×
INTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS

Log In

Come Join Us!

Are you an
Engineering professional?
Join Eng-Tips Forums!
  • Talk With Other Members
  • Be Notified Of Responses
    To Your Posts
  • Keyword Search
  • One-Click Access To Your
    Favorite Forums
  • Automated Signatures
    On Your Posts
  • Best Of All, It's Free!
  • Students Click Here

*Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you are opting in to receive e-mail.

Posting Guidelines

Promoting, selling, recruiting, coursework and thesis posting is forbidden.

Students Click Here

Jobs

Need to find a metal chip vacuum collection system

Need to find a metal chip vacuum collection system

Need to find a metal chip vacuum collection system

(OP)
Does anyone know of a decent small industrial size chip collection system that is available?  I would prefer an off-the-shelf one that would most likely be cheaper than a customized one.

We drill, saw, and route into aluminum extrusions and currently let the chips fall to the ground to sweep daily.  The amount of chips that are collected per week approximately fill a 40-gallon container.

I need connection capacity for about 6 to 8 hoses.  We do not need to recycle these chips so no sorting or processing is necessary.  The chips are fairly large with most being about the size of fingernail clippings.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Davey

RE: Need to find a metal chip vacuum collection system

Davey,
In one shop, we took the motor/vacuum head from a large Craftsman shop vac and mounted it to a plywood top for a 55 gal barrel.We put the appropriate openings and fittings in the plywood and assembled a manifold of 2" pvc pipe and flex hose to serve two mills with one pickup.
By using a length of flex hose from the manifold to the vac, we could lift the counterweighted top off whenever the barrel needed emptying. The barrel was on a dolly so it could be rolled into position easily.
The rig took standard filters and parts so maintenance was never an issue.  We machined a lot of aluminum and plastics such as polypropylene and polycarbonate and the system worked well for us.

Griffy

RE: Need to find a metal chip vacuum collection system

You might try looking at a cyclone system, no filters to clog up, and can be set up similay to griffengm's method above.
I got a secondhand cyclone from a scap dealer and set it on a polyprop drum, used plastic waste pipe and vacuum cleaner hoses to connect the system to my woodworking machines. works a treat.

Red Flag This Post

Please let us know here why this post is inappropriate. Reasons such as off-topic, duplicates, flames, illegal, vulgar, or students posting their homework.

Red Flag Submitted

Thank you for helping keep Eng-Tips Forums free from inappropriate posts.
The Eng-Tips staff will check this out and take appropriate action.

Reply To This Thread

Posting in the Eng-Tips forums is a member-only feature.

Click Here to join Eng-Tips and talk with other members!


Resources