J. Phil Thien's Projects

http://www.jpthien.com/smf/index.php?topic=249.0

Check out my write up on the side inlet install

What about oiled filters.  They are used for high volume of air with good filtaration on cars has anyone adapted them for woodworking?

Can yo confirm the theory by running the bad seperator with the lower power vacume and see if it works better?

Quote from: phil (admin) on January 01, 2008, 10:04:38 PM
HF claims 914-CFM and 9.4" of SP.  We know that the CFM is nonsense, though.  It has a single 4" inlet.  According to BP a 4" pipe can carry about 400-CFM.  My somewhat scientific testing (using two different anemometers) seems to indicate that this unit pulls about 370-CFM.

What it's only pulling 370 CFM.  I thought it felt rather weak and was suspect of the 900 number.  So why so you think there is such a large differance.  That not even in the ball park of 900CFM.  Are there any units that actuall pull what they say or are close? 

Quote from: dbhost on November 03, 2009, 12:14:42 PM
You are expecting WAY more out of a 1 HP Dust collector than you should...

Oh ok... I really didn't know what to expect they don't really let you demo this stuff which is unfortunate. I'm going to try it out for a while and how it works.  I'm sure it will be way better than what I had before which was nothing where at the end of each project there was several inches of dust over the whole floor.

Another thing I did notice was the HF min spins in the reverse direction than most other DC units.  Where the air traveling in to out would seem to be taking a right turn.  Where the air in to out of the trash can and other DC units would be turning the air in a left hand turn fashion.  IDK if that matters much

Here are the basic steps I followed.

1)   Trace the patter onto the can
2)   Use a dermal and make short work of cutting the opening for the inlet.
3)   Tape the pattern onto the Inlet tube.  I used snap together metal AC duct for this. 
4)   Use tin snips and cut out the pattern before snapping the metal into a tube
5)   Move the patter about 2? down from where you just cut
6)   Cut tabs back to the new location. 
7)   Attach Tube to can alternating tabs to the inside and outside of can.
8)   Pop rivet in place.   
9)   Caulk with Air seal. 

I used this website to make the templates for intersecting the inlet tube with t trash can: http://www.harderwoods.com/pipedocs.html. 

This took just a little time to do, most of it was making decisions on how I wanted to do it so I thought this write up might help some one else.  Otherwise, it went rather quickly.  Drilling out all the pop rivets took the longest mostly because I stopped to calk under each tab as I went along. 

I haven?t taken pictures of the baffle yet, but it is down and has a HF mini DC unit installed on the top.

The separator works rather well, I cleaned up my shop floor and all the dust ended up in the can with none in the bag.  My only complaint seems to be with the HF mini unit.  It doesn?t seem to have the suction power I expected it would.  I?m using a 10? flex hose and the Rockler master system.  When vacuuming the floor you really had to be completely over the dust before it would pick it up.  It also didn?t really have the power to suck up anything heavy like a screw which my shop vac would have grabbed.   Is there something wrong with the unit or am I expecting more than I should? 

Oh WOW, thats even better.  I was able to find the coupon.  Thanks for the great sugestion.

Yeah I see now how I totally misread that.  You said it clearly before, my brain just goofed.  Thanks for the info.  I think I'll try out the cheaper higher performance one. 

I'm hopeing to start my baffel sometime soon. 

So it sounds like the more expensive one is worth the extra cost, where the extra static lift provideds improvemnet over the differance in CFM, and lower noise. 

Thanks.

I?m looking at doing something like this?
http://www.jpthien.com/smf/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=27.0;attach=41;image
http://www.sasmopeds.com/dd2.JPG

In doing so I?m look at getting a HF portable DC like the one shown.  So my question is:

Why is this unit
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=94029
cheaper than this unit?
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=31810

They are both 1 HP but the more expensive one is rated for less CFM?  I don?t understand the reasons for the differences in cost and CMF?  Does the cheaper one have a cheaper motor that will break or something?  Otherwise it seems obvious to go with the one that cost less and has high CFM. 

Is the dimension in any way dependant on the distance between the two baffles?  Or is the 1 inch rule constant if the space between the baffles is 3" versus 6".   
   
I was thinking the rule might be more like the distance from the top of the lower baffle to the pipe should be equal to the diameter of the pipe or something like that?  Or does it really make too much difference?