Hiatus and New Employee.
This blog article was first published on February 6th 2020 on for my Patreon members.
It's been a few weeks since I've been able to do much in the workshop. I've been off work for a week with Influenza and spent two weeks prior to that looking after my partner who succumbed to the same thing in mid Jan.
So let's re-cap where I am. You've had a post Xmas Vlog Update followed by a build video featuring the Inventables X-Carve. In the editing process is a further CNC video where I show how I fixed a problem with the machine. Short and aimed mainly at those who discover the same issue and, like me, struggle to find any easy to follow videos on how to fix it.
Partially filmed is the build of a cyclone separator. It's been done before but this might be the last word in the subject. Keith from Rag'n'Bone Brown made one from a air-tight box and Matt from Badger Workshop from a blue plastic barrel. Both needed reinforcing as the vacuum caused the containers to collapse. Keith then upgrades to a large barrel - but I've found a smaller 40l version which is fantastic.
I noticed the New Yorkshire Workshop used a paint tin initially, which collapsed, and then ordered the same small barrel I did later in the video.
The separator is going to be part of a larger project to equip my workshop with dust collection system. I've followed Keith Brown's approach in using 68mm rainwater down-pipe but have 3d printed all the connectors instead of using shop parts which Keith found fitted poorly and were available in a handful of awkward shapes.
I've been experimenting over Christmas and testing parts more recently. I've learned absolutely loads about building a system and will share some of the key nuggets of knowledge in a video very soon. As a teaser, did you know that when you turn your vacuum on that at the end of the hose you have no PRESSURE and plenty of FLOW, put your hand over the end you get plenty of (negative) PRESSURE and zero FLOW. The concepts of FLOW and PRESSURE are crucial in understanding how to build out your system and why you can reduce a vacuum extractor but not a 'fan' style extractor. All really interesting stuff and if I get it right possibly the first UK maker to do a comprehensive dust collection project.
This project has some cool stuff in it. Several cool blast gates, a machine to measure the suck of an extractor, and another which measures flow in a really boyish fun sort of way.
In other news, Keith Brown has featured my track saw guides in a recent video resulting in a slew of new orders. I've spent some of my time off work tweaking the design of the guides to make them slightly narrower and to add support for the new Makita Efficut blades which have a ridiculously small 1.45mm kerf.
The narrower guides are an important step as I've a new 3D printer from Prusa Research which I assembled recently. The Prusa Mini is a small form-factor printer and by narrowing the guides by 5mm I can print 6 at a time on the new printer instead of 4.
Anyway the picture below is of the new printer (named Minnie) and my original Prusa i3 Mk 3 printer (named Roberto).
