J. Phil Thien's Projects

I don't have a contractors saw, but I like that "boot".
I have a 15 year old Grizzly cabinet makers saw, and the motor was not enclosed. I ended up building a box extension, inside my extension table, and then put a 6" hole for the dust piping in the end. It did require that I give up the shelf space under the saw, but it seems to work fine. I also taped up the small door on the left side of the saw, that way air flows downward thru the blade area.

I have 10' between my DC and my TopHat. If you look back at my posting, ( http://www.jpthien.com/smf/index.php?topic=557.0) I have both pictures and a link to a YouTube Video of my setup. I did use 7" piping from the 3HP DC to the TopHat, and then transtioned thru that into 6". I assumed that any loss might be made up with the different size piping. In the end I would think it would depend on the HP of the DC and the total amount of piping.

Actually I had the same situation. I bought a 3HP Reliant and the prior owner had a 7" inlet custom made for the DC. I ran 7" pipe 12' from the DC to my second floor tophat, and then 6" piping from there to the tools. I assume that because there is a suggestion of a certain amount of loss with the tophat, that I could be making up for part of the loss within the tophat. But, even if that isn't the case, I wasn't going to change what was already done. It works well, and I actually am thinking about a second design to make emptying under the barrel even easier than it is now.  You can check out pictures/ video on my prior posting of the way I set it up.

I never ran the system without the TopHat in place, so I don't know if there is a loss in suction. As I was building the system, I kept testing the furthest end of piping for suction, and it was pulling all the sawdust I could feed it. Is it possible you have a leak at a blast gate, or at your barrel? By gluing my barrel to the TopHat, I eliminated that as an option, but I can hear some leaking around two blast gates, not enough to have a huge effect, but I will put some silicone caulking around them soon.

I have a woodworking shop video up on YouTube, since it is showing my TopHat style system, thought I should post it here also.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vud9oJH9w2g&feature=feedu

I thought about the cyclone type bottom, which is why I mentioned the large funnel. A truck funnel, at least 18" across would fit nicely if it had a 6"/> bottom.
I have four 4" blast gates left over, but the bottom opening of the drum is 6". I thought I would try emptying it a few times and watch for any problems. I do have some extra 6" pipe, I can make the opening longer, and if I went with a blast gate, a bag could be used over the end pipe for clean up.
I do like the window idea, what type of plastic should be used, that seals well, and can tolerate the suction from the system, but not change color in a month?

Well I have some photos of my finshed installation of my new DC system. I couldn't find a SonoTube of adequate size, so rethought that idea. Changed the location to the stairwell, and still on the second floor, and the construction of the TopHat. As you can guess from the photos, I glued the cardboard drum top the TopHat, and used the 6" air intake from the DC for the bottom to empty the collector. Used 7" pipe to the intake, and the dust intake is 6", I found a round into square adaptor.. Have used almost all the supplies I got, using 7 blast gates. The TS, RAS and the Drum Sander are hooked up, and have run well, the pickup is great. My original thought was to find a truck oil change type funnel to empty the drum out, but I used what I had. I am including some other angles of the system.

Is air like, ' matter ', no matter the height of the container, if no leaks, than the CFMs can not be lost, (or in this case decreased). I hope to discharge outdoors in the summer, but use the Onieda bags during the winter.
Thanks for the answer, I will post pictures after I get started. Right now, I think I need to do a clean up, sell my 2 old DCs, and figure out a more permanent spot
for my tools. I have my drum sander on wheels, but it was just like the planer, I move it and aim out the barn door when I am working with longer boards.

I have been working with 2 single stage DCs with  a trashcan lid seperator, decided to move up. So after watching CraigsList for the past couple of months, I found a small WW shop closing, I bought his DC system. I will now have a Reliant, with a 17" impeller, and a newer 3HP motor, and the 4 bags are all Oneida, and as much piping and fittings as I will ever need.
My plan is to have the DC and bags upstairs on the second floor of my shop, and drop down to the tool area. I thought a tophat seemed like a good choice vs a cyclone,  however, it would make sense for it to be attached to the wall around 7 to 8' up. So, reading thru all the postings about the container height, if the height of the tophat is critcal, but the trash can is not, can I use a Sonutube as a pipe, with a 50 gal trash can at the bottom? Would there be little/no effect on my CFM ?
I could include more shop/DC details, but I thought I would throw out the idea, and see if anyone has experimented with a seperator at a higher room height.