Adding a Thien Baffle to a Harbor Freight DC

[bennybmn]

I have considered rebuilding or reinforcing my case, but the thing is HEAVY as it is! 

Yeah the cheap guitar thing is also since we'll be CUTTING them, don't want to wreck anything good!

[Donald Roth]

I like your design and detailed photos on the HF mod withthe baffle inside. I plan make one to fit my Shop Fox DC. Could you please give some details on the nuetral vane you installed? What material did you use? Is the pipe one diameter or did you make it a smaller diameter on the end that extends into the baffle? In the photo it does appear a bit smaller. Where did you place the pop rivets to make sure it stays in place? Thanks again for sharing your detailed pics and writeup.

[Vaughn]

I like your design and detailed photos on the HF mod withthe baffle inside. I plan make one to fit my Shop Fox DC. Could you please give some details on the nuetral vane you installed? What material did you use? Is the pipe one diameter or did you make it a smaller diameter on the end that extends into the baffle? In the photo it does appear a bit smaller. Where did you place the pop rivets to make sure it stays in place? Thanks again for sharing your detailed pics and writeup.

The neutral vane was made of galvanized sheet metal flashing. I'm not sure it added any benefit, and in fact I removed it the last time I had the DC apart, just to see if there was any improvement or if the neutral vane made things worse. Shape-wise, it's essentially a cylinder with one end trimmed at an angle to allow it to go up snug against the body of the DC. I started with a template made of poster board and kept trimming it until it fit. The pop rivets are only holding the neutral vane into its shape. The vane is not actually attached to the DC. It's just held in place with friction.

I hope this helps.

[Donald Roth]

I see now where you detailed the construction of the nuetral vane with a link.

So did you arrive at a conclusion whether it is more effective with nuetral vane installed, or about the same, or? Are you running your DC with it or w/o it now?

A separate question is: What is the measurement of the width of the "collar" on which the Wynn filter sits? Mine is 9" and I'm wondering if your "Hoover" is the same? My diameter is the same as yours. Would you mind putting a tape on the collar and tell me the width. Very nice documentation and pics, by the way to help those of us who are just starting to get their tools and shops put together. Thanks very much.

[Vaughn]

Well, it's been several years since the last post in this thread, and I never did notice the questions Donald Roth posted way back then. My apologies. Better late than never with the answer, huh?  ;D  Ya never know when a Google search will lead someone to this thread.

Regarding the neutral vane, using my own totally unscientific gut feeling, I think the performance of the baffle and the DC is better without it. After I took mine out, it stayed out and eventually ended up in the trash.

Unfortunately, I'm not able to answer Donald's other question about the dimensions since my shop tools are currently in storage. I moved from California to New Mexico earlier this year and don't have my shop set up yet. Nonetheless, my "Hoover" is just a painted Harbor Freight DC, so the dimensions will match yours if you have one.  ;)

[bbqguy]

I'm getting ready to buy a HF DC.   Your design is the only one I've seen that is built into the actual DC and not a separate can. I like the small footprint as I have a smaller shop.  Are you convicted that it works pretty much as well as the Baffles that have a separate canister?  I'd love to hear your thoughts.  Thanks

[lakrissen]

Just curious .... isn't the dust from the filter just falling down through the cone and landing on the thien baffel ☺☺.. :)

[Vaughn]

I'm getting ready to buy a HF DC.   Your design is the only one I've seen that is built into the actual DC and not a separate can. I like the small footprint as I have a smaller shop.  Are you convicted that it works pretty much as well as the Baffles that have a separate canister?  I'd love to hear your thoughts.  Thanks

I've not tried the separate canister approach, so I really don't have a good A to B comparison. I can say though, that I've been very happy with the way the DC performs with the internal baffle.

Just curious .... isn't the dust from the filter just falling down through the cone and landing on the thien baffel ☺☺.. :)

The whole purpose of the baffle is to keep the dust out of the filter in the first place, and it seems to do that very well. Any dust or chips that do happen to end up in the upper section of the DC will indeed fall on top of the baffle when the DC is turned off, but it tends to get forced into the lower half (the collection bag) the next time the DC is turned on. Nothing in dust collection is perfect, but the baffle and Wynn filter are a vast improvement over the stock configuration.  :)

[BigSteve]

I'm getting ready to add a Thien baffle to my HFDC.  I'm planning on just exhausting the air outside the building and let the wind blow away the dust.  There are some advantages to living on a farm.

My plan is to start with the ring that originally holds the filter and plastic bag.  I'm going to sandwich this ring between two pieces of plywood.  The bottom will be the Thien baffle and the top will have a center hole to which the suction hose of the blower will be attached.  This assembly will then set on a box or trash can to collect the chips or whatever.

Does anyone know if the blower can be run with the motor shaft vertical?  This would simplify the build quite a bit as I could just mount the blower on the top plywood panel with the short inlet pipe inserted into the top piece of plywood.

Steve

[loxmyth]

I'm definitely putting this modification on my (already too long) pending-projects list; thanks for the nice simple design! (I was wondering how I was going to hold the disk in place...) Two questions, if I may:

Sanity check 1: The drop slot should still end shortly before the inlet port, right? (IE, the solid area starts just at the point of highest airflow, where it can best prevent scrubbing.)

Sanity check 2: Has anyone determined whether 2/3-circumference is still the best slot length in this approach? In Phil's original version, and Vaughn's, the circulating airflow was obstructed at that point by the inlet tube/neutral vane. It's possible that this interacted with the slot length, and with a side-injected chamber a different slot length might be worth trying. Or it might not, or it might not be worth the effort to experiment with, but if anyone has actually tested it I'd be interested in hearing the results.

[Afterthought: Ah, I see -- this is effectively a pressure (as opposed to suction) Top Hat design, with separator suspended rather than attached at the periphery for simplicity's sake and to avoid interfering with bag attachment. Nice. Now if we can just come up with a way to replace the bag with a barrel...]

[willowsky]

Instead of replacing the bag with a barrel, I thought about just letting the bag sit in a metal trash can.  And, I?m considering figuring out a way to vent the top of the separator outside instead of into the Wynn filter.

[dbhost]

@Vaughn

I know it's been a LONG time, and you likely don't check here often if at all any more. But I just wanted to touch base on this.

I went as you may recall, with a side inlet 55 gallon drum separator and now need to downsize a bit.

I am going with your idea here. I was hoping I could get more info on how you made the standoffs.

I figure I will get the angles down, then chuck it in the lathe and drill the holes in the dowel material

[mveach]

I did this so I could remove the filter without the need to remove the bag and separator.

[nucww]

Response to BigSteve
I modified my HF with the shaft vertical several years ago and it runs fine.