Chips not falling

[Rob Cunningham]

I finally got my separator together. Since I can't see inside the drum I'm only going by sound. It sounds as if the chips are swirling around above the baffle until I turn off the DC, then they seem to drop into the bottom section. I haven't looked in the DC bags yet to see if anything is being sucked into them.
My set up consists of a PSI DC-4  with 8" pipe going into the top of the separator drum (35 gal). A 6" side inlet on the drum. 6"main with 5" drops to my machines.
Should the chips be dropping below the baffle while the DC is running or is it something I should not worry about? Thanks

[phil (admin)]

It is not unsual for swirling to occur.  You just want to make sure there are no leaks.  Leaks would cause problems.

[Rob Cunningham]

Just an update. I sealed the seams of the duct work and all elbows. I gave the system a test run yesterday by face jointing then planing poplar for some shop drawers. I filled 2 barrels with chips and nothing made it through to the DC.  :)  I also ran all the parts through the drum sander. When I took the lid off of the barrel, there was a nice pile of sanding dust on top of the chips. I'm very happy with results.