J. Phil Thien's Projects

I took the opportunity over the weekend to clean out my filter and at the same time route back the baffle thickness. I also got some pictures of the diverter. After cleaning the filter out and slowly sucking up a pile of dust I still noticed some bypass but I still think it was a result of super fine dust and lots of it. I completed a wood working project and noticed little to no dust into the bag so I think it's working. I'm going to clean out the filter again and let it roll for a bit.
Here are a couple of pictures of the piece of wood I put in to help get the material to the outside edge as quick as possible. I think it also helps keep the initial pass of dust from the inlet to not pass to close to the outlet and get sucked up the hose.

Well yesterday I measured some items and made some modifications. Seemed to help a lot.

First I measured the baffle length I was more like 270-300 degrees so what I did was place a piece of hardboard inside the baffle right at the inlet. I scribed it to the outside edge and then tapered the exposed edges before gluing it down.

Second, I measured the distance of the outlet pipe from the baffle plate and then put an extension on the pipe to get it closer to 3".

Third, I sealed up the lock ring that holds the top hat to the drum. I used some 3/4" wide 5/16 thick weather stripping. Worked well.

Forth,  I put in a 30 degree angled plate at the inlet so that the incoming dust is sent toward the outer wall immediately.

Finally I moved the inlet pipe up as far I could.

This all seemed to help a lot. I need to clean out the filter empty the bin and test it again but it seems to be much better.

I think part of why i'm getting so much fines as well is that while I'm testing I'm basically taking a 4" hose and shoving it in a large pile of fine sawdust. That is a tremendous amount of dust at one time.

Thanks for the reply. I've got a lot of things to do to get the system running right.
I did put a piece of wood at an angle from right under the inlet pipe until it meets the circular chamber. I was finding that as dust entered the rectangular portion of the inlet it was getting caught in some vortex right below the inlet pipe.

What you mean by raising my inlet pipe or changing to a rectangle?

2 more of it complete and with the window in the drum.

Well it took me long enough but I finally finished my top hat design built on a 55gal drum. The drum had a locking lid ring and I made sure to use that ring to secure the top hat on the drum. all pipe was 6" and material was a mix of ply and hardboard and 1/8" clear lexan. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.
First I modified my Delta 50-760 to have a 6" inlet
I then created a template  for the drum so that the lip of hardboard would slide under the locking ring. From there I built up the circles for the bottom, dry and test if everything and then put it all together.
The result works great for keeping the tophat centered.
I have found that it doesn't do a good job with fine dust but I think that might be a result of the following items
1. not a tight seal on the system
2. drop slot location and width(measured to be 1.5" wide)
3. Thickness of baffle  even though I tapered it back.

I'll seal it up and take a pic of fix. Probably use an smoke stick to check for more leaks.

I used a 55gallon drum that has a locking lid to it. I removed the lid and used a piece of hardboard and that holds the separator in place. With that being said I did notice some air movement pushing out of the seal. Right now it's just hardboard to hard plastic.

The seal is that big a deal?

Also I wonder if I should have angled my inlet pipe or offset the inlet pipe more toward the side. Currently I have around 1-1.5 inch extra space around the 6" pipe inlet and the inlet is centered in the rectangle inlet

I could add some material below the baffle to shorten the slot length. My concern is that the baffle is already as thick as 3/4" ply and 2 pieces of hardboard. I did angle the baffle back to make it thinner at the edge.

I do indeed have build pics I will post them this afternoon. Not sure if I stated it but when testing with fine dust the dust seemed to be nose diving toward the slot right at the end before the inlet start again.

I'll try to get a video as well.

quick little example of how long my drop slot is compared to what is the normal. did I mess up?

Man I finished mine this weekend using a 50-760 and it's not even close to that clean. It does work but fine dust just goes right up the tube into the bag.

Finished mine over the weekend and wasn't impressed with the amount of fines that got through. I did mess up and made my drop slot larger more like 1.5" and also kept the drop slot the entire radius up until the incoming air flow hits it again. I had originally stopped it about 4" shy of the vertical wall the inlet is at but I noticed that the dust was collecting there and then being sucked up.

How crucial is the 240 degree opening? Has it been tried with a longer slot?

Thanks for the tips guys. I was able to source some 1/8" lexan. Cost was 25 bucks for a 10"x5'x1/8"

I was going to start my build this week and had a few questions.
I did search and the answers seem to be all over the place.

1. I'm getting the poly cut and not sure of the height i need to specify. I will be using a 6" inlet and outlet on a top hat design. Rectangle shoot for the inlet. I was thinking that 8" tall piece of polycarbonate will be work fine. I know it's not crucial but still

2. Where has everyone had luck finding the hvac duct piece for the outlet? Also anyone had luck at the big box stores getting poly cut? if so which one.

3. I was also thinking about putting a main 6" opening on the inlet manifold to use for most instances but also put a 4" port to use for a shop cleanup port and such. The 4" port would have a gate valve but obviously the distance from the manifold to the gate valve would be at least a couple inches. Bad idea? To much turbulance?