Finished my top hat but have questions.

[juicegoose]

Finished mine over the weekend and wasn't impressed with the amount of fines that got through. I did mess up and made my drop slot larger more like 1.5" and also kept the drop slot the entire radius up until the incoming air flow hits it again. I had originally stopped it about 4" shy of the vertical wall the inlet is at but I noticed that the dust was collecting there and then being sucked up.

How crucial is the 240 degree opening? Has it been tried with a longer slot?

[juicegoose]

quick little example of how long my drop slot is compared to what is the normal. did I mess up?

[alan m]

the 120 degree prtion of the bafel is there to stop the the air above and below the baffel spining together. the air bellow the baffel needs to be as slow as posible to help keep the dust down.

lengthening the slot will increase the speed below the baffel.

the slot width might be the problem.
is there any room between the baffel and the inlet where you could put another  layer with a smaller slot width.


aslo you could put a little extra kick to the end of the wall of the seperater where it meets the incoming air. it will kick the revolving air around and not into the straight section of the wall/

have you a pic of the actual buuild

[juicegoose]

I could add some material below the baffle to shorten the slot length. My concern is that the baffle is already as thick as 3/4" ply and 2 pieces of hardboard. I did angle the baffle back to make it thinner at the edge.

I do indeed have build pics I will post them this afternoon. Not sure if I stated it but when testing with fine dust the dust seemed to be nose diving toward the slot right at the end before the inlet start again.

I'll try to get a video as well.

[juicegoose]

Also I wonder if I should have angled my inlet pipe or offset the inlet pipe more toward the side. Currently I have around 1-1.5 inch extra space around the 6" pipe inlet and the inlet is centered in the rectangle inlet

[revwarguy]

Hey juice,

Just a thought - how good do you feel about the seal you have all around, including where it sits on the lid?  First time I tried mine, I didn't like the fine sep either, but I was anxious to see it work and hadn't applied the seal yet. Adding the sealing material really helped make the problem go away in my case.

[juicegoose]

I used a 55gallon drum that has a locking lid to it. I removed the lid and used a piece of hardboard and that holds the separator in place. With that being said I did notice some air movement pushing out of the seal. Right now it's just hardboard to hard plastic.

The seal is that big a deal?

[alan m]

the seal is probably the most critical part of the seperater. you can get away with other areas a small bit but even a small leak can create loads of problems.

i would strengthen up the lip that sits on the barrel so that it doesnt flex. then put thick weather stripping on the lip.

[juicegoose]

I'll seal it up and take a pic of fix. Probably use an smoke stick to check for more leaks.