Here is my separator build so far

[Bulldog8]

I got interested in the baffle after making numerous end grain cutting boards for Christmas. I found that my old system that consisted of a Griz 1029 connected to a trash can lid (grizzly) separator with flex pipe and 4" SDW ducting wasn't giving me the performance I needed. There was a lot of discussion on the Thien baffle over on Woodnet which led me here.

Here is what I have gotten done so for. I am upgrading my main runs to 6" metal ducting (from PSI) and am using a plastic 30 gallon drum for collection. Because I did not want to loose barrel capacity I decided to build the baffle as a top hat. Here is a shot from the bottom of the baffle. As you can see I used stick on weather stripping on the barrel contact surface. The bottom plate of the baffle is two layers of 3/4" ply and one layer of 1/2" ply



For the curved area of the baffle I used some 1/8" Plexiglas or poly acrylic that I had in the shop. Here is the assembled baffle.



I got rid of the plywood spacers and used oak to prevent splitting. where the inlet pipe goes into the baffle I doubled the plywood to 2 layers of 3/4" ply just to provide more contact area on the pipe. The clamp on the barrel is there to keep the top of the barrel in a perfect circle. Without the clamp the barrel would rest to a somewhat oval shape.

Here I have the blower mounted on the wall. The duct from the baffle is 6" in diameter and fits 3" below the top inside of the baffle in its current position. It is a tight slip fit sealed with more weather stripping. I am going to add a handle/hinge/chain contraption to hold the baffle for drum emptying. The baffle can move up and down on the outlet duct providing clearance to empty the drum.



I won't have much shop time until after Christmas to install the filter and bag.

[pitbull]

Steve-

Nice job and good thinking with the plexi. Makes it alot easier to build and you get to see it working. I am in the process of putting together a smaller 4" version using some thing but super strong 1/16" lexan I have in the shop.

Did you rout a 1/8" dado using a trammel to run the track for your plexi in the top and bottom pieces? How did you terminate the plexi to the plywood inlet (glue, screw or what?)

[Vodkaman]

I really like the acrylic idea. I have a ton of polycarbonate sheet that is just taking up space. It is only 2mm thick, but over a short height and coiled around, I think it will do the job.

I guess with large diameter tubing, their is not much possibility of blockages, but on mine, I will have to build in a vacuum relief valve.

Dave

[Bulldog8]

Pitbull, I didn't have a 1/8" straight bit so I used a 1/4" bit for the groove the Plexiglas sits in. In the 240 degree drop slot area I removed the 1/8" excess caused by my router bit when I made the slot. In the 120 degree area, I just left the "extra" I do think that it would have been pretty difficult getting the top on if the kerf were cut at 1/8".

I put a groove to hold the tail piece on the inlet side. You can see that here.



At the other end I stopped the groove where I wanted the plexi to stop. That gave me a surface to press against to keep the plexi tight to the outside of the groove in the drop slot area. That is visible here.



I then sealed all wood to plexi junctions with clear silicon.
A simple 1/4" plywood trammel was used for all of the routing operations. I used a 8" x 24" piece of plywood and drew a line down the center of the long dimension. This gave me an easy reference point for determining the bit to center point distances. So far it looks promising.

I am thinking about cutting a chamfer in this area. I think that having the drop slot being made of 1 1/4" material that air that is in rotation may hit the end of the drop slot as a wall. If I chamfer the area to keep the debris moving down, it may help with the scrubbing action.

[pitbull]

The chamfer is a good idea for the drop slot. You also might run into the same problem I had with the inlet. I originally cut it to shape to keep the radius of the curve. I found that the inlet air was colliding sporadically with the tornadic action and bouncing back inside my inlet pipe. When I cut it back drastically...meaning as far as I could to the inlet hole....it worked better because the inlet air could now exchange  as needed with the tornadic air with out the metal pipe obstructing its way.

Also you may want to figure out a better method for connecting your top outlet pipe to the collector. A slip fit is not conducive to keeping the fines out of the air. I suggest going with your original idea of a small portion of 6" flex pipe...you lifting mechanism will work just fine with this and you will get an air tight connection.

Make sure to post some video. It tells what still pics can not.

[Bulldog8]

Ok, here is the next set of photo's. The bottom of my seperator is 1 1/4" thick, it seemed like I could see dust hitting the end of the drop slot and causing a lot of turbulence. To help this, I chamfered the very end of the drop slot like this.


I finished the "lift contraption" that allows me to pull the barrel out for emptying.

Here it is in the down position.



Here it is in the raised position. This gives me about an inch of clearance to remove the barrel.



And finally here is a video of a test run. The test was performed with an 8' long piece of 11 1/4" wide cherry running through a planer with a spiral cutter head.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SswUX_keN1M&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

And the resulting dust/chips in the collection can.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7xZtoRwruk

[clayandnancy]

That works great, you and Pitbull have a couple of very efficient DC's. Thanks for all the info.

[Bulldog8]

Here is a shot of the separator connected to the blower and filters.

[pitbull]

Nice video. So I guess by now you are as impressed as I was with your dust collection. I still laugh a bit every time I have run a good quantity of wood since I have built it and know that I will not be changing bags an hour into the build.

I really like you setup with the simple lift mechanism. So easy.

The dawgs are off the chain.

[Bulldog8]

Pitbull, your right, the performance has exceeded my expectations. The design is very capable of separating chips and dust, I still haven't tested the setup with the drum sander. That was my original problem that led me to improve my DC Set up. I fully expect that the combination of 6" mains, Wynn filter and the Thien baffle will allow me to actually collect dust instead of spreading dust when running a lot of material through the drum sander. With the old setup, I could see the performance drop off while using the sander for extended periods of time.

I will get some time and glue up a couple of cutting boards if the weather will cooperate.

[clayandnancy]

Do you have any pics of your piping, be great to see the entire system if you don't mind.

[Bulldog8]

Clay and Nancy, here are a some pics of my DC system. I still haven't finished the second branch, but this will give you an idea of what I am doing. The metal pipe came from PSI Industries and is what they call their economy snap lock 26 gauge pipe.




When I am using the planer or the drum sander I move it out and connect it to the drop by the drill press.



I still have to measure and set up this branch. I had a project that needed to be finished so I ran some of the old S&D pipe to be able to use the table saw. Eventually, this branch will have a 6" main and 4" drops to the table saw, radial arm and miter saws.

[clayandnancy]

Looks great. That's a lot of duct work, probably longer than I need. Let us know how well it works in the future.

[pitbull]

Bulldog-

If you need to buy some more ducting at a more reasonable price than what you might might be paying at PSI plus shipping.... check out a Lowes hardware store near you they sell this in the HVAC dept. It is 30 guage snap lock 6" ducting and is very economical. I have been using it for years now without any problems and can vouch for it handling the CFM suction load just fine as well as taking a kick or two. Once snapped into place it is very rigid.

6' of 6" snap lock is $7.90
2' of 6" snap lock is $3.98

Plus they have swivel 6" fittings which are good as well for a few bucks.

Home Depots around me does not sell this, only Lowes.

[Bulldog8]

Have you used their lateral wyes? I need a couple more but the ones that I looked at had the crimps in the wrong ends for what I needed. HVAC is set up to move air in the opposite direction. I did look at their pipe but had always heard that the 30 would crush if you had gotten dents and dings in it. That led me to the heavier material. I would like to save some bucks, but do want to save some initially and then have to replace it with heavier stuff later. How long have you been using the 30 gauge?

Steve