J. Phil Thien's Projects

Very interesting!  Nice execution!

I got my baffle / separator lid finished.  I did a little bit of unscientific testing with various shop cleaning - it appears that adding the Thien baffle to the separator lid made the little 5 gal. bucket separator at least 90% effective.  There were a lot of fines in the dust that I sucked up, so I'm sure that typical sawdust from the table saw, miter saw, etc. will be better.  Thanks to Phil for designing this and making it available.

It's amazing how little things can cause a project to mushroom.  About a week ago, a wheel from my shop vac broke off for the third time (crappy wheels mounted into molded plastic "outriggers".  After the last time that I fixed it with epoxy, I told myself that the next time a wheel broke off, I'd build a little cart for the shop vac and a bucket separator.  So I put together a quick cart with some plywood and casters from my scrap supply and made a short hose to go from the vac to the bucket.  The bucket separator lid that I purchased from HF several years ago was totally ineffective, so it was time to try out one of the Thien baffles that I've seen dozens of people raving about online.  They were right - this is a big improvement.

Thanks.  I haven't finished mounting the baffle yet, however I did modify the "bucket separator lid" that I got from HF.  It's interesting that the lid comes with a 2.5" recess molded into the center of the lid - it was simple to cut out with a hole saw (w/o the center bit)and use the waste to plug one of the other holes with some caulk.  Anyway, I had to vac up some dust so I thought that I'd see what difference moving the vac port would make.  The lid went from being roughly 0% effective (no joke, tried it just prior to modifying) to 50+% effective - even without the baffle.  Anxious to see what a difference the baffle makes, but I need to set the project aside for a few days.

Hello,

I'm about to start building a Thein separator for my shop vac to use w/ a 5 gallon bucket (I know a larger container would be better, but the bucket type is best for me right now.)  My question is - does the center port go to the vac or the tool?

(I purchased a bucket separator lid for Harbor Freight several years ago that wasn't very effective, so it sat around taking up space - working on modifying it with this plan http://www.evenfallstudios.com/woodworks/2008/06/27/building-the-5_gallon-thien-separator/)

Thanks.
Bill