Introduce yourself...

[owkaye]

Hello, I am Owkaye.  I want to build a dust collector.

[amurfey]

Hi all - I just purchased a HF 2HP dust collector for use in my home workshop, and I'm interested in building one of these separators.  It looks like it will be a great addition to the unit.  I have a smaller Oneida dust deputy on my shop vac, and have been very pleased with the performance of that unit in separating out dust and chips, and in keeping the filter clean. 

My thought right now is to keep the dust collector unit in a separate store room adjacent to my workshop and run the piping through the wall into the workshop.  I think this will reduce the noise level, and should also further reduce dust in the shop.  I'm also considering purchasing a Wynn filter as a replacement for the stock filter bag on the HF unit.

Thanks Phil for creating the separator design and for hosting this site. 

-Alex

[wcromwell]

My name is Bill Cromwell, I just joined today. I am getting into wood working and one of my first discoveries is the amount of
dust and chips created. Research on you tube sent me here to learn the details of the baffle. I read it can be scaled for large dust collectors. I would like to learn the details.

[jgarner101351]

Hi Phil and all. Glad to have found your site Phil as well as the discussion forum which I am finding invaluable in my HF DC modification research.

[Lewnworx]

Hi all.  Just bought a new house and it came with a 40x25 insulated metal building with it's own 9' roll up door and paved driveway with attached 25' carport over the overhead door.  Main reason was a place to park the RV's and to use part of the shop as a kitty condo for our cats.  By the time I'd got done building that with the spiffy new Ridgid 4512, the woodshed bug hit full tilt. My dad had a killer workshop in the garage as a kid, and my lovely new wife started saying things like "crown molding throughout", "display cases", "pergolas" and "raised flowerbeds".   The net result is tonight I'll be picking up a band saw, drill press, VSR router and table to go along with the 12" double bevel slider miter and Delta T3 fence for the 4512 I got last week.

This of course means a LOT of dust.  I read about as much of Bill Pentz's site as I could handle before even my engineer geeks brain could accommodate in one sitting, and while I fully get the whole fine dust thing, I just wasn't ready to drop $2K on a collection system.  Then I discovered the thing Bill should have put at the top of all his very fine (and very wordy) articles:  If you can vent outside you can ignore 95% of this site. 

That being the case I'm heading down the HF separator (stealing just the intake and blower bits) with a trashcan Thien separator in front and exhausting the blower out one of the shop windows.

Fortunately, until I get this thing built I can just wheel the saws and whatnot out the 9' door and do all the cuts outside under the carport part.  I'm not sure if I'm going to go the whole blast gate and PVC pipe route yet, and may just start with hose for the current tool in operation, but I'm fairly convinced with an external exhaust the core of the rig being the HF blower with a trashcan Thien separator will do what I need it to do.

So with that in mind I come here to read up on what I need to know. 

Cheers,

Mark

[Bill in Buena Park]

Hi all, I have been a fan and user of Phil's baffle for close to 10 years now and never knew he had a Forum!  And Phil - I felt like I was taking the woodworker's SAT just to register!  :o

I am a hobbyist woodworker, doing various flatwork and now a whole lot of turning.  Looking forward to seeing what improvements I can make to my setup.

[phil (admin)]

Hi all, I have been a fan and user of Phil's baffle for close to 10 years now and never knew he had a Forum!  And Phil - I felt like I was taking the woodworker's SAT just to register!  :o

LOL, we need to maintain high standards to keep out the riffraff.

Every time I've relaxed those questions, spammers start signing up and posting all sorts of porn or links to online pharmacies, stuff like that.  Of course, I have to okay the first post, but they seemingly consider it a "win" even if only I see their post before canning it.

But I will confess some people get downright perturbed at the registration questions and send me fairly annoyed E-Mails.

[lukezs]

Hello everyone,

My name is Luke and I'm in Idaho and am an amateur woodworker, and have always loved building things and anything DIY.
I've been on this site quite a bit the last year and am in the middle of building my Thien Top Hat.  I just wanted to introduce myself first, and to say many thanks to Mr. Thien for his willingness to share his designs with all of us woodworkers, it is very appreciated!

Please check out my Thien Top Hat build and share your comments or suggestions!

Luke

[Culveres]

Finally registered. I am planning to build a 5 gallon paint can separator using a recycled upright vacuum cleaner. To reduce required storage space  I have disassembled the vacuum, modified base to allow for rolling the bucket around shop, reinstalled handle to store cord and facilitate placement , and plan to attach vacuum motor to top of bucket lid. Discharge from motor will go into original vacuum bag. Vacuum inlet fits nicely to 2 inch pvc pipe. 1 gallon plastic paint can with ventilation holes nicely covers motor and exposed moving parts.
Now off to HD for some hose and fittings.
More to come
Gene

[Greg2409]

I'm a long-term amateur wood and metal worker in Lake Charles, LA. Dust collection in my workshop has been a work in progress for some years but I'm hoping to move towards dust-free nirvana with a Thien cyclone.

