J. Phil Thien's Projects

I just built my first Thien seperator using a Ridgid vac and a 5 gallon pail.  It works very well at keeping my filter clean - and that was my first priority.  Banging that filter against a tree a few times a day during a Syracuse winter is enough to make me want to give up.

I have seen a small reduction in suction.  As in, before I added the seperator the SV with a clean filter would suck up screws from the shop floor.  Now with the seperator (and a clean filter) it isnt able to get most of those screws.  I can live with this loss of power since, in reality, my filter was rarely clean - so most of those screws got left behind anyway.

One area that I would like to improve on is the size of the seperator can.  I am using a 5 gallon pail and once you account for the 2" pvc and the baffle that go into the can, there is only about 7" of room at the bottom of the can for sawdust and chips. So it fills up pretty quickly.

If I were to move up to a 30 gallon garbage can would that be asking too much of my shop vac?  I am thinking that the volume of the 30 gallon can would further reduce the vacs ability to create suction and move air.

Anybody have experience in this area?  Thanks

I just found this forum and think it's great. 

I like the idea of using Phils design with my Ridgid shop vac.  Seems that it works great for chips and larger dust particles, but I am wondering about the fine dust.  What's the best filter you can get for a Ridgid (or other) shop vac to capture that fine dust? Thanks