Introduce yourself...

[Kelly Bellis]

Hello Phil Thien and everybody that contributes here,
I'm a retired land surveyor starting to get into making shavings, saw dust, and maybe something worthwhile and deserving of shellac. Thank you for this site, the fostering of inventive spirit, and a supporting community.

[edform]

Hi

I'm a long-retired, former technical director of a couple of the major UK loudspeaker companies. Feeling lazy and stiff from lack of exercise about a year ago, I decided to fit out my single-car garage as a woodwork shop.

Because of the confined space, I chose a moveable, universal workbench [a Wolfcraft Mastercut 2500] and had a new, single-piece worktop made by a local CNC shop, cut for a standard router lift. [The original two-piece top with its large cut-out for the Wolfcraft tool-holder plate is prone to warping if the humidity gets too high]. I then designed and ordered plates to fit the same aperture, one to mount an upside down circular saw, and the other for an upside down jigsaw so I have three rapid-replace power-tool modules for the main cutting functions. The next phase will be to make a sanding station and probably a removeable bench top and guides for my pedestal drill press.

I came here because I saw some YouTube videos of Phil Thien's clever dust extractor plate and wanted to know more. It's good to meet you all.  :D

Ed Form

[MrZ2u]

Howdy...

IT guy who likes to make things, all kinds of things, wood, metal, glass, what ever...tired of everything in my garage having a thin layer of dust on it :)

[LanceSA]

Hi All
I am  Realtor in a little town called East London, South Africa.
I have always dabbled a bit with woodwork but my wife decided she wanted a new kitchen at the end of last year and then things got a bit real!.
The kitchen has one top to go and then its finished but i now love working with wood.

[adimeglio]

Hello everyone, a warm greeting.
I am happy to be part of this group.
I am an Italian maker (https://www.youtube.com/hobbygaragediy) and I recently discovered that our projects related to the separator cyclone, come from here!

A dutiful thanks to Phil for his passion and creativity.
Probably the question has already been asked, and if so, I apologize!
Do the measures of the project refer to the upper part of the 'separating cyclone'? Or does it have its own measures? Where can I find the measurements?
Thank you so much!

Agostino

[jcmsgret]

Hi all.  I am starting to design a wood shop. Dust collection will be a big part of the design.  Pretty much here to learn.  The shop will be small so dust collection will have to be small, portable, and efficient. 

[cbacton]

Hi All,

I'm in the process of converting a garage to a workshop. I've purchased a Powermatic 1300TX DC with canister. While trying to sort though all of the info on ducting, I ran across this site. Now I want to add a cyclone separator into the mix! Looking forward to woring with you all to achieve a successful result!
Hope you are all staying safe in these crazy times.
Clark

[BobWebb]

Hi All,
Before we moved 3 years ago I had a two car garage set up for my workshop.  I built 2 separators for shop vacs I collected from flea markets and craigs list.  We moved and I have a separate building.  I purchased a HF 2 HP DC and have it hose connected to table saw and band saw.  I still have my 2 separators connected to my mitre saw and router.  I am working on a third one for a Rigid shop vac that is integrating the baffle inside the vac.    Then I'll move on to the HF and build one for a 30 gal drum and turn it into a central system.  For those that ask:  they work.

[Mr chips]

Hello Phil.
Thanks for you straight forward ides!
I?m retired from general contracting (10 years ago).
I rent shop space and build mantles, headboards, doors,Bathroom vanities, etc. (try to stay away from kitchen cabinets)
I have a shop full of tools and have purchased a ?Star Industries? 24? dual drum sander.
Saw dust collection is my main safety concern (after rotating cutters)!
Wood working keeps me moving and exercising my brain!

[avracohen]

Avra Cohen: cabinetmaker and avid scuba diver. I am a volunteer diver at the NY Aquarium. I am well familiar w/ cyclonic dust collection, now looking to build an underwater model that will separate out sand. We have powerful vacuum w/ 2" hose built into the exhibits, but need to separate out sand to redeposit it elsewhere in the exhibit, while keeping it from getting into the system where it will chew up the impeller.
Welcome any thoughts on modifications that would be useful or thoughts on consideration of the difference between airflow vs hydrodynamics. I think a Thien baffle will be needed for the same reason it is appropriate for sawdust collection.

