Our Little Guide to … making a sturdy dust collector

Fed up with sweeping up sawdust after a woodworking project? Then you need a dust collector! But don’t make one of those flimsy, plastic bucket versions! Go for an open-top steel drum like me! This step-by-step how-to video may be just what you need to put an end to collapsing dust collectors for good.
In total I spent £59.47 buying the components and tools to build my sturdy open-top steel dust collector.
The free items from my spare parts stash included:
• 1m length of PVCu solvent weld white waste pipe (40mm diameter); and
• various connecting tubes from previous dust collector build.
The parts I needed to buy included:
• 25 litre open top storage drum (£28.99 inc P&P);
• 90° PVCu solvent weld bend, white 40mm (78p);
• 135° PVCu solvent weld bend, white 40mm (78p);
• 3 x PVCu solvent weld straight coupling, white 40mm (£2.34);
• HSS step drill bit, 4mm-42mm (£21.59); and
• Draper grinding point set (£4.99).

[@ourlittleguide326]

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[@Ted_James]

Best. Background. Music. Ever!

[@Photog918]

When using a step down bit you can apply light presusure and get a clean cut. The old saying is " Let the tool do the work for you " once you get the intial pilot hole you basicly let it fall through the steps. A hole saw in reverse can also give you really clean cuts in really thin metals.

[@waterjetting]

Its a long time since you posted this video, but thank you for doing so, I am definitely going to have a go at this!

[@peterbeyer5755]

Avoid any sharp bends in your vac hose or fittings, that cuts the air flow %50, I noted that your black hose had a 90 degree bend, try and avoid this and make bends as gradual as you can, your vac engine won’t work as hard and you’ll get heaps more suction.

[@mak4374]

Come for the ideas, stay for the music.... 🤣 What is with 5-gallon buckets in Europe? I summer in Greece and the only ones I can find are expensive as hell, and very very thin. Here in the US I am a house painter and I I have so many I literally throw them away, and all of them are sterdy enough to be able to stand on them without problem. But then again, almost no one uses metal buckets here, so... Good video, keep it up!

[@georgedennison3338]

I'm just beginning the journey of building a real vacuum system for my shop, instead of the half azz, make do setup I have. (Several horizontal pipes have to come apart easily 'cause they fill up w/ dirt; the vac don't suck enough. It just sux. LOL) Anyway, I'm glad I saw your vid right outta the gate; didn't know dust collectors would collapse. Had a thought while watching... could a dead Shop Vac, minus the motor work as the collector instead of a 5 gal? The Shop Vac canister shouldn't collapse... Prob find a dead one free. Hmm... A tip on using step drills. Before you get to it's max diameter, turn the metal over to cut away the opposite side protrusion. I've also found most step drills aren't sharp enough, even right outta the box. They're easy to sharpen... hone the vertical V-cut. Don't sweat the gold coating, being sharp out weighs any loss of benefit if you hone away the titanium coating. I have an uncoated step drill I keep sharp & use it on mild steel as thick as 0.375".

[@mstackem]

You know how most house hold vacuums have a small relief slot couldn't you have put a vent in between your intake hose between the bucket

[@abruptlyblunt]

hmmm, guess they don't have hole saws either in the UK!!

[@ourlittleguide326]

The nation does. I do not. Oh to have a workshop with a drill press...

[@awlthatwoodcrafts8911]

It's not so much the orientation of the inlet pipe. If you were to add a Thien-type baffle under the inlet pipe, it will minimize the amount of dust that the outlet pipe sucks up. Like a barrier between the settled dust and the vacuum outlet. Just create a disc about the diameter of the barrel, cut away about 240 degrees from around the outside of the disc and support it with 3-4 threaded rods under the lid. Position the cut away so that it starts a few inches from the end of your inlet pipe and ends before it makes it way back around behind the inlet pipe. The cut away should be about 1" to 1-1/4" wide. If you search YT for "Thien baffle", you'll see what it should look like.

[@ourlittleguide326]

Thanks for that Woodnoober! I'll look into that - although it may be beyond my capabilities for now.

[@csimet]

I know the feeling from the other end of the size spectrum. After spending weeks looking for proper parts for my Grizzly (G0944)... 6" fittings/elbows to make a dust separator, I gave up and just spent the money to buy a ready made unit from Oneida (Super Dust Deputy XL). $230 USD for a chunk of molded plastic. Ugh. I could not find 6" PVC parts for any reasonable price and the cost of a metal drum was crazy. I just mounted the Oneida to the top of a standard metal trash can... sorry, dust bin. Done. Works! :)

[@paulwestlake4278]

Hah! I did a similar thing with a similar bucket, it worked well, but my Vax was getting hot. So I replaced the filters. The bucket collapsed completely. 😬

[@tedfritsch3340]

Are you saying no Home Depot buckets in the UK? If not, I'd buy a pallet load of them ship them to you if you want to be a distributor for me. Good work there bud.

