Elbow or side inlet

[OCJoeR]

I'm in the process of setting up my garage shop now that I'm all moved into the new house, more or less. I've looked at several videos and plans for the baffle. I've decided to go with the internal build rather than the "top hat" version. I've seen 2 types of inlets, one where a 90 degree elbow is mounted to the lid and one wheee the inlet pipe is joined directly to the side of the drum.  I'm leaning towards using the direct attachment style.  This would appear to be more efficient since everyone has said that cutting out 90s is the first thing to do to increase suction. Seems like having a 90 degree L right at the beginning of the system would immediately reduce the suction. My duct work will go straight out of the drum under the workbench to the tools.

Any idea about this?

Joe

[alan m]

side inlet all the way. top inlet is way less efficient

[Mainebarn]

I built a side inlet in a drum and it works great--I really like it!  However, there is one disadvantage I found with this design:  If you are using a tool that creates a lot of dust (i.e., planer) where you fill the drum quickly, you do have to stop, go outside, and empty it before you can continue (because the inlet is part of the drum).  The advantage of a top-hat design or unit that sits in the drum, is that you could have multiple empty drums standing by for use.  Of course, you still have to stop to change out the drums, but you could wait until several drums were full before you need to go outside and empty them (e.g., say it's cold and snowing outside).  So, depending on your shop layout, use, and dust generation, this may or may not be a consideration.  Personally, I don't plane that often and don't really have room to store extra drums anyway!

https://youtu.be/JU0kFIw5Ye8

[alan m]

this true. I would always go side inlet  but I would also only go top hat for the reasons above

I would rather have a smaller drum and a top hat than the inlet in the side of a larger drum

[OCJoeR]

Just finished the side inlet baffle in a 55 gal. drum. I picked up 2 of the drums a few weeks ago from a company just giving them away so I think I'll make a second one to switch out. I'm using 6" HVAC ductwork and the 2hp HF motor/impeller. I'll take some photos and post later.

thanks for all the help,
Joe

[alan m]

not a bad plan