J. Phil Thien's Projects

Sorry for the delay, I haven't checked the forum in a few days. Yes, I did build it and have been using it for about a year. I'm not entirely sure I know what you mean by shelf, so let me explain what it is I think you mean. The curved lexan sides fit into a groove around the perimeter of the bottom plate. On the interior side there is a 1/4" lip around the drop slot. This was a design flaw on my part. For some reason I didn't think about how this could affect the efficacy of the drop slot. Though, honestly, not too much gets caught on it and almost nothing but fines get to the filter, so I'm not sure how much it matters. Attached is a photo of my completed rig. The Tophat is connected to the backer using two heavy duty ball bearing drawer slides mounted vertically so that I need only lift the Tophat up and slide out the trashcan to empty it. I've found that by mounting it on the cart not only is it convenient for moving it from machine to machine, but the cart actually doubles as a clamp rack. See attached photo.

Hi,
If anyone in the Central Virginia area is interested, I have a baffle I built and used for a while, a couple of years ago that is now disused and just collecting dust (no pun intended) in my shop. It worked great but I decided to make a Franken-collector tophat with my HF DC a couple of years ago. Anyway, I don't need the lid anymore and I figure trying to sell it is just more trouble than it's worth, but I would rather give it away than throw it out. I made it with 1/2" MDF, a couple of 4" adapters, weatherstripping, bolts, and garden pipe for covering the bolts. It's not the prettiest thing in the world but it works well. It's sized to fit on a 30 gallon steel Behren's trashcan. Attached is a picture of the lid. Also, I made a Sketchup model of my take on the tophat design that is up on the Sketchup warehouse. You can find it by searching for "Meglathery" in the warehouse. I based it off of a 6" hose inlet design. I may post a photo of that in another post.

PM me if you are interested.

Thanks!
Ryan

I am in the process of building a tophat to fit on my 30 gallon Behlen's galvanized trashcan, and I'm using clear Lexan (polycarbonate) for the walls. I routed an 1/8" groove around the perimeter of the BB ply on both the top and bottom. The Lexan was .0.40" but when if fit into both grooves it held its shape very well. I wound up using heavy duty packing tape on the outside, folding the taped together pieces so the edges were exposed, putting caulk between them, and taping the other side. After that I put it into the groove. We'll see how airtight it is but I'm hopeful. When I'm done with the build I'll post the details. My point is I'm not sure the aluminum piece is necessary. But we'll see.