J. Phil Thien's Projects

My Easy Way to hold the 5 Gallon Bucket in place.

Foam seal at top surface, bonded to the above flat surface.

Use the built in Lever, Pail Handle, and a couple bungee ties.

Fix the point on both sides of the handle that will deliver the required tension.

Fashion a hook to another bungee to hold the handle in the down position.

Three guides were installed to align the bucket.  I think just one or even two would be sufficient to hold the bucket while you jack it up with the pail handle.

Very easy to remove and replace the bucket.

So far I have collected 5 buckets full of sawdust with ZERO reaching the Shop-Vac. Mr. Thien has done an amazing job with this design.

Thank you retired2. 
I will look for the you-tube. 
I guess I should maintain the same distance off the baffle?

Thank you for your reply's.

That is what I was wondering about.  I did read about them here on the forum but never saw what they actually did to make them improve airflow. 
I am going to make a bellmouth by heating the end of the PVC and uniformly press it into shape in my bench vise.  Not sure how much of a change I need to make?  Some that I have seen in here are like a flange and others are more like a bellmouth.  If all it does is help the airflow find the opening it sounds like Trumpet Shape would be okay.

Thank you Dabullseye

More Photos
Can someone explain the function of the bell mouth outlet? 

Is it to not let fines go out?

I hope this works.
Sorry for the quality because they are from my cell phone.

How do I insert the photos?
I have them on my desktop.

I am a newbie

Top-hat About as close to 100% as I could ever imagine.

Manifold is made with ASTM F 810 MS  100 MM   = 4 inch     Waste Pipe Smooth Wall

4 inch Top Hat Separator

Rectangular Inlet  2 X 4 inches

Non Bellmouth 2 inch outlet, set at center of vertical chamber.

Inlet is 4 " pipe centered on inlet.  Left and right side is obstructed by opening but top and bottom are clear.

Inlet nozzle left side is straight in and the right side tapers to derive the 2 " opening.  This should help the airflow align with the wall of the top-hat.

1/8 inch masonite was used for the side wall.  The height was 4.5 inches so that the wall extends below the baffle without a seam.  Learned from the internet that bending is made very easy by wetting with 409 detergent 5 minutes before bending.

Slot is according to the plan and 1.5 inches.  ¼ inch plywood, smooth, no tapering for the baffle.

Outlet is designed as a metering orifice.  Piece of female end of 4" pipe is centered around outlet of top of the top-hat.  90 degree fitting is placed inside the female fitting.  Concentric orientation.

Square Tapered Funnel attached below top-hat dumps debris into the catch bucket.  Top opening 12 inches bottom opening 6 inches square.  Sides are made of masonite. 6 inch  high square chute   12 inches tapering to 6 inches.  This is located right below the baffle.

5 gallon bucket used for catch bucket.  The bucket has most of what you need to hold it tight to the bottom of the  funnel.  With the bucket handle up, attach a wire about 2 inches forward, towards you, of the handle attach point so that it can not slide on the wire handle.  Then attach the other end of the wire to a point on the funnel structure directly above the handle attach point, or a little aft of that location.  Now buy pulling down on the handle it will lift the bucket up tight against the funnel.  Either use a bungee or suitable fitting the keep the handle in that down position.  To remove the bucket just let the handle move up and slide the bucket out.

I have run two buckets full of sawdust and some larger debris through the top-hat an zero dust has been found in the shop-vac.  The filter in the shop-vac is also free of any visible debris.  I only have a table saw and chop saw generating chips.  I did add small cut off chips and some small pieces of tape to the mix.

Copious amounts of Duct Tape.

Shop-vac 12 Gallon 6.0 HP

Poor performance until I changed to 2.5 inch flex hose.  The 1.25 inch hose was too restrictive and also was prone to blockage.

Am a newbie at this but I have installed a couple Home Vacuum Systems and plan on using some of the lessons learned.  No 90 degree fittings, use two 45's, sweeping turns.

Only drop input into the top of the manifold, never insert input on the bottom of the manifold pipe.

Has anyone moved the Shop-vac to the garage to reduce the noise?
If I brought the output from the Shop-vac back into the shop would that bring all the noise back into the shop?  Don't want to give up conditioned air!

Should I make my own Blast Gates or buy them?

Thank you in advance.  I have learned a lot over the last few days.  This thing works GREAT!

Still trying to figure out how to send photos!!!!!!!!!