Top Hat plugging up

[Inspector4]

 Recently built a top hat separator on top of a 20 gallon metal trash can
It work beautifully with table saw and router not so much when I run my thickness planer. Yesterday I was running some 2x4 pine just to clean and smooth it and lost suction at the planer. Found the top hat chamber full of planer shavings plugging the slot. I?m running 4? hose from a Shop Fox wall mounted dust collector 1 hp i think, still running the outlet into the bag.  The slot is 1 1/4?. Before the can filled and nothing went into the bag.
Any ideas  ?

[alan m]

how thick is the baffle plate. reducing the edge thickness can help. adding a tear drop shape at the end may help too but I havnt tried that. unfortunitly its something that happens with stringy shavings. taking small passes shoud reduce the amound of wood in the seperater and give it more time to fall through

[retired2]

Alan provided the most likely answer.  I have only plugged my top hat twice.  Once when I overfilled the waste drum, and another time when I was planing wet cypress.  The wet cypress resulted in very long shavings which looped around the end of the separator drop slot.  The end of my drop slot has well rounded corners, but it is unlikely that any modification would have allowed these wet stringy shavings to drop without hanging up.

Since I have a clear sided separator it was easy to watch the plug occur.  It only took a minute and it shaped the same way every time.  The shavings would snag at the end of the drop slot and then a wave would form and back up immediately filling the slot as it went.  That is when I started suggesting folks end their drop slot with a slight tear drop shape.  It would not help wet cypress, but it might help with what is likely the second most problematic wood, cheap sappy pine.

Your drop slot is plenty big, so that is not the issue, pay attention to any corners or edges at the end of the slot.  Round everything over, including the top and bottom edge.  Sand it as smooth as possible.  And if you want to spend well over a grand, buy a helical segmented cutter head for your thickness planer and jointer - you will never have the problem again!  😀

[Inspector4]

I used 1/8? Masonite smooth both sides for the baffle plate.
I added the top hat because my DC intake opening has a metal protector that also caught the shavings and plugged the 4? DC hose. Really don?t Want to cut the protection out but probably the only way to not plug things up.
Thanks for the replies.

[retired2]

I used 1/8? Masonite smooth both sides for the baffle plate.
I added the top hat because my DC intake opening has a metal protector that also caught the shavings and plugged the 4? DC hose. Really don?t Want to cut the protection out but probably the only way to not plug things up.
Thanks for the replies.

I just reread your first post.  Is your DC on a cart and moved to each tool, or is it stationary and piped to a central location?  If it is the latter, how long is the piping and how many turns and fittings, i.e. laterals or hopefully not T?s?