Clear Vue CV1800 Cyclone Dust Collector

As you may or may not know, I had nose surgery right at the end of 2016. I had a deviated septum and a bunch of sinus issues that have developed over the past several years. While it is safe to say that woodworking dust wasn’t catalyst that directly caused the need for surgery I found out during the process that I’m allergic to a lot of different things, including “oak”. That explains why cutting certain woods in the shop make the next 24 hours pretty miserable in regards to breathing through my nose. On a positive note, since the surgery I’ve pushed the boundaries a little bit here and there just to see how I respond to the dust and so far it seems to affect me much less than before. It’s also worth noting that I’m taking allergy immunization shots which should be lessening the reactions over time.

Dealing with the sinus and allergy issues over the past year or so has told me a lot about the air quality in my shop. I already had a couple systems in place with a HEPA rated dust collector and a air cleaner cart. And while I always used the dust collector for every cut I still had dust everywhere. That led me to doing a lot of research on wood dust and the dangers it poses to our health. Even beyond the relatively small allergy problems I was having wood dust can cause some major respiratory problems as well as cancer. During my research I read through all of Bill Pentz documentation. He’s got a great wealth of information on his website. If you haven’t already be sure to check it out.

I realized that the weakest link in regards to dust in my shop was capturing it at the source. Right where the dust is produced. So I decided to upgrade to my “forever” dust collector that is capable of moving a lot more air and also upgrade the dust collection ducting in my shop to be more efficient in design as well as accommodate the much greater air flow. The dust collector I decided on was the Clear Vue CV1800 Cyclone Bundle. The motor is much larger at 5hp and therefore the rated CFM is double that of my last unit. And because the CV1800 is wall mounted it should actually provide a little more open floor space than my last setup.

Disclaimer: I was not asked to write this article and I was not paid to write this article. As with 100% of the rest of my website, the views and opinions in this article are mine and I will never use or promote a product that I do not like. Clear Vue did not contact me seeking product placement. I did my own research and made my decision based upon that.

I did some prep work before installation. The filters arrived a few days prior to the cyclone and I picked up a 55 gallon barrel to use as the dust bin. Using those and the dimensioned diagram I printed off Clear Vue’s website I was able to determine the exact location I wanted to mount the unit on the wall. In my situation I wanted the cyclone close to the ceiling and as far into the corner as possible. This will result in the best starting point for the dust collection piping. The main benefit of predetermining the cyclone placement is that I was able to determine the correct placement of the electrical box and mount it to the wall. The electrical box needs to be a certain distance away from the motor, have a hard line connection to 240v electricity, and be close enough to be plugged into a 120v receptacle.

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Right off the bat I owe a huge thanks to Wayne Brown for helping me with the installation. I think installing the dust collector on an open wall with no restrictions would have been pretty easy but due to both my garage door rail and my over the door storage shelves being in the way my installation was a little tricky. It’s off topic but I shot a mini documentary featuring Wayne’s story on my second channel. Be sure to check it out when you’re done with this article and video.

So the first order of business was the mounting bracket. Each arm of the bracket is assembled with two bolts and then each arm can slide onto the main cleat that is mounted to the wall. This allows a bit of adjustment once the main cleat is mounted.

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I wasn’t exactly sure how high to install the wall mount bracket so we skipped ahead to assembling the motor/impeller assembly. The construction process went by pretty quick. Basically just following the instructions. So here we had a few pieces of threaded rod, some flat washers, some lock washers, some hex nuts, and some bushings are stacked up strategically to hold everything together.

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Then the motor can be bolted in place and the impeller secured to the motor. The impeller is secured to the motor shaft with a taper lock bushing. Similar to the way a router bit is installed in a router except it’s reversed. Here, the impeller is tightening onto the motor shaft where as a router motor would be tightened onto the router bit shaft.

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With the motor/impeller assembly completed I determined the distance from the top of the motor to the top of the bracket cleat. That distance plus the distance I wanted to leave between the top of the motor and the ceiling determined the mounting height for the bracket cleat. And then I could secure the cleat with 5/16” lag bolts into the wall studs. Now if you do get the mounting kit for this cyclone keep in mind that the bracket arm extends all the way to the back of the cleat. In my case I had to remove one of the lag bolts to get the arm in place.

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The garage door rails and the over garage door storage shelf were in the way for mounting the motor/impeller assembly on the brackets. We ended up having to remove one of the mounting arms, slide the motor assembly in place, and then replace the second mounting arm. This would have been a lot easier if the collector was mounted on a section of wall clear of obstructions. But in the end we got it and we also wired the motor before installation as well.

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Next up was the transition and blower housing which is just following instructions and general assembly stuff. Nothing difficult. However, I did do a few things out of order. I was supposed to start sealing all of the seams on the transition before attaching it to the blower housing so I did have to backtrack a little bit.