[@ourlittleguide326]

Ha! I'd love to ... but I don't think my other half would approve of a house full of Home Depot buckets. Sorry, Pails. ;)

[@MrSnookerballs]

ever heard of hole saws

[@thomasnoe2714]

FYI Home Depot paint cans don’t work all that well either

[@Ian-gf8id]

Why aren't you using a cyclone on top of your bucket ? I made a dust separator/collector using a cyclone and a plastic food container bin (similar size to your steel drum) and it works very well when used with my DeWalt shop vac.

[@ourlittleguide326]

Hi Ian. It's mainly because without having workshop, it was a struggle enough just cutting the holes in the lid of this drum. It's only hooked up to small, handheld devices so far and there seems to be enough of a drop to keep the large dust particles out of my vac. But that’s a modification I may need to look at in the future.

[@h.e.a.tparanormalinvestiga9857]

What size was piping. What to get and how many

[@louisarmstrong8863]

good for a laugh

[@peterbeyer5755]

You should join a Mens Shed and use their tools!

[@ourlittleguide326]

I'd love to. I need a workshop. May be that's the next project, hmm?

[@philiponsolent7232]

Where did you get the bucket from please?

[@ourlittleguide326]

Bought it new from UK online retailer speedyshelving.com - currently £34.80 according to its website.

[@philiponsolent7232]

Thanks for the information

[@markjarman7819]

Was going to ask the same question myself😊

[@gregdee530]

@@ourlittleguide326 in Australia commercial painters will gladly give you the metal large paint cans with the snap-close lid for free, they're glad to get rid of them. I've made 2 from them and they seal very well, my vac is a Milwaukee and using the Bosch tracksaw connected to my earlier plastic version with a slight blockage imploded the plastic one. You can also drill holes and insert tubeless car valves to the lid (treat the drum as the inside of a tyre), if there is a blockage the suction will pull the valve open and allow air in.

[@ourlittleguide326]

Thanks for the comment. I don’t know anyone in the commercial painting trade in the UK, so I don’t know if that’s an option here. But it’s something I can always look into if I need to source another drum.

[@leecraddock299]

where did you buy thr drum please.

[@ourlittleguide326]

Hi Lee. I’ve no affiliation to any firms mentioned in this reply. Company I originally used (speedyshelving.com) doesn’t seem to sell them anymore. You might try bigdug.co.uk which has its own website and an Ebay presence. The prices of these drums (they are called open top steel drums) seems to have shot up - not much of a surprise in the current climate. Bigdug’s Ebay site is £70.99 includes P&P at the time of my reply, but the firm’s site isn’t that much cheaper (£52.80, doesn’t include P&P). One commenter below said in Australia commercial painters give these sorts of drums away for free. I’ve no idea if that’s the case in the UK. Hope this is helpful.

[@arcadion448]

Your "dust collector" will lose start to lose efficiency as it starts to fill up. There's a reason why commercially made ones aren't just a bucket with holes. They're setup so that when sawdust enters the separator the Centripetal Force pushes heavier elements to the outer rim and eventually fall into the collector while lighter elements gets sucked into the wet/dry vac. For all that work, you should've just spent $40 on a Duststopper for much better results and save yourself time.

[@ourlittleguide326]

I've not run it long enough to overfill - it's only ever been attached to small handheld power tools. But I'll bear in mind your advice on efficiency loss. Thank you!

[@thomassciurba5323]

As they say though the journey is half the fun. I especially enjoy it if I can build it out of junk I already have.

[@peterbeyer5755]

Auto paint shop suppliers sell empty steel paint 20 litre paint tin.

[@ourlittleguide326]

Is that in the UK, Peter?

[@johncooper3404]

I’ve never seen such a convoluted method as this. You need to be in a care home.

[@user_abuser_o7]

I'm going to start saying KZbin like this, and hopefully evolves into me saying stupid the way the UK does

[@stevemitchell238]

why did he just use a hole saw or drill a 3/4" hole then use a electric nibbler both wood give you a finer hole or a jig saw with a steel blade you don't work harder but smarter.

[@viki4837]

идя великолепная.... на руки из жопы растут!

[@user_abuser_o7]

God I feel for you poor people in the UK who can't buy a 5 gallon bucket Jesus lol I grow cannabis for a living so there's like thousands of them everywhere