Give your dust collector room to breathe

After upgrading my two-bag dust collector to a 5-hp cyclone, it didn't take me long to realize the cyclone took up a lot more space and made more noise. So I built a 6×8' extension to my shop to house the cyclone and contain the roar. But soundproof couldn't mean airtight; I needed a way to exhaust the air pressure in the room.

Rather than shoot my shop's heat outside during the winter, I used a combination of 8" flexible furnace ducts and 24" ceiling vents to circulate air back to my shop from the dust-collection room, much like a typical house's air return. Now, the air in my shop stays heated and clean, and the noise from the cyclone is barely noticeable.
—Darrel Brown, Vandalia, Ill.