I built 2 Thien style separators a few years ago, both built on 20 gal (approximate) plastic barrels and worked fantastic. One was used on a 1hp dust collector & the other on a Harbor Freight 2 hp dust collector (1550 cfm supposedly), like I said both worked great hardly anything got into the collection bags. Two years ago I was flooded out in the flood of 2016 and lost both collectors, I have just got my workshop set up again & replaced the 2 hp HF with a 3 hp Grizzly collector (2320 cfm), now the separator does not work nearly as well as it did with the 2 hp HF, a lot is ending up in the collection bags.
My question is, could the higher cfm of the 3 hp unit be too much for the 20 gal barrel? Or what should I try? Wondering if I made another separator with a 55 gal barrel, would the larger diameter barrel work better with the higher cfm of the 3 hp collector. Hoping some of you more experienced guys that have played around with these a lot & made a lot of improvements might have some ideas and or suggestions.
My question is, could the higher cfm of the 3 hp unit be too much for the 20 gal barrel? Or what should I try? Wondering if I made another separator with a 55 gal barrel, would the larger diameter barrel work better with the higher cfm of the 3 hp collector. Hoping some of you more experienced guys that have played around with these a lot & made a lot of improvements might have some ideas and or suggestions.