rebuilt my trash can separator using Phil's baffle

[DominicG]

back in 1999 I built this half cocked cyclone separator for use with my little 1HP DC1B. It was based on a cyclone tube shell (the upper portion of a cyclone without the cone). It's about 16" dia and had a 4" dust inlet and a 4" blower intake.

I used it with my router table, jointer and planer. It actually worked pretty well as long as the debris level didn't get near the blower intake pipe! After that it was just a pass through.  :)





I also got tired of the amount of room this took up. And after reading all the threads about the benefits of the Thien style baffle arrangement I decided it was high time for a retrofit. Another reason for this alteration of the old design was the fact that I am about to replace my old DC1B with a 3HP Reliant. Once the Reliant is installed I still want a pre-separator for those times I use my jointer, planer, or router table. But I want it to be more compact and efficient

With that in mind I scrounged around and found some 1/4" hardboard and 1/2" plywood. These were used for the baffle. Once I had the base materials ready I started on modifying the old cyclone separator.

I unmounted it from it's base and then cut the tube shell down by 7". I also cut the base down so that it conformed to the shape of the separator and took less room.

I shorted the dust intake pipe length by about 4". Once that was done I used by router and circle jig to make the baffle.



Once the baffle was installed I used it to help me re-size the length of the blower intake pipe. I cut it down so that it was 1-1/2" above the baffle. After that I was able to re-install it and start on the trash can.

Since the old base for the trash can was HUGE I decided to make a new one. I ended up spending more "quality time" with my router and circle jig. I made a perfectly sized disk that fit into the underside of the trashcan perfectly. I drilled holes for the (4) re-purposed swiveling casters and then gave it several coats of finish to weather proof it a bit.



And here is the completed unit.





Yeah, it's not as clean looking as some of the other ones posted here. But my goal was to see how well the design modifications worked

I am a lot more pleased with the ease that this can be moved and how much LESS room it takes up. My plan is to have this baby moved off to the side and only pulled out when it's needed.

I tested it out with the DC1B and was happy with the level of separation. The real test will be when I install the new Reliant 3HP DC and see how that behaves