J. Phil Thien's Projects

I've mostly fixed the problem. I had left a sharp edge on the end of the slot, and once a piece of cypress got caught on it other pieces would build up on it. It now works beautifully - only gets stuck when I send a heavier than normal (cypress) load to it.

Thanks. Looks like I am in for a re-build. We live to learn.

OK, thanks. I'll see if I can make a narrower slot.

The white fitting that you can see is a transition from round to rectangular .

Thanks to both of you for your comments. I'll have a rethink. The masonite is in fact bevelled underneath, and the bevel continues onto the mdf base. But I could remove the mdf around the baffle edge as you suggest.
Here's a pic of the chips that did make it into the barrel -they are up to 3 inches long, not 1 inch as I previously stated.

Well I've given my collector a real workout over a couple of days, and it didn't pass!.
I was using my planer on macrocarpa (cypress), which doesn'r present as particularly difficult timber. The chips were narrow, light and a  bit over 1 inch long, and clumped together like a lot of straw. They clogged the top hat fairly quickly, refusing to drop down the baffle slot, with the result that most passed into the lower bag of the collector. This happened even though I was only taking a small cut each pass.

Fair comment, here's a better shot.

The outlet pipe extends into the chamber according to Phil's rule of 1/2 the 4" pipe diameter.
Seems to work fine on test, but the real test will be my thicknesser.

Here's my new conversion of a small dust collector.

I hadn't found the private message feature - I have now. Thanks for your answers.

I realise that this is an old thread, but I couldn't find the orginator's email address to ask him privately.  I wonder if I can ask a couple of questions:
1. for vawoodworker84, in your first build photo there look like screws coming through the top and bottom of the hat, in between each side panel. Are these to guide the flexible wall when it goes in? i.e. to stop the wall from going into the angles between the side panels?
2. For anyone: the baffle on this build is said to be 1 inch. I thought I saw somewhere that it should be about 1/8 inch?? Or is that only necessary in the original Phil design?