J. Phil Thien's Projects

Will,

I guess I don't understand your question. Since the suction is coming from my cyclone to the Thien separator and then to my jointer, how can I use only one?

The cyclone is an Onieda V3000 (3 hp) and it seems to have a lot of suction. I would be running a 5" flex hose (about 5 ft long )between the cyclone and the Thien Separator and another 5" flex hose (also about 5 ft long) from the Thien Separator to the jointer.

I sent an e-mail to Phil and asked the following question:

I have an Onieda V3000 cyclone which works well, but the small container fills up quickly when I am planeing or jointing. I am thinking about making a separator of your design with a larger barrel to avoid having to empty the small container so often. So, have you had any experience with anyone trying this and/or what is your opinion about how well this would work?

He answered back that it will work fine and asked if I could just increase the container size on my Onieda.

Then he said instead of answering that, he suggested I start a new thread so others could chime in. So--- here it is.

As far as increasing the container size, I can't because of headroom constraints. When I purchased my system, the standard container was 35 gallon (which was what I got) with an optional 55 gallon. As noted above, this put the overall height of the system over the head room available.

I would welcome comments from anyone, especially anyone who has done anything similar.