be replaced under warranty. International ordering was also a breeze. When I mounted my cyclone on the stand I decided to put the cyclone at the upper position just to get it closer to the ceiling where the duct would come in from the collection system. The 9” flex hose provided wasn’t long enough to attach the cyclone to the lid of the collection barrel. I didn’t have the extension for the collection barrel so I had to add a piece of 9” rigid duct to the bottom of the cyclone cone.

Being a physicist by trade, I naturally ask many questions. In this case: Is the manufacturers performance curve just hype? After reading Bill Pentz’s website I decided to measure it. Using a Dwyer Mark II Manometer equipped with a 166-6 Dwyer pitot tube, a clamp on ammeter, I carried out testing according to his prescription. I used 7” round duct. The tip of the pitot was about 16” from the cyclone inlet and the duct beyond was about 70” or 10x Duct Diameter. I made a needle valve using an old funnel and mounted it to the end of the duct I have carried out the experiment with the small mounting fixture and with a large plate as Bill Pentz describes to reduce the “vena contracta” with no noticeable difference in results. A nut on a threaded rod was turned to move the valve in and out of the duct. I started with the duct plugged and measured a static pressure of 12.25”. The amperage was 7.2 amperes. I should mention that this cyclone has a impeller that is 14.5”. I was a little concerned that the 2HP motor could burn up processing a lot of air. With the duct completely opened the amperage increased to 10.3 amperes. The motor plate says that the full load amps is 14 so I thought this was pretty good. That being said, the total HP works out to be something like 3 HP. I let it run for some time and didn’t notice any difference in drawn amperage and the motor didn’t seem to get really hot. I have carried out the experiment 3 times and verified that my results are reproducible with independent setups. The final result corrected for air density and the error bars are about 5%. I decided only to measure at the centre of the duct and multiply the CFM results by 0.9 as recommended by Dwyer. I have also provided the manufactures air flow in the diagram for reference.

I hope you find this review helpful. I tried to provide as much information as I could. People often talk about CFMs and Static Pressures and throw around a lot of jargon about dust collection with out really understanding the Dust collection problem or understanding that sometimes the manufactures provide us with numbers that we want to hear. I haven’t used my collector yet so I can’t talk about the efficiency of the fine dust collection and whether or not the filter area is sufficient for this collector. All I can say is that I am pleased so far…I’ll leave the rest for another review….