Felder RL160 Dust Collector Review
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- Опубликовано: 3 мар 2016
- This review of the Felder RL160 Clean Air dust extractor provides an overview of the various design features that may be of interest to potential buyers. Overall, this is an excellent dust extractor that will not only keep your shop cleaner but, will improve the air quality as well.
Loving that 480p video. Gives it a real 90's vibe.
Thanks Steve, I’ll check them out.
Thanks for the nice video. I have the newer model of the RL 160 in my shop (a LOT bigger machine it appears).
It's running on 3X400V (3Phase 400Volt Europe) and it "sucks" :) (in a good way that is). But my ducting needs work, because I seem to be loosing suction power when opening more then 1 gate at a time.
Thanks. I am running 3 phase 240 volts at 60 Hz so it runs 20% faster than in Europe. I often have to open an additional gate to keep the low flow light off. I am very pleased with how much cleaner the shop is since installing this.
Loved the video, excellent job. Just wish you had fired it up so we could hear how loud it is or isn't.
Hi Jeff, You can definitely hear it in some of my other videos. Steve
Thanks Steve, will do!
Thanks for the review. How many machine can you efficiently run at once on the RL160 and did you design your own duct work?
+Bid Budy
Being a one man operation, I don't know how many machines will operate efficiently. On occasion, I have run with two paths open and dust collection worked fine. I have several machines with multiple ports the worst case being two 5" ports (shaper) and I see excellent collection on this machine. I have a few machines with single 4" ports and I find that I need to at least partially open another port to get better collection as the RL160 sounds like it is starved of air flow. A lot of the efficiency has to do with how leak tight your collection system is. I use the Nordfab and the piping is very tight with the weak point being leakage at the manual blast gates.
I did design my own ductwork.
Hi Steve, Thanks for the video. I’m wondering if you have an opinion on the SCM dust extractors. They are sized similarly to the fielder units. I’m considering their 160 mm unit versus the Felder rl160. It requires 3 phase but I’m set up for that. Unlike the mechanical cleaning strategy employed by folder and most other units, the SCM units clean via electrolysis. Not sure how well that works...Would appreciate your thoughts.
Hi Bob, I am not familiar with SCM dust extractors but they look similar to the Felder units. The VF series have sleeve filters where the Felder uses cartridge filters similar to the VF125/140 SCM units. All of them have the same filtration specifications. You probably mean electrostatic instead of electrolysis but I see no reference to either in the SCM on-line documents. SCM products are not usually as refined as the Felder products but the dust extractor appears to be an exception. The unit you are looking at appears interesting and worthy of further investigation. I would suggest contacting SCM and get a references for someone who actually has one of these and get more direct input. Hope this helps.
Hi Steve, really enjoy your channel. I have an RL160 and would like to order Nordfab ducting for my shop. I was wondering if you know what the part numbers are for your reducer and adaptor from 160 to 120. Also, do you have a contact you worked with over the phone. Thanks again for all the great videos.
Hi Lee. Most of my ductwork was purchased used with the RL160. The connection at the collector is a vibration isolator and connects the 6" piping to the 160mm inlet to the collector. I do not have a 160/120 reducer. I have ordered some piping/fittings from ductingsystems.com and from Grizzly. If I were outfitting for a new installation, I would also check out ductincorporated.com which makes a similar product to Nordfab. I have heard good things about them but have no personal experience. Hope this helps. Steve
I'm amazed. The Felder spec info says the RL160 is rated at 3200 CFM and it collects particulates down to 0.1 micron. Is that consistent with your experience? There are not many made-in-the USA cyclone systems with comparable specs if I recall correctly. I had always thought that cyclones were the go-to technology because it allowed separation of the filter-clogging larger dust and chips from the really fine (and dangerous) dust. I was thinking of upgrading my hodge-podge collection of chip collectors to a good Oneida cyclone or comparable. What was your prior cyclone dust collector? Was there something about your prior system which prompted you to upgrade to the Felder RL160?
Hi Welsh Rabbit, the 3200 number is cubic meters/hr and not CFM. It is quoted as 1883 CFM. I have never seen a micron rating on the RL series. I think the 0.1 number you refer to is the dust concentration quality in the outlet air. It is quoted as
Thanks, Steve. Excellent information. Even at 1883 CFM, that still places it in the top things that really suck. : D
Welsh Rabbit the fine dust filter on the felder collectors is much better then the filters on cyclone seperators, thats why there is so little dust comming put of it.
i arrived to work at my college and we had the RL200 already installed,. with up to 4 machines running off it at any time it was totally inefficient,. The dust came out the top of the unit and the shavings continued to clog the filters every 3 weeks. this was a manual handle pull for filter cleaning. killed my arm and was about use as a chocolate tea pot, felder technicians arrived, laughed and had no answer to keeping it clean. so spent one afternoon every few weeks dismantling the sides and removing the filters. they are expensive at £500 each, we had five independent extraction specialists in and confirmed it was not fit for purpose and only good for 1 to 2 machines. updated with a different extractor 10 times the size and real suction so happy days, if considering one I would make sure it is for small workshop and has a automatic cleaning system. in my experience shavings just clogged it and I had no way to clean the filters unless you have the time to waste, but we did need to alter our ducting which was a part problem
Hi Robert. I think I experienced the same thing with the dust coming out of the top of my Felder RL 125 when I first tried it out (bought my second hand) - Then my father pointed out that it needed to run with the plastic bags in place, otherwise the shavings would go through the channel in the bottom of the container, and out through the top of the machine. I works great now with bags in place.
