Hi David (et al.):
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I wasn¡¯t sure whether to chime in because the OP was asking questions about drum sanders and whether the RL160 would be adequate for that. But thanks for the
encouragement as I would make a few points which may be salient ¡
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A colleague and friend of mine across town (here in Brisbane, Australia) has a large drum sander and he uses an AF-48 plus cartridge filter and reports good
results. This guy has very significant through-put so there¡¯s some evidence that the combination is working for him.
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I had an RL160 for close to 10 years, but it was an older model, non-anti-static and without auto clean. It was a good extractor for what it was with the following
(brief) caveats: the pleated filter required very regular and vigorous manual cleaning to keep the pleats free of detritus, and the dual bins filled very unevenly, dependent on how many gates were open or closed at the time (i.e. material falls into the first
bin or shoots across the first bin and ends up in the second).
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I now have the RL250 with pulsed air cleaning system. I use it with all the usual machines, but the OP will likely be most interested in its performance with
my Format-4 FW1102 Finish wide belt sander. The RL250 does a good job on the wide belt (WB), which requires 2 x 160mm ducts.
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On the issue of extraction capacity, I recall someone asking whether the AF-16 would be sufficient. I think not. You need very significant extraction for sanders.
The AF-22 is big enough for a 16¡± drum sander, but nowhere near big enough for my WB, clogging filters notwithstanding.
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My RL250 has significant design ¡°problems¡±. I don¡¯t want to call them flaws because the machine does work, just not as well as it should. I¡¯m pretty sure I¡¯ve
documented my views on the RL250 at length previously but here is a quickie.
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The automatic pulsed cleaning system requires enormous amounts of compressed air ¨C David B. is absolutely correct and in fact he is the one who discovered my machine was starved for air. The RL250 has an onboard receiver or reservoir
which holds reserve compressed air for use during the cleaning cycle, but it is woefully inadequate. It is also very hard to get to if air connections develop a leak¡ahem.
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The RL250 comes with monster 1-1/4¡± air fittings and it needs it. What was happening (when I was starving it of air) is that the first of four ¡°pulses¡± (for cleaning) would be applied at full pressure. The onboard receiver would
be entirely drained. My shop receiver would then ¡°fill it up¡± in readiness for the second blast of air.
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However, the onboard receiver would not pressurise in time (inlet air line was too small) so that the second blast of air was not quite as strong as the first. By the fourth blast ¨C which was not really a blast at all ¨C the cleaning
was quite ineffective.
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The solution was two-fold. First, I needed a properly sized inlet pipe ¨C 30mm (which when you think about it is pretty big for us woodworkers). And second, I needed a much bigger receiver to hold reserve air for use during the automatic
cleaning cycles.
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I have a 5.5HP reciprocating piston compressor (replacing my rotary screw compressor and the hydrovane compressor before that ¨C both of which were destroyed
because they were unable to perform intermittent work ¨C see my latest article in Australian Wood Review, Issue 117), and a 550L receiver. The receiver reduces from 140PSI to about 90PSI over the course of a single cleaning cycle (4 blasts of air), and the
compressor kicks in every time.
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I do not believe even a much larger compressor could keep up with the blasts (which are surprisingly loud and violent). This is implicitly recognised by Felder
with the onboard receiver. The documentation that comes with the RL250 and bigger is inaccurate. Bottom line RL250s require a LOT of air.
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Oh, and the uneven filling of bins persists. It really is laughable on a circa $20k machines (less in USD and lots more in AUD). Problems or flaws? Hmm.
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I would not purchase another one. Just to be clear, I like my Felder and Format-4 machines and I have an entire shop of them and have been purchasing since
2005. And my local reps are excellent. My criticism of the RL250 should be taken in that context.
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But I have to say Felder machinery represent excellent value,?not?excellent
machines. If I had more money, I would not buy a single Felder/Format-4 again, with the possible exception of my Kappa 400 x-motion. The RL250 is flawed (oops, sorry, ¡°problematic¡±); the Profil 45Z x-motion absolutely does not hold calibration and is simply
a very fancy manual shaper; my vintage FS900 has twisted casting; the FB540 is no longer made and in fact was not made by Felder at all and so is an excellent bandsaw; the FW1102 is also no longer made and in fact was not made by Felder ¨C it is pretty good
but very underpowered at 15kW; the Dual 51 will not hold calibration on the hinged tables ¨C best to avoid altogether; the FD250 is actually pretty good (he grudgingly admits) but ironically I no longer own one of those as I didn¡¯t use it enough. Oh, and I
do love my FAT300 even though it is very expensive.
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But the Kappa 400 x-motion is a beautiful slider that actually holds its calibration.
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Warm regards,
Lucky
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David (Lucky) Luckensmeyer should chime in on this. ?He has a large WB with an RL-200 or 250 if memory serves. ?His dust extractor takes an enormous amount
of compressed air. ?Lucky?
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[Edited Message Follows]
Hi Kyle,?
I recently received a new RL160 with auto clean, auto start to replace an RL160 without. Machine price was ~$6,700 much quieter than a cyclone with no blow by dust collecting around the exhaust.? The RL200 is in the same chassis as the RL160 but three phase,
the next steps up on bigger models use compressed air to blow the pleats clean during operation that's where you can sand all day long.? Now for half that a cyclone is going to do a great job as the mid level RL's have limited filter area and no way to drop
out fines like a cyclone has.? The RL decibel output is about 70db, the Cyclones are 85db, the RL is [email protected]" single phase and Cyclones are 3hp@6" or 5hp@8" typically.? Like many things there are tradeoffs for noise, HP, duct size and cleaning methods.?
IMO If you are going to use a WBS I suggest a cyclone or pleat cleaning style collector during operation otherwise the low noise, auto clean and high efficiency of the RL is going to work well for you. Other options are Nederman bag systems??$9,000
or AL-KO?the
latter starting at $15,000.?
--?
Jay Bowen
Cleveland?
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David Luckensmeyer