J. Phil Thien's Projects

I can't say that I am surprised about the projected performance of the shop vac. Unfortunately, this is life's lemons and for the time being, I'm making lemonade. I'm working out of my garage currently. Actually, being in Texas, I am usually working out in my driveway; I drag the tools out there to work. But, it's gotten to be unbearably hot so working inside the garage is an improvement. I just need to try to do my best to mitigate the dust going everywhere for the time being. Maybe a dirty car will get my wife to green light a new shop project  ;)

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Thanks for the further explanation. I bought the Duststopper before I knew it was a rip off of Phil's design. So, I'm trying to design something that will perform as well for less money. My idea was born from thinking that coming in from the top would be a lot easier than coming in from the side and there was a beautifully radius'd fitting. I've watched a lot of videos and designs that have a 'clunky' attachment point on the side. But, at this point, it sounds like I need to get back to something closer to what Phil has designed.

I use a table saw and miter saw more than anything else. I also create a lot of dust and mess with a router table/plunge router, an orbital sander, and 2 different belt sanders. I have a band saw, but I'm just beginning to learn how to use it. I also have a planer but I think it puts out way too much for a small shop vac to handle, and really, I don't do a whole lot of projects requiring it's use and its not a fine dust as far as I can tell. I should also mention that I have been using my jigsaw a lot more lately. Other than the belt sanders, everything else listed has a dedicated dust port attachment point. I have aspirations to create a sanding station with a dedicated port.

I've already begun creating the DC 'cart' with the shop vac and collection bucket. I just need the top hat portion to complete the setup.


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Thanks Retired2! I'm a bit disappointed but I respect your opinion. You've clearly been doing this a long time. Was there something specific that could be tweaked or is it a total failure?

I thought I read somewhere that the intent of the forum and lack of published "plans" was to promote experimentation and customization. The latter portion of your statement seems to contradict this. I am brand new, but I did spend some time searching for things like minimum requirements or "start with this" advice, and I came up empty handed. Please correct me if I am mistaken.


Thank you,
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Hi All,

I'm brand new to the forum and very new to the world of DC and cyclone separators and baffles. I tried to search for this but I didn't find what I was looking for. Please correct me if it already exists.

I was brainstorming at HD this morning and saw this large fitting and it gave me an idea. I've attached a crude picture to help explain what I think will happen. Please let me know if I'm onthe right track or if this is not going to perform how I want it. BTW, the bucket is simply for demonstration purposes. I be crafting a shorter top hat version, tbd. The red line is the supply coming from the tools/hoses in a 2" pipe. I'll cut out the sidewall of the pipe FACING TOWARD the container sides and AWAY from the other fitting. The yellow area indicates my GUESS at where I need to cut the bottom of the container for the baffle. The blue represents the swirling air as it moves around the sides and into the 3" inlet and finally up and out and back into the shop vac (represented by green). BTW, I only have access to a small 6 gal shop vac. I don't have immediate plans to upgrade to a DC.

My questions:
1) How will this perform?
2) Are the cuts in the baffle correct (yellow areas)?
3) Is the 3" fitting too large of an opening? I can obstruct portions of it, but I can't find the same style in 2" pipe.
4) How much of the sidewall should I cut away?

In general, I'm worried about the air flow from 2" to 3" and back to 2" using a small shop vac. Will this even create the necessary centrifugal force to separate the air from the dust?


Any and all comments appreciated. Thanks in advance!
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Hi,

I'm brand new to DC and the Thien Baffle. I'm looking forward to learning more and improving my working conditions. Cheers!


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