J. Phil Thien's Projects

Sorry to be so slow to respond.

The bell inlet is interesting.  What is its purpose and where did you get it?

Not sure about the crinkle. I'm guessing (without any first hand experience) that it won't be a noticeable problem.  The flow there is already going to be turbulent, so maybe the crinkle with induce a little more turbulence and slightly greater pressure drop, but I'm guessing that it would be small.

Again guessing about the openings at the periphery, I think they have to be sealed.  The separator works on the principle of particles being moved to the wall by centrifugal force while the air eventually moves radially inwards to the center to exit from the center opening. An air path that lets air escape from the periphery would interfere with the collection process.

Have a new HF dust collector.  My plan is to build a top-hat stage and replace the bag with a Wynn cartridge. If I do that, why do I need the tangential inlet part of the HF dust collector.  Why have a top inlet on the filter cartridge (direct from the fan) with a dust pan or bucket sealed to the bottom of the filter cartridge? 

I'm referring to the metal part that the top and bottom bags are attached to.  Can I just throw it away?

I'm in the process of doing the exact same thing. I'm going to build a Thien separator upstream and get rid of the bag in favor of a Wynn filter cartridge.  I'm stuck now on what to do with the HF tangential inlet part.  For starters, I think I'll just replace the filter fabric with the cartridge and see how it goes.  If everything works well, I'll figure out a way to make the cartridge into a top inlet and add a dust pan to the bottom of the cartridge.

Anyway, that's plan. Don't have dimensions yet but will likely try to make the sidewall from plexiglass with the integral-type inlet, rather than making a cylinder and cutting an inlet in it.

The patent application is under examination, and the guy is going to get a patent.  Some discussion over a prior patent application by Phil Thien himself.  Just skimmed it, but it looks like a requirement of his patent will be a slot in the plate that is tapered or not uniform in width.