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After all of the seams on the blower housing have been sealed off the cyclone itself can be added and then sealed off as well.

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The filters get stacked and are secured to one another with a bead of clear silicone and a band clamp.

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For some reason I totally forgot to pick up some foil tape so Wayne ran to the store to get some real quick. I decided to install the cyclone while he was gone which wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I made sure to start the two clips closest to me so I could hook them over the top of the motor mount. Then very carefully add the rest of the clips and tighten everything down.

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The kit I got came with a clean out box but the instructions show you how to make your own if you don’t want to buy one. It gets secured to the bottom of the filter stack with silicone. And while I had the silicone handy I went ahead and installed the intake transition and sealed it as well.

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Because I mounted the unit higher than normal I had to make a small table to support the weight of the filter stack from below. I got really lucky with this because I had an old odd shaped stool in my shop that I never used so I just cut it down to fit. And the top was secured with a couple screws and then sealed off with foil tape. It was a bit of a tight fit.

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I got a little impatient with the dust bin and didn’t record cutting the hole. I just used a jigsaw for the hole and then added a 6” HVAC Take Off. It has a padded adhesive to better seal to whatever surface you put it on and also a couple screw holes to lock it down. I also went back with some more silicone around the entire take off just for good measure.

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After turning it on for the first time I realized I had the motor wired to spin in the wrong direction. Here’s the wiring diagram on the back side of the electrical cover on the motor. It gives instructions for both clockwise and counterclockwise rotation so I guess I determined rotation from the wrong end. Basically, I wired the motor exactly like the diagram shows and I should have wired it incorporating the reversing instructions below the diagram. By the way, laying across the storage shelf to reverse the motor was actually really easy and it only took me a minute or two to do.

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When it’s all said and done, installation only took about five working hours with the help of someone else. I’m not sure how much different the installation time would have been on an unobstructed wall and without the added time of recording the process but overall it wasn’t bad.

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In the next article/video I’ll cover the ducting to connect the dust collector to the tools. SPOILER ALERT: This dust collector is a BEAST. It is so much more powerful than my last setup. Be sure to subscribe to my email notification list so you don’t miss anything.

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32 COMMENTS

  1. I don’t understand why everyone runs the pipes at the ceiling! Wouldn’t it be more efficient if it were run at a lower location? Does it still pick up larger debris? By the way, I enjoy all your video’s thanks for sharing.

  2. A very good choice, every woodworker should read Bill Pentz’s research. Most dust collectors get the big stuff but it is the really fine dust that does the damage to our lungs.

  3. Was wondering your thoughts, my wife and I paid off our home last summer. So now June 1st we start a full home remodel. Our home was built in late 40’s . So my question our new garage ( 24×24) is going to hold all of my equipment with a separate 200 watt panel from the house . Our architect suggested instead of traditional 1 large door or 2 smaller doors that just fold up , that we check into a company here in Georgia that custom builds Garage doors out of many types of wood , also they electrically open outwards in the middle, where the 2 doors meet are very heavy duty wheels for support , the company says that each door on the inside can hold 800 lbs , they could put in cabinets or I could in the future assemble a ” work station or whatever. These doors are extremely expensive , each door not installed run around 7600.00 , my choice of wood from , mahogany, teak , African tiger wood and the list goes on . So with all that said any recommendations on the wood for the doors ? Thanks Jay

    • That’s quite an expense for garage doors. Me personally, I’d be more inclined to save a ton and use regular garage doors and use that money elsewhere.

  4. Very nice collector. I’m still using the hacked HF and do need to upgrade. Out of curiosity, how many 220/240 circuits do you have?

  5. I finally pulled the trigger on my “forever” dust collector the other day after the wife finally just told me to order one and quit talking about it. I went with the 5HP Oneida Gorilla Pro, hope it works out as well as the clearvue seems to be working for you. Now I just got to find some PVC at a decent price! The sewer pipe seem like it will hold up for you?

  6. I enjoy your videos Jay. I’ve also had surgery for a deviated septum and have dust allergies as well, so I understand the challenges. I was wondering if you ever thought about wearing a respirator while working in the shop? I know they are bulky, but I have been looking at RZ Masks (rzmask.com) as a potential option. I am not affiliated with the brand, nor do I even own one, but as someone who will be increasing their time in the shop, including starting to weld, I am looking at some options to limit the amount of dust and fumes I inhale. I’ve worn a traditional respirator in the past for work, but the RZ masks look like they have a much smaller profile and possibly not as heavy or cumbersome to wear.

    Anyway, just a thought. Keep up the great work.

