Adventure into dust collection

[TX_Lenador]

I decided about a year ago it was time to make an improvement over the shop vac for dust collection. I came across Phil's site (thanks to Phil for his work and maintaining the site) and found a wealth of information (thanks to all that have posted their work). I have adapted a number of the ideas I found here and on a few other sites to build the separator. It is based on a 2 HP DC (rated at 1550 CFM @ 11" SP, 12-3/4" blower; FWIW) that has been reconfigured to use the collector ring as the separator. The duct work is a 5" from the blast gates to the separator. The exhaust goes to a pleated filter (rated at MERV 15, 0.5 micron). The frame for the unit measures 43" x 24" x 80".
While I have not done all of the testing that retired2 and others have done I believe the separator is working quite well. I have run the unit without the exhaust duct in place and dumped large amounts of fines into the table saw connection and did not see any visible dust coming out the exhaust (tried the lights off with a flashlight trick, not the most scientific). I think it is capturing almost everything with possibly some of the super fines getting to the filter. A 1/8" piece of 1x4 was sucked in at the table saw and was carried up the 8' of duct to the ceiling and across to the separator and was deposited in the trash can so it seems to have sufficient air flow. I will be testing it with the router soon so will see how it performs with it.

[TX_Lenador]

Attachment is now available.

[bdeleiris]

Wow this is about identical to the one I just built! Right down to the same Grizzly components, which I recognized from your specs before even seeing the pictures. Your method for lifting the barrel into place is a little nicer than mine;  does it work smoothly? I just have the barrel sitting in a "cradle" held up to the separator with springs. I can step down on the cradle to remove the barrel.
I don't quite grasp all the top layers of yours... what is the function of the filler ring? It seems there are three layers on top. I just have one piece of ply over the top with the duct going through it.
Dumped a bunch of dust through it yesterday for the first time. Put in 2 lb 13.9 oz, and 2 lb 13.5 oz ended up in the barrel. Pretty good I thought! I am going to blow it all outside and forget about filters.
I'll try to get some pics of mine up in the next couple days.

[TX_Lenador]

The lifting mechanism works very well. I have a socket adapter that I put in the cordless drill which is used to raise or lower the trash can. It is very smooth and capable of exerting more than enough pressure to form an air-tight seal against the trash can and the weather stripping.
There are only two layers on top. The filler ring fits into the large hole in the top plate and the top cover sits on the top plate and the filler ring. This idea came from retired2 (http://www.jpthien.com/smf/index.php?topic=563.0). I did this so I could adjust the position of the baffle in respect to the inlet. I knew I was going to have the inlet coming in at an angle but was not sure of the exact position until I had the DC in place. The design allowed me to rotate the collector ring to line up the inlet and then be able to rotate the baffle to align the drop slot with the inlet. Hope this helps along with the picture.

[ORBlackFZ1]

Attachment is now available.

Thank you very much for sharing your design.  I like it.  I have been thinking about doing the same thing with my Jet DC-1100.  You have inspired me to make it happen......