Shopvac Sandwich Made..

[jeth]

I got my first separator done last night. The idea of the unit is to improve on my Ridgid shopvac till I can get a proper DC set up.

The vac is one of the dumpy little 6 gallon models. It sucks ok when the can has been emptied and the filter is clean but it only takes a few minutes action for the waste to build up around the bottom of the pleated filter, which is mounted just a couple of inches from the bottom of the container. This results in a dramatic suction reduction..and cleaning the filter is no fast task and messy, releasing dust back into the air. It took me around 30mins to get into each of the pleated folds with a brush and force out the caked on dust which is hard packed into every corner and crevice.

Having spent the last couple of months getting the workshop sorted and installing new equipment I am flat broke -really :( - The other day I was pondering a future DC solution and wondering how I would cope till I could afford one and I decided to just do something with what I've got for now.
A Thien separator seemed the best option.
So, I poked about and found anything that looked vaguely useful for the task.  In the end I spent about $2 US on a tube of silicone sealant and some superglue.

I had seen a few versions here with the shopvac mounted above the separator on a cart and it made sense for my small space.
Looking at the buckets I realized two stacked together leaves a near perfect sized chamber between the two bottoms for the separator and as I only had two I decided to swap things round and use the Ridgid container for the below baffle collection. The Vac is 6 gallon nominal capacity but without that big filter hung in the middle it must be closer to 10 , plus I wouldn?t have to butcher the bottom for the separators outlet and the whole thing will still roll round on the vacs casters, so worked out better all round. 

So from that basic idea I just made it  up as  I went along.  I took some pics along the way and thought I would share them here as my set up is a little different from others, maybe someone else with this vac can get some ideas for their build.

-As I would use the Vacs container for the lower collection drum I had to find a way of mounting the Vac motor housing to the top of a bucket.  Just so happens the filter mount is fixed with a ring of screws on a perfect diameter to fix one of the 5 gallon bucket lids direct.  First to cut a hole..


Having left my jigsaw elsewhere I made a circle cutter to make the cut with a small  piece of scrap and an old utility knife blade.  I chiseled out a notch for the blade and fixed it through its existing hole with a screw and washer. This worked great to cut the plastic lid to a tight fit around the vac collar.



-And I ended up with this, sealed with silicone.



-I knew I wanted a rectangular side inlet and had worked out the size and aspect ratio so I proceeded to cut the inlet hole (Forstner bit and chisel) and drop slot (Router) into the outer/lower bucket.



-I then mounted the bucket to a scrap circle of ?? MDF I had from a speaker cabinet build. It was the perfect size to just add an edge rabbet to make a tight pressure fit  to the top of the Ridgid drum   I routed out a bucket size hole for a push fit and clearance for the drop slot, leaving support below the baffle but leaving the its thin edge about an inch clear all round. 



-Next up was the inlet assembly. I had few options here so I chose to hack up the vacs floor sweep fitting  as a starting point.





-I built up a wooden ?box? to couple the buckets inlet and the adaptor. Here you can see it before fitting the top panel.



The transition from the round to square section is quite short but I tried to smooth it as much as possible by sculpting the pieces to avoid any obvious bulge or constriction.
-Now for the inner/upper 5 gallon bucket which will serve as the secondary container between the separator outlet and the vac fan/motor assembly and also form the roof of the separator chamber.     



You can see the bottom is not so smooth, those angled reinforcements and printed areas, so I covered it in a layer of scrap 1/8? ply before sticking the outlet tube in place with superglue and sealing it with silicone both sides.  I cut the tube from one of the hose extensions which came with the vac and has the same Dia. as the inlet.           



The white inner bucket sits down inside the blue bucket and seems to seal adequately due to almost the full surface area of the sides being in contact.  Then the Sandwich is made with the vac motor assembly and the lower container, and  it?s done?



-I swept up all the accumulated debris from the build and some leftovers of recent wiring and reorganizing the shop, everything from fine sander and router dust, table saw chips through to screws, general crud  and off cuts of cable.
Here you can see it all in the separator container?



As I said, this was swept into a pile and the vac really guzzled it up despite the blatant stuffing, sucking like the day it was new once more   It seemed to run quieter, apart from the clanking debris whizzing round the chamber.
And most importantly, what made it to the upper container?



A piece of string and a tiny weeny amount of fine dust you can just see round the edge, filter looked no different to before.  There was also a screwed up ball of paper stuck in the chamber itself.  Paper and string are understandably tricky objects to separate and are never likely to enter via a tools dust port.
The result is far better than I expected and I am very impressed.  I can now use my shopvac more than minutes without it losing suction, capacity is increased and I think I have a long term solution for smaller tools.   I look forward to seeing how a bigger unit for my larger tools works out once I can get my hands on a blower.

I?m happy; I hope this has been of use to someone, thanks to Phil for the design!! 

[RonS]

Jeth, Congratulations on a very unique and clever "step forward" on the Vac seperator design. Please post some results from fine sanding operations as that is where most of the seperator issues are.

Ron