MatalMan asking WoodMen for help, thoughts, ideas

[ToolInsane]

Heyyyya there everyone,

  As a Millwright my background is mostly in metal working~metal machining~ and mechanical. But I do have enough experience with wood working to get in and out of trouble most of the time.
  A couple months ago I stumbled across a brand new never used HF sandblast cabinet with 10~20lb bags of grit for 20$!(No not stolen~lol... wife was divorcing and was selling everything of his off cheap) Since the cabinet did not come with a vac/recovery system I learned really quick why you Do Need one in about 30sec of using the first time do to my whole shop was covered in grit dust! And Yesss I am still finding grit dust after about 2months later.
  Since I am the the kinda person that has a hard time buying something that I can take pride in making not only Bigger~Badder~Better but make last, I started researching on how to make a recovery dust separater for going on 2 months in my spare time and boy have I have learned a lot and also have been confused several times!
  There is many ways to do this right and wrong. Everything from cyclonic~multiple cyclone~baffle system~ to axial cyclone systems like Dyson's vacuum cleaners. After searching page after pages~forum after forums this is the first forum I registered with after reading all of the posts here!       
This forum has taught me a lot and has answered a lot of questions thanks to Mr. Jp Thien and all of your comments and posts!!!! This forum not only actually answers your questions and helps you understand the "what~why~where" but dosnt treat you like your stupid!  So here is my question/questions and I feel real confident that I'm in good hands here!.....
  How I got the idea for this was one night a while ago during some research on the inter~web I needed to a break to let my thoughts settle and grabbed the vacuum cleaner to vacuum up my shop floor and work benches ( yes I said vacuum cleaner not shop vac! It's our old house one and works great 👍 for cleaning shop floors~better than broom and dust pan!!! Faster too) it does not have a cyclone or multiple cyclones in it but it is bag less..it is a cyclonic style. I'll post pic of it... but anyway as I was doing this the 💡 came on and then confusion/dyslexia set in at same time....lol
I would like to build a bag less all~in~one system to reclaim~separate~and filter out the fine dust blast media or sand using a shop vac... I am not sure if I want to make an R2D2 pancake system or not yet.
   I have 2 different shop vacs to work with. One is a standard Crapsman wet/dry 3.25 hp 8 gal one that blows exhaust out the sides below motor. The other one is a 16 gallon Hoover 2 tank wet/dry with a wet tank and dry separator switch that has 216 airwatts of suction (which I have found out that is a true suction reading vs hp~but I can't find what it converts to as hp) and has a blower accessory port but also exhausts like other on.
  I learned from this sight that a cyclone system takes more to pull air through than Thien's baffle system.
  So that being said... what I want to build (and since I'm trying to reclaim sand everything needs to be metal) since space is a problem I'd like to try and build a cyclone inside either one of my 30 or 35 gal metal oil drum. Or I can build a Jp baffle top hat system or combine them both. But here's the one of the problems I also need help with... i need to separate the media from dust/garbage and have the dust in a separate container or compartment. Preferably on top of drum. I have drawings of what my thoughts are that I will post. And I have considered a water filtration system using shop vac but there has to be a better way to do this with out a bag or filter.. And this systems I've looked at or read about clean to well as in they separate dust and debris at same time where I need to separate they heavy from fines. If this is confusing please let me know!!!
Has anyone tried putting a cyclone inside drum instead of on top like a vacuum cleaner?
Ty
Shawn
Ps...
I'm adding some pics of a horizontal system that I stumbled across and looking for thoughts on that too...

[ToolInsane]

I can't tell if all the pics uploaded! Please let me know if not..
Ty
Shawn

[retired2]

Have you thought about reselling the sandblast cabinet?  You could make a handsome profit and rid yourself of all these headaches!😃

I don't know where to begin to help you, but this task sounds more like it needs a 3--5hp dust collection system rather than a shop vac, whatever its power.

[ToolInsane]

Heyyy there,

Ty for replies!
what I'm trying to accomplish is to not have to use a paper or cloth final filter. The jp and cyclone system filter to well and don't just separate letting small dust be caught in another catch. 
I'm going to try and upload pics..

[ToolInsane]

More pics

[ToolInsane]

A couple more

[ToolInsane]

Wowwww over 80 peeps have looked at this and only a couple have replied!! I would have thought that this would be the place to get answers! Ugggggg

[retired2]

Wowwww over 80 peeps have looked at this and only a couple have replied!! I would have thought that this would be the place to get answers! Ugggggg

You are in uncharted waters!  Worthwhile advice is going to be hard to come by.