J. Phil Thien's Projects

Thank you Ron. I work at a machine shop. When we need sheet metal cut, we buy from a local laser cutting shop. I will have them quote this for me. I think it will be cheaper to have them cut the piece than what I could buy blank sheet for. I'll find out soon.

Thanks again for sharing your info.

Update: I was wrong about laser place. Cost is $45 for cut 22 gage. I went to lowes.

RonS,

I saw your instructions a while back. At that time I was a bit intimidated. But I was reading it over again the other night. I decided that I will use your plans.

Thank you.

Doug

Retired, I have read your thread multiple times over the last few months. I agree that your setup is optimal. I was just