Air Quality with thien separator

[chopnhack]

Ok, I have done a few searches but have come up empty handed... I am interested in improving the fine collection in my shop. I have a 1hp delta 50-720 and a shop-vac. At 1hp I am thinking that running any sort of duct work would be futile as it only flows 650cfm. If I was to add a separator to that I should imagine the cfm would be cut in half.

My question is this: Does the use of a separator lead to increased fine filtration? Fine particles under 3 microns? What is the main purpose of the separator?

[woodarn]

I'm running a 650 cfm Jet. I initially put a Wynn paper canister filter on top, along with a poly bag at the bottom. The filter has 300 sq ft of area and filters to .5 microns. I got a lot better airflow and much better control over the fine dust. One problem I ran into was that the paper filter would clog with fine dust. After turning the dust collector off, I could tap the side of the filter and watch the dust rain down into the poly bag.

I added a thien separater and it really improves the separation. Now everything seems to go down into the poly bag. If I tap the side of the filter, I no longer see a rain of fine dust going into the poly bag. I haven't really seen any drop off in airflow either.

I agree with not running fixed ductwork with such a low powered dust collector. I use a flex hose and just wheel the dust collector to the machine.

[chopnhack]

Cool, that sounds pretty awesome. After reading Bill P.'s website I can't in good faith plan any projects before this is squared away. I have young ones and I occasionally wheeze when laughing too much so I am sure I must have had some damage occur in the past.

  Bill makes mention repeatedly that correcting the stock deficiency of dust collection starts at the tool itself. How would you address a table saw for instance, like the ryobi bt3100 or similar craftsmen t.s. - would you split the 4" having a straight run of 4" to the pan collector and on the other split have a reducer to 1.25" or something similar for the blade guard?? I am interested to hear anyone's thoughts on this.

Thanks

[Negative_Zero]

There is an excellent article in May/June 2009 issue of Fine Woodworking about how to dust proof any table saw.  I think also you would be wise to add an overhead guard with dust collection running on a split-off collection line.

But the connection to your separator is limited, the main question is the filter that must catch the dust that gets past the separator.  There are many comments that the Harbor Freight DC filter bag is not sufficient for this issue, and many have installed canister filters to address this (also increasing airflow because of larger surface area of canister filters).

The issue around a separator is whether it reduces the airflow so not enough dust is caught (it seems that Phil's baffle reduces this concern, but you still need enough static pressure to pull the dust into the air flow) and whether the separator keeps enough of the larger waste out of the filter to reduce the need to clean the filter to maintain suction.

-Will

[chopnhack]

Much to ponder..... do you think that using the shop vac would be better for the blade guard area? Or would doing this reduce/interfere with the fine dust collection of the dc? It would seem that the shop vac would then be the primary filtration for the fines.

Chuck do you wear a respirator when your shop doors are open? I am curious because I have done it before and I do notice the difference at the end of a long day. Its just such a bear to wear that in 80+ degree/humidity weather. Makes you want to close the shop doors and reroute some a/c into the shop ;)