Recently completed the construction of a Top Hat Hood.  Still working on how to fine tune to allow maximum suction force.

Would appreciate any advise based upon the following:
FLA via nameplate - 7.5amps
6 inch line to Top hat 6.85 amps
with Top at on an (2) 4 inch lines open - 5.38 amps

Greg2409

[Jtull01]

Hi
Luv wood projects. I've done a lot by hand, and now that I'm retired, I have invested in some quality machines. As usual building means questions, and I'm glad to join this forum!

[goball]

Just  joined the forum this morning.  I am a hobby woodworking enthusiast and have recently taken up the challenge of modifying my friends and my dust collectors to reduce/eliminate the collection of dust and chips in the upper filter shortening the clean life of the filter and reducing the overall collector capacity.  My first effort was to modify my Canwood 850 CFM unit.  Won't take the time here to tell you what I did but suffice to say that the results were only marginally successful.  My second go was to a Craftex 1250 CFM unit with almost acceptable results.  Realize now that I should have done some research first as there are several examples of mods attempted.  I haven't had the time yet to read the many post on dust collection but will do so before posting or asking too many silly questions.  This forum certainly looks to be very interesting. 

[jirp]

Hi.  I am Clark.  I got here by sort of a weird path.  I started out researching rocket mass heaters.  That lead to keeping the fly ash out of the horizontal chimneys which lead to vortex type cleaners.  Apparently a number of people have gone that far and found that it generates to much heat lost and/or to much back pressure to work.   That left me wondering if they were doing it correctly.   That lead me to the DYI stuff for wood working hoping for a better answer and left me looking for low back pressure low surface area answers that might apply which eventually lead here.

So has anyone tried this as part of a rocket mass heater build?  My thinking is to shorten the length of the J tube and put a mildly shorter top hat design in below the heat riser. 

Heat loss is surface area so the chamber size need to be as small as possible and as close as possible to spherical or worst case a cube.  Problem is the material to be separated is all really fine fly ash to which bigger is better and I understand that too.  Are there tables here some where of pipe size with  velocity and separation quality information in some form.

Beyond that though having been a shop nut for my whole life I can't help looking at the current designs for wood working and thinking I can easily do that for wood working and fume ventilation.

So the next question is there a list of things that were tried and failed or succeeded with various designs.   Of the changes that I would like to try I have seen 4 or 5 shot down and 3 that actually seem to have improved things from the reading starting forward from the original baffle design..  But that still leave a list of other thoughts I haven't crossed off the list yet.   If this is stupid questions ignore them.  I will get to it reading on.

1. If the blower is mounted directly in the outlet has anyone tried spinning the outlet pipe with the blower to reduce friction in the chamber.?  This might also include spinning all or part of the ceiling of the chamber with the blower?  This one is totally going with air flow if I understand it right so it should help.

2.  What about a spinning disk on the baffle plate?  If it spun freely with air flow it would reach some speed between static and air flow but should manage to reduce internal friction.  It might be pumping air the wrong way because the centripetal acceleration is fighting the tumbling effect of the air is why it might not work.  This one is way more questionable

3.  What happens if the chamber opens to a bigger diameter up below the baffle plate?  Conservation of angular momentum would seem to say that it would help with separation if I understand the air flow correctly.  The particle should be slowed horizontally by its outward trajectory transferring energy from forward to outward while maintaining most of its vertical velocity which should improve separation. 

4.  Has a key hole in the baffle groove been tried to provide a place for larger stuff to fall through?

Finally are there good pictures somewhere of what the air flow is doing?  I think I understand what is happening above the baffle and would like to confirm it.  But the air flow below the baffle literally has me baffled.

[Varp]

Good Day Everyone! My name is Varp and I'm currently building a mobile Shop Vac cart with on-board Thien Sepparator and a Dewalt 735 on top. I've got some questions to and figured this forum would be a good place to start!

Cheers,

Varp

[Pondhockey]

Greetings.

I'm a novice woodworker and "LumberJacks" refugee (I had to search the registration questions, blush.)

I'm building a new shop from a corner in a large garage in our new house.  I'm paranoid about dust, so I'm spending a lot of time trying to figure out how to outfit the shop.  I have the option of working in the driveway for part of the year, and will be able to vent to outside and even put equipment in an adjacent outside covered area, but I have to figure out what equipment and ductwork.

Of course as a DIY guy, the whole DIY flavor of the Thien baffle is attractive!

..later...