J. Phil Thien's Projects

Just my thoughts, but I expect the pull to be better. The question I have for you is what type of waste will the DeWalt DW735X planer create. If you are using the long knives it will produce long strings and often the strings will block the circular cutout. If you have a helix (shelix) head then you should be OK. I would also guess that the DeWalt to have consider less power than an impeller connected to the Thien and pulling the air through.

A couple of years ago I had the Harvey G700 dust collector and my Hammer A31 planner/joiner had the knives at that time and I no longer had my Thien. I spent more time cleaning out the blockage in the G700 than I did running boards through the A31. I was so disappointed in the performance I sold the G700. Since then I have upgraded my A31 with a Shelix head (love it).

I recently got a used ClearVue Cyclone and in the final stages of restoring it. I hope to have it working in the next two weeks.
Also at the same time, I will be building a Thien for my friend's workshop.

Quote from: Lance on April 24, 2023, 09:08:28 AM

Quote from: dwall174 on April 21, 2023, 02:20:31 PM
I guess I'm going to have to figure this one out myself!

I would guess that no one here has tried that exact set-up, so nobody wanted to give you an answer.

I just found an old post here on the same topic after doing another search. It's about 4 years old, but I brought it back up to see if I get any response.

Doug

I realize that this post is almost 4 years old, but I'm looking to try to build something like this for my newly acquired DeWalt 735 planer.

If the original poster is still watching the forums, how's it been working & have you done any upgrades?

Here's a link to my post.  https://www.jpthien.com/smf/index.php?topic=1444.msg8601#new

Doug

Quote from: dwall174 on April 21, 2023, 02:20:31 PM
I guess I'm going to have to figure this one out myself!

I would guess that no one here has tried that exact set-up, so nobody wanted to give you an answer.  Some of the questions I have had, have been the same way. I was asking about somethings that no one has tried.  So, I am working on trying it myself...

The best thing I can say is give it a try and post up your results.  It may help the next person that is hoping for answers.

Lance

Well 50 views over 3-weeks & no replies ???
I guess I'm going to have to figure this one out myself!

Doug

Does it make any difference if the dust/air is blown into the Thien baffle vs being pulled through it like a normal set-up?

I recently picked up a DeWalt DW735X planer & it has a built-in chip exhaust system that blows the chips out of a port on the rear of the machine. The planer comes with an adapter to connect it to a 4" hose, using a hand-held anemometer I'm getting about 225CFM of air flow out of the 4' port.

I've seen several YouTube videos of people with the same type of planer using a trash can style Thien baffle to collect the chips with just a small filter bag on the outlet.

Would a top hat style Thien baffle work with just the 225CFM from the planner?

Doug

Absolute collection of fines for my system seems to be the function of the filter.  I crudely tested my system with flour and collected ~2/3 in the baffle can.  I have to use pressurized air to blow into the filter from the outside ~1 every two years to remove fines.  My recollection of the benefits of the thien baffle was that it collected the bigger stuff with a smaller pressure drop and smaller than the cyclone but wasn't as good as collecting fines as a cyclone. The only time big stuff gets past is when my can fills up and I don't notice it. Your idea of tapering the outside is interesting.  Since your top hat is taller, the inlet to the internal pipe to the blower could be set at a higher height so that the distance from the pipe to the tapered wall is similar to the smaller design typically shown here.  However, this is just a guess.

I would be hesitant to make something from wood to use with most metalworking, but you could possibly make an all-metal separator.  If you have the metalworking skills I don't see why this wouldn't work.  If you just put a bucket with water at the bottom but have a wooden separator you might get hot metal pieces stuck in a wooden corner in the baffle somewhere that smolders for awhile then catches fire.

I have been thinking about what to do if the 22.5" diameter does not work out with the 8" outlet... 

The cone portion of the cyclone design is there to aid in the separation of the chips and the height of that cone is crucial. if it is too short the separator does not stop the swirling air from disturbing the bin and lifting dust back into the separator.  That is where Phil's baffle comes in.  It eliminates the need for the cone.  It looks like everyone sizes their tophats to the bin it goes on top of.  That is what I am looking at doing, even with my 8" port sizes.  What popped into my mind is, just because I am using a baffle it doesn't mean I couldn't still use a cone also, Not the 30' tall cone a cyclone uses but a shorter cone just to go from a 30" tophat to a 22.5 in bin.  Maybe 8 to 10" tall?
Sorry for the crude drawing...

I am using the 22.5" diameter for the tophat as that fits my 50 gal plastic drum. In the long run using a top hat may not work and I may have to go back to a cyclone.  I am hopeful that the tophat works as it is much shorter than the cyclone for this size of system.  The original cyclone I built had a body that was 18" in diameter with an 8" outlet port so I hope the 22.5 tophat will still work with the 8" port.  The original Blower, Cyclone and bin stood just under the available 9 foot ceiling in my old shop and I only had about 2 feet of height for the bin at the bottom. I was never happy with that.  Using a tophat design will allow the full-size bin to fit while keeping with an acceptable over all height. 

I know for some "Pentz" can be a dirty word around here, but I do believe there is some validity to his claims about the need to remove the fine dust particles from our shop air (or keep them out of the air to begin with).  I you haven't been there before it is worth going to billpentz.com and check out the basics tab.

I'm not Just attempting to clean up the bigger dust and chips, I'm trying to remove as much fine dust from the air around the tool as possible.  This means I am shooting for something closer to 1000 CFM at the tools.  Most of my tools will have custom larger ports added, but also in most cases multiple ports for each tool (for instance one above and one below the blade).  My blower was specifically made to move the volume of air you are talking about. It uses a 5hp motor with a 16" impeller.  I took readings for air speed at the inlet of the blower years ago when I made it, but I don't remember the numbers now.  I will have to re-test that when I start putting all of this together.  needless to say, it was well over the 1000 CFM at the blower, the trick is to keep the losses to a minimum as I add filter, seperator, ducting ports, etc.