J. Phil Thien's Projects

The top hat foe 6" is on my to do list, just not at the top of my list.  I wonder if 5" would be better with my 3hp blower or should I go with 6".  I need to read a lot more on this while I catch up on some other projects.  I appreciare all your comments & welcome any further comments & observations.

retired2, I have been reading some of the thread on your top hat build and have 2 questions.  It is probably in the thread but I missed it, what is the diameter of your pipes in & out, also how high is the separator chamber?  I have some laminate on hand (formica) that I am thinking of using instead of clear if it is long enough, any disadvantage to that other than no visibility into separator.  Thinking about building one with 6" lines, so a 2x would be 12" high????

How did this container work out?

Retired2, Last night I kept thinking about my problem and this morning I found my problem & feeling kind of stupid.  When I built those 20 gal separators I did not glue the elbow on the input that turns the flow to follow the around the barrel.  Evidently when they packed up all my things to put into storage (I was with my wife in the hospital & could not get home because of the closed roads, so family & a few friends came & packed up & moved my things to storage after the flood) they emptied the barrels & knocked the elbow off so the dust was going straight down to the baffle & right out the outlet pipe.  I reattached the elbow and tested the separator.  Yesterday I had dropped about 10 pieces of foam ½" thick & 1" square into the table saw line and only 2 stayed in the separator the rest all went through the blower into the collection bags, also 80 to 90% of sawdust I had run through the system had ended up in collection bags.  After reattaching the  elbow & dropped 16 pieces of the same foam into the table saw line and they all went into the separator, none into the collection bags.  Huge improvement.
In the next couple of days I plan to empty the collection bags and monitor the performance.  But for now looks like I am back in business.  I appreciate your suggestions & plan to make a top hat possibly a double height separator on a 55 gal barrel in the near future with 6" ports.  1st I want to tackle a few projects I have been wanting to do for the last 2 ½ years.  Then make that  new separator, for now I am searching for the plans for a top hat.  Maybe you have a link you could share.
What I have now is 2 4" lines in my shop each going through it's own 20 gal separator through 2 4" lines to the blower.  The blower has a 6" inlet with a adapter to 3 4" openings, so I am using 2 4" lines to the 2 separators.

Lines are 4", it is not a top hat, it is the original in the barrel design.  The 2 high you mentioned, is that a top hat design.  I have been wanting to try building a top hat version but my original worked so well I just could not mess with success.  This might be a good time to try a top hat on a larger diameter barrel like a 55 gal plastic I have saved up in my warehouse.  Maybe I should start researching top hat designs & 2 high also.  I really appreciate your response, I was hopping you or Phil or someone like that would respond.  I would hate to re-plumb my shop with larger diameter piping.  But a new separator might be a fun project.  I need to find more info on top hats.

I built 2 Thien style separators a few years ago, both built on  20 gal (approximate) plastic barrels and worked fantastic.  One was used on a 1hp dust collector & the other on a Harbor Freight 2 hp dust collector (1550 cfm supposedly), like I said both worked great hardly anything got into the collection bags.  Two years ago I was flooded out in the flood of 2016 and lost both collectors, I have just got my workshop set up again & replaced the 2 hp HF with  a 3 hp Grizzly collector (2320 cfm), now the separator does not work nearly as well as it did with the 2 hp HF, a lot is ending up in the collection bags.
My question is, could the higher cfm of the 3 hp unit be too much for the 20 gal barrel?  Or what should I try?  Wondering if I made another separator with a 55 gal barrel, would the larger diameter barrel work better with the higher cfm of the 3 hp collector.  Hoping some of you more experienced guys that have played around with these a lot & made a lot of improvements might have some ideas and or suggestions.

Jim, please keep us updated on the smaller slot and fines.

I built a Thein separator in a 30 gal. plastic barrel, but I used the standard size slot  I asked the question a good while back about real fine dust and think someone said a narrower slot would be best, but my old memory is not sure.  Maybe someone with more experience will chime in with more helpful info.

"Getting old is not for sissy's"

Hello, wish I could help but I honestly don't know.  I did not build a top hat version yet.  I have built 2 in the barrel types and love them..

I did not build the Top Hat yet, I built the original design in the barrel a couple of years ago and have not emptied the bag yet.  I recently eliminated the bag & vent outside since there is almost nothing after the Thein separator.  I do plan to try building a TopHat model just to do it as I love to tinker.

I was thinking losses would be high.  No knowledge here just common sense, since one causes loss two would be more????

I wonder if 2 drop slots of different sizes would work on the Thien style separator without too much loss of suction?  Just a thought.

Ok

What do you mean by ring at mid height?