[mudgel]

Hi everyone, I?m Mike. I live in Australia on a 0.5 hectare plot of land with my wife and 2 cats in a small rural hamlet about 180 klms West of Melbourne.
I have a metal clad (ColorBond) workshop 9m x 6m  with a 2.7m wall height and a roof pitch of 22 deg. There?s no ceiling or internal lining boards but it is fully insulated so tolerable in both summer and winter. It?s divided into the equivalent of a 2 car garage space inside (6m x 6m) with an attached single car space carport (3m x 6m). All built on concrete slab. 
It?s a real mess having been storage for the last 10 years or so and needs organising and tidying before it can become a useful workshop. I?m 67 and my health situation makes any project a slow moving chore. I have been known to complete jobs eventually. I do a little frequently so getting I?m getting a little more control over the space each week.
Anyway I?ve been drawn here by the mystery that is Dust Extraction/Filtration and not having any brings home that it must become a priority for my next project.
I?ve been watching quite a lot of YouTube and have settled on a design inspired by young Marius Hornberger?s channel and his construction of what he called his ?small dust extractor.? Matthias Wandel is my biggest inspiration and have brought a few of his plans to life.
Thats it for me - hope to chat with some of you as time passes. Thank you Paul, for generously sharing your space and your ideas.
My workshop comprises an assortment of hand held power tools (mostly 18v Makita) along with a floor standing pedestal drill press and an Evolution Rage 5S 254mm contractors table saw. An assortment of small bench tools like a combination disc and belt sander, bench disc grinder, spindle sander and a 230mm band saw with a very meagre 65mm cutting height completes my setup. Oh I have a 3HP 75litre belt drive air compressor too.
Writing it all down like this makes it seem so much - I guess I?m fortunate to have so many tools readily at hand but every project and video I watch, reminds of things like a jointer, thickness planar, decent bandsaw and table saw (all the expensive tools) that I?d love to have one day. My age and health probably don?t make them realistic goals but a dust extractor with some air filtration is a must.
Now that Ive committed my self in writing to undertaking this as my next project , I?ll have all the motivation I need to get it done. Wish me luck.

[Mazay]

Hi all!
I am amateur woodwoker from Russia. I have a few questions about the design of the cyclone separator. I hope I get answers here

Den!

[phil from seattle]

Hi, Phil Barrett here.  I've been a big fan of the Thien Baffle for a long time.  Built several for my shop.  One for my shop wide DC and one on a small sanding cart.  Posted about my next design.  It is for my 4'x4' CNC Router.

[EdZac]

Greetings,


I found this handy forum because I was looking to build my own dust separator and was fortunate enough to find a YouTube video (The Considered  Nut) that mentioned the Thien Cyclone separator and outlined the basic principle... I have to say that this appears to be a very elegant design, simplicity in Form and Function...I was thinking of buying one of those fancy injection molded off the shelf cyclone units, but the cost in some instances for something made in the U.S was somewhat prohibitive, especially for something that is basic in  Form and Function, in my view the commercial unit by design implied high level of engineering... perhaps even computer modelling...It led me to think that I might not be able to fabricate something that would function to the level of commercially molded cyclone unit...


However....Thanks to Phil Thien's forum I have been enlightened...this looks like a great unit, I am going to build it....I have an old two stage Mastercraft (Canadian) dust collector that I am going to adapt this too..

Has anyone done one?


About me

I'm 60 years old and near retirement about three years ago I started to plan for my retirement. I decided to build an open-source CNC machine which I completed about a year ago. I wanted to specialize in making antique reproduction wood signs that utilized Bass relief art. I built the CNC  machine and I built the computer that drives it... with zero experience or knowledge... most of the software that runs on is also open source...I think it's important to keep yourself active and to constantly challenged yourself to do different things and push yourself past your comfort zone...I'd be happy to share  and post about the experiences if anybody's interested..


In the meantime greetings to all very thankful that I ran across this form and I hope contribute in my area of knowledge, I would also like to say thank you to Phil for his generosity by way of sharing this design with all of us...

Its  brilliant....and  will make using my CNC machine a lot more tolerable..

Regards,

[dbhost]

Since I can't find my post, and I am coming back after a few years away due to life events I would rather not go into, I figure it would help to re-intruduce myself.

I am a home DIY / Woodworking hobbyist with a garage workshop in Galveston County Texas. I dove headlong into building the shop on a budget with the blessing of my beautiful bride... And I am SOOOOO glad I did it when I did, man have prices shot up!

I'm the guy that wrote the sticky thread "Heres the plans" for building your own Thein separator. And am a Youtuber, one of my more popular videos is an explanation of how the Thien baffle works. At least to the best of my ability...

I digress.

I started with Thien separators with a 2.5" shop vac based system, including a full tubing setup. It worked, but not well enough. The baffle / separator was great, the vac wasn't even close to strong enough.

I upgraded to a Harbor Freight 2HP DC with a Wynn 35a .5 micron washable filter, and a 55 gallon side inlet separator, using a 5" x 4x4 splitter with 2 4" lines...

I am building a smaller shed workshop, with max SQ Footage of 200 due to permit restrictions for sheds in my town.  Thus I am downsizing.

The 2.5" shop vac version is still around, but only really used for drywall work in the house. I am doing a project to do an internal separator and impeller upgrade to the HF DC, this way I keep the dust collection footprint in the smaller shop down.

My family suffered some big losses several years back due to a large number of deaths of friends and family, so I stepped back from a lot of my woodworking forum activity.

We are back on our feet more or less, and I am trying to get back to my prior hopefully helpful input.

I look forward to doing all I can to promote Phils baffle design. This is a brilliant idea, and so very easy to deploy that anyone could do it!