Thien Separator A Pefect Match For The DeWalt DW735X

[Kelly Bellis]

Thanks to Phil Thien's design and all of the other contributors to this forum, I purchased the DeWalt DW735X and constructed a separator build for it. Below are a few of the photos from this project during construction and the results from first two tests, both of which were better than any of my expectations.

Briefly, the build is from 1/8" hardboard, 1/2" birch plywood, an automobile air filter element, and a 10-gallon metal bucket. The design was predicated on the whole assembly fitting on the circa 1963 Craftsman radial arm saw mobile stand which I refurbished, beneath the table top thickness planer. The hardboard was used for not just for the primary baffle, but also was used for the vertical walls of the separator. This required the two 48" long strips to first be slightly dampened, formed, and dried prior to their lamination. Wooden dowels were used to maintain precise registration throughout construction and during final assembly. The first tests were performed with the full 10-foot length of hose and the assembly situated on top of my table saw to better observe any mishaps. The 8/4 poplar board of test one produced zero chips in the filter compartment with only a very little bit of fine dust visible after wiping. After a thorough cleaning, the second test used a birch board with identical results.

[Kelly Bellis]

Here's some additional photos

[Kelly Bellis]

As for the bell mouth outlet originally intended for this build, I really see no reason to go through that exercise as the straight pipe is working great already.

[brdad]

Very nice!

[Kelly Bellis]

Thanks Dave! BTW, I sort of stole your Skippy jar idea after I had already up-cycled the bottom portion

[Kelly Bellis]

Skippy jar top and middle parts used in Thien Separator

[bbain]

Very nicely done.  Have you noticed a difference in airflow with/without the filter?  I have a similar setup but no filter (I always wear a P100 respirator working in the shop) I thought about a shopvac filter, but a car air filter might be cheaper.

[Kelly Bellis]

Thanks bbain.

I never intended to run the planer without a filter on the Thien Separator. The air filter element used in this build was a #1480A that I purchased from a local shop for about $15

At some point I will be experimenting with using the patented filter fabric that Daka Manufacturing has developed; i.e., FilterPal. This stuff is quite amazing and when placed in the air stream before the paper filter, keeps the filter cartridge absolutely pristine as it does in my case using a KoPach filter in my shop vac.

[dwall174]

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

[Kelly Bellis]

Hi Doug,

Sorry I missed your reply, if you're still watching this forum ;), but in answer to your question, the build has been working great.

The only thing that I would change from the original build is that I would not use the custom shaped wooden blocks super glued / epoxied to the galvanized chip bucket as seen in the photos. The reasoning for the blocks in the first place was to keep the inside surface of the bucket smooth. But because of the tight fit in the mobile stand, at least one block would get bumped sideways every time I emptied the bucket. One time, the block fell off, got re-glued and that worked for a while, but eventually, happened again. The this led me to eliminate one of the wooden blocks and through drill/ fasten the pull-down. No other blocks have fallen off since, but should they, I plan to through drill and fasten again.

Kind regards,

Kelly