  7. I just started the duct work on my CV1800. CW/CCW depends on which side of the blower your looking at, I am glad that I am not the only one that wired the motor wrong, thanks I don’t feel stupid any more. After reviewing the instructions sheet I did find the detail about what to look at for direction….
    I was gong to put my CV1800 the same place you did but I decided to save that space for my future Quincy air compressor. I put the filter stack and air intake side to side to save wall space, the intake is almost flush with the wall so my ducting will be easy to mount for the first part of the run. Some have said that I over did it ( it’s the most expensive machine I have), But after turning it of for the first time I am glad I got it…
    Thank you!

  8. My only comment is that, I don’t ever see you wearing a respirator in your video’s
    while cutting wood and not talking.
    Jeff

  9. Hey Jay, I have a question regarding the electrical box for the dust collector. I assume that with the 5hp motor, the collector runs on 220/240v circuit. What is the reason to be close to a 120v receptacle? What plugs into that receptacle?

  10. Jay i to have a Clear Vue cyclone .I put it in about 1 1/2 years ago. I’ve never seen a better dust collector yet.I had a harbor freight no comparison i’m sure you will be happy with your choice of Clear Vue. I have a 26 x 35 shop ran my 6” pipe as close to the machine as possible then reduced down to 4”. I can have 2 to 3 machines running at once with no problems. I went with a rubbermaid heavy duty trash can and the dust collector will suck it in from round to a triangle but it’s lighter to dump than a metal barrel. I have a barrel let me know that works out. Like your video’s.Enjoy the new dust collector.

  11. After reading Bill Pentz’s extensive work on dust collection, I too bought the ClearVue 1800 system for my new shop. To keep the noise down, I wanted to place the collector in the attic space/ wood storage area and run the chip tube to the bin in the main shop below to avoid carrying the bin up and down stairs. Since the attic space has limited headroom, ClearVue supplied me with an adapter box that allowed the filters to be place side by side instead of on top of each other. Without the dust bin and the side by side filters, the vertical space required is reduced to just over 5 feet. I also built a diverter per Bill’s design so I can vent the fine dust to the outside when weather is mild. I’m really happy with the setup and the ClearVue unit really sucks (in the good way of course).
    ClearVue also offers a blast gate assembly that allows a 6″ PVC pipe input to output to two 4″ gated outlets. For my layout they worked out really well and especially so for my 12″ chop saw where I placed the gate assembly under the rear of the saw with each of the 2 gate outlets attached to 2 “Big Gulp” hoods placed side by side under the back of the saw. No dust escapes at all. If my computer skills were better, I could probably attach a photo.
    Hope this is a help to anyone considering the ClearVue system.

    • Thanks Art. Like you, I’ll be buying the ClearVue 1800 after reading as much of Bill Pentz’s information as my brain can handle. I hadn’t seen CV’s blast gate assembly with two 4″ outlets, so I appreciate you sharing that!

  12. Do you find a lot of static electricity with the plastic ductwork and system. I get quite a bit ( makes the hair on my arms stand up) with a short plastic flex tube connection from my dewalt planner to the metal piping on the system

  13. Are the filters “HEPA”? You mention having HEPA filters in your shop and I don’t see any reference on the ClearVue. i know that HEPA filters for some cyclones add $400 or more to the cost – are they worth it/necessary? I have sinus issues as well.

  14. I cannot get over how similar your shop is to mine. I installed my ClearVue 1800 six months ago in the exact same location–the front corner of the garage between the wall and the overhead door rail. It was certainly a problem getting that heavy motor up there, but it was worth it to have more floor space. I also have a storage rack above my garage door. Looks like your ducting will be very similar to mine–six inch S&D. Like you, may decision to go with the ClearVue was based on Bill Pentz’s information. I will be interested in seeing how you made the transition from the cyclone input to the first section of PVC. Thanks

  15. I am looking at making my own cyclone from scratch, what would be the best size motor for this and fan blade size. i have about the same amount of machines as you do and about the same distance of tubing you have. so what is the cfm i will be aiming to get thanks

  16. Hey Jay – really nice install.

    What’s your take on static electricity buildup and discharge?
    Usually when we see someone installing PVC for their dust collection, they’re all nervous about static. They usually make a point of wrapping bare copper wire wrap around the pipe and connecting it to ground.
    I didn’t notice you worrying about static in your video.

  17. Jay,

    This is just a suggestion as I have the ClearVue installed in my shop as well.

    In your piping layout I noticed in the last picture you had a vertical drop on your wall straight down out of your main line. You may want to rethink this, as it will drop particles into this dead space while using equipment upstream of this point. You want all the connections into your main line horizontal. Use a long radius 90 then Y into your line. This will prevent this problem. It’s not a big deal it will just help keep your lines to your equipment clean.

    Enjoy!

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