J. Phil Thien's Projects

The collector is used for output from sawing, routing and sanding so the collected material is a mixture of large and small particles. The material you see on the dust filter inside the lid is fine and results from the process I described in my original post - the bigger stuff stays in the bottom but fines rise up the centre of the bucket.

I'm aware of the static charge spark problem and will probably use copper tape as a discharge path to prevent trouble, although there is zero evidence of static build up - the walls of the bucket remain clean.

I'll search for posts dealing with situations where fine dust is the main material.

Ed Form

No one have any thoughts?

Ed Form

Hi

I'm a long-retired, former technical director of a couple of the major UK loudspeaker companies. Feeling lazy and stiff from lack of exercise about a year ago, I decided to fit out my single-car garage as a woodwork shop.

Because of the confined space, I chose a moveable, universal workbench [a Wolfcraft Mastercut 2500] and had a new, single-piece worktop made by a local CNC shop, cut for a standard router lift. [The original two-piece top with its large cut-out for the Wolfcraft tool-holder plate is prone to warping if the humidity gets too high]. I then designed and ordered plates to fit the same aperture, one to mount an upside down circular saw, and the other for an upside down jigsaw so I have three rapid-replace power-tool modules for the main cutting functions. The next phase will be to make a sanding station and probably a removeable bench top and guides for my pedestal drill press.

I came here because I saw some YouTube videos of Phil Thien's clever dust extractor plate and wanted to know more. It's good to meet you all.  :D

Ed Form

I have one of these Triton dust extraction systems and it certainly keeps my shop vac clean. The slightly transparent bucket allows me to see, however, that there is a cloud of dust recirculating from the bottom of the bucket, up the centre towards the outlet pipe in the centre of the lid. The device has a cloth filter inside the lid which stops the dust leaving the bucket, but it clogs quite quickly in use and has to be rapped against the bucket to dislodge the dust layer and restore air flow.


As you'll see the lid has two inlets, each with a blast gate and a diverter to introduce swirl. With one gate open, the incoming material can clearly be seen swirling around the side of the bucket and descending to the bottom, albeit with recirculating dust rising through the centre of the swirl. I don't understand why there are two opposite facing diverter vanes which must surely produce opposing flows, although this isn't an issue to me as I only ever use a single inlet hose from whichever tool I'm using at the time.

The bucket is 20 litres, adequate for my very small workshop - it's a single garage.

My proposal is to modify the inlets with a single diverter hood so that material from both inlets will be swirled around the bucket in the same direction, and to add a Thien plate a couple of inches down the wall of the bucket. Has anyone here done this with this product?

There is a detailed description on the web of a modification that stacks the Triton bucket on another cannister and inserts a large funnel between the two, plus a long extension of the centre outlet, but it seems a lot of trouble to go to if a simple Thien plate would prevent recirculation.

I'd make my plate from steel sheet cut on a waterjet, and probably mount it on a long bolt, replacing the bolt that holds the cloth filter to the lid. in this way, the plate would lift out with the lid for ease of emptying the bucket.

Comments would be much valued.

Ed Form