J. Phil Thien's Projects

Quote from: jgt1942 on March 15, 2012, 09:48:45 PM
any possibility of routing a small grove for the polycarbonate to sit in and put a small bead of caulk/silicone in the grove to seal things? This was my thought during my design phase which is still in progress.

I could put a grove in the top. That is what Retired2 did. But to do that I would still have to take everything apart. Cut the uprights shorter and reassemble. At this point, I want to just finish this. Does anyone out there have an opinion if this gap at the top will hurt the function of the seperator if I fill it with silicone?

I?ll export file to dwg tonight.

I was hoping for some feed back. I am wondering if I should disassemble the whole thing. Cut the plastic to 6 inches. Then, cut all of my supports to match. I am thinking then the screws won?t have enough bite. I could c?sink deeper in the rings so the screws can hold. Or should I just run a bead of silicone in the gap between the top of the plastic and the top of the top ring?

Another thought came to me just now. I could run the the top ring (while assembled) across the jointer a few passes. Im not sure how well mdf works with a planner.

I don?t want to knock your idea. But I think you may be asking for trouble. I wonder if the square tapered box will change the way material falls thru the drop slot of baffle.  :-\
Maybe you should have a straight portion, at least for a few inches, before starting the taper.

03-14-2012: I put the polycarbonate in place temporarily with clamps. You can see the mismatch with the slot in the baffle. This was intentional. My plan is to cut the baffle flush with the plastic, while assembled, with a flush cutting router bit. The gap at the top was probably bad planning. The width of the plastic ranged from 6.06 to 6.125. So I made the stack up of my rings and uprights to be 6.25. Why? I don’t really know. At the time I was thinking would be good place to lay a bead of silicone. Hindsight, I wish I would have cut the sheet parallel at 6 inches even and made my stack up like 6.015.

Jgt1942,

The thread you are looking for is:
http://www.jpthien.com/smf/index.php?topic=563.0

The thread Topic is:
5", Rectangular Inlet, Bellmouth Outlet with Air Straightener, Top Hat Separator

I can't ever find what I am looking for using the site search. I started adding url's to my browsers favorite list. I have know idea how people search and find what they are looking for.

Doah! Sorry. I forgot my jr. high math.

The area of the round is 18.85 sq inches. The area of the rectangle is 19.5 sq inches.

Peter, good idea. I wish this came up last night. I just assembled mine late this afternoon. :(

That is true. I didnt consider the inside strut. My design doesnt have an inside baffle support. I made a .75 thick bottom piece (that fits in the container with an offest slot) to support the baffle. Peter is right, if a piece of cardboard or bag got in there, even without the strut, I would be clogged.

I think you could easily get any clog out with a shop vac from the underside of the baffle.

Here is a pdf of my plan. 2-d sheets 1-7
And a 3-D pdf.
And pdf of round to rectagular inlet I made from RONS' instructions.

I should also mention that many members of this site have helped me. So many. I should have made a list. Like I said I am a novice woodworker, I had no idea how to make the parts I drew. I made all of my parts using pit bull?s circle cutting jig that he shared in his thread: 6" Inlet/Outlet Separator How to with Video. It works great. I don?t have a router bit long enough to cut the parts stacked together. Using the jig, I cut them separately yet they match perfectly.

03-11-2012: I thought I?d make a log of my project. I based my design on Retired2?s. I am a novice woodworker. I probably should have made a simpler version but I really liked his design. After months of reading and planning, I started my build. Today I finally had all of the parts made. I did make a deviation from his design. I couldn?t figure out a way to make the radial dados in the rings. So I planned to omit the dados and have the upright spacers butt jointed with counter sunk screws in the rings, screwed into the uprights. Well that was a bad idea. First screw (even though I pre-drilled) split the upright. Another bad decision was I made the upright spacers out of mdf. So my plan now is to remake the uprights out of oak and see if that works. I realized that screwing into end grain is not a good idea, but I hope it works in oak.

03-11-2012: I remade the up-right supports out of oak. It is really solid now. Leason learned.

Sheet metal would be fine. I am using clear polycarbonate just so I can see what?s going on inside the separator. I would think melamine would be fine as well.

I always am interested in everything wood working related. I hope someday I can finish a project.