hican you give me some more info on the remote unit for your rl 160?. I just ordered the rl 140thank you
Hi Tony. Congratulations on the new unit. The remote I use is the Penn State Industries Long Ranger Heavy Duty.
www.pennstateind.com/store/LR2244.html?gclid=Cj0KEQjw1ee_BRD3hK6x993YzeoBEiQA5RH_BGxSypkHcxChihkABtKHFPODc6_RR0hId95-UfFqudEaAoNJ8P8HAQ
Steve
I’m curious where the Penn State controller is located in the electrical system? Does the power from your breaker panel come into this switch or wired to some auxiliary terminals on your Felder? Thanks.
I’m thinking of getting a used rl125 . Would it be powerful enough for a wide belt sander?
I would check the Felder site for RL125 flow ratings and compare the the wide belt requirements. Also consider your ducting in this evaluation. Flex hose and fittings will considerably reduce the air flow. Steve
Do you have 3 phase from the hydro poll or do you have a converter? I’ll be setting up a shop in an old dairy barn and need to purchase a converter. My largest motor is on a wide belt 25 hp. And 5 hp dust collector at same time. Do you have any suggestions as to choosing the right 3 phase converter.
I use a Phase Perfect digital phase converter. I used to have a rotary but it gave me some issues starting my tablesaw so I switched. I would suggest contacting various phase converter manufacturers to discuss your sizing needs.
Thank you I will continue that course of action. If you know of some good manufactures please pass on their info for me to contact them. I’ve been talking with phase perfect digital phase converter‘s. Not sure if you heard of them but they seem like a good company.
Sorry for the last comment, I now realize that is the manufacture that you used. Lol.
@@shiloliving232 I might also suggest Kay and American Rotary
@@extremewoodworker I have Phase Perfect, an older unit that I bought used over 20 years ago, HP-30(?) I believe. IMO one of my better purchases as I also use it for my 7.5HP air compressor, 10HP metal lathe, and 3HP milling machine, all have 208-230V, 3 phase motors. I can run any number of these machines at same time and often do, the phase perfect really shines with that fact. 3 phase motor are more robust than single phase and can take multiple start and stop cycles per hour, single phase can not as rotor tends to over heat and burn up an expensive motor. Also with Phase Perfect you can also use delta to delta transformers to get other higher 3 phase system voltages (440, 575 etc). But IMO, if you only have one or possibly 2 pieces of 3 phase equipment and hopefully they have 208-230V, 3 phase motors on it, then look into VFD's for each, a VFD that can run on single phase input for HP required. The new ones work fantastic, and very economical.
I finally ordered my Penn State controller for my 230V, 3-phase RL160 and waiting for it to ship. I had asked before how this was wired so am bumping to the top to see if anyone out there has an answer. From my previous question: "I’m curious where the Penn State controller is located in the electrical system? Does the power from your breaker panel come into this switch or wired to some auxiliary terminals on your Felder?" Thank you.
I wired mine powered from the electric panel. Steve
@@extremewoodworker Thanks, Steve…I thought as much but had to ask so I didn’t waste my time running conduit/wire and having to do it over.
How much was the dust collector? I’m getting a hard time tracking down the RL series collector prices online
Hi Philippe. It is a 2005 model that I purchased used 12 years ago so I do not know the new price. Your best bet is to get in contact with Felder for pricing. If purchasing new and depending on application, I might consider the Harvey Gyro unit now as they are much quieter than the RL. Steve
@@extremewoodworker No, save your money and stay away from the Harvey units!!! If you can find really honest reviewers (there are a few), you will find out the Harvey are junk, always clog solid, real pain to clean and if you turn down the airflow to prevent clogging, then you leave unacceptable amount of chips and dust at the tool. Only the guys that received them free are saying how great they are. Do your homework on Harvey before spending the money!!! I think most guys are too embarrassed to tell the world they made a huge financial mistake with Harvey dust processors. But some are posting honestly in forms etc. If you can't afford Felder or AL-KO (I wish I could) then Oneida, Clear-Vue, Powermatic, even Grizzly are some better choices, they have HEPA or HEPA type filters and fairly decent cyclones. Possibly more MFG's out there as well
@@joeg7755 Thank you for the insights Joe. I am not in the market to purchase a new dust collector. The Harvey looks interesting but lacks capacity especially if you mill rough lumber. I really like the AL-KO as it is very quiet but also very pricey. Steve
@extremewoodworker Awesome video. I have a few questions for you about the dust tray - may I contact you?
What is it you want to know?
@@extremewoodworker I wrote to you on FOG - I was wondering about dust collection tray dimensions?
@@selta77 Okay. I'll check over there.