J. Phil Thien's Projects

The really thin hand plane shavings end up going into the clear bag on my HF 2HP dust collector along with the really small particles or "fines".  The first time I bum rushed the seperator with a big pile of shavings, it clogged the output hose going to the impeller.  I cleaned every thing out and took it slowly after that and didn't have any problems.  None of this stuff likes paper towels, either BTW.  The main thing to remember is that you will not be throwing your dust pan away.  That won't happen with any dust collector system.  I keep my broom, dust pan and trash bag nearby.  It's much quicker to sweep a huge pile of shavings into the trash and then suck up what's left behind with the DC.  Just my benevolent opinion.

Phil,

Thanks for the suggestions.  We put it together and tested it (man, your design works great... just like everyone says).  After I use it awhile, and the honeymoon wears off, the HFDC will be relocated down from the loft to hide it under the workbench.  It works, and will do for a while, but... I think we can get better suction with a much shorter plumbing run.

I sucked up 1/3 of a HD orange bucket of wood cuttings with my son upstairs checking out if anything was making it to the clear bag to no avail (a good thing).  We had to suck up a piece of ping pong sized piece foam insulation to see anything made it to the clear bag.  All the wood cuttings were in the 30 gallon can (a very good thing).

Now that I have some semblance of dust colleciton'm up and running, I'll take my time and read through these posts slowly/carefully as time permits.

Thanks for providing a wonderful website with so much useful information.  We'll all breath a little easier.  I hope you get rich.  My donation is on the way.

Hello to all!  I'm an old dog trying to learn some new tricks.  My idea is to have the trash can seperator downstairs and the Harbor Freight 2HP DC upstairs with 8' (plus or minus) 4" pvc.

Is this a bad idea as far as performance goes?

I have a small barn style shop (16' x 16').  I want to put my 2 HP HFDC in the loft (upstairs) and plum 4" pvc from the 30 gal trash can seperator under the workbench, up the wall, and connect to the HFDC.  I have the 4" electrical pvc conduit with the long 90 deg elbows.  It would be the length of 2 elbows and a 50" straight piece (vertical section).  The 4" hose connection from the seperator to the wall mounted pvc will be around 24".  The connection in the loft from the pvc to the impeller assy with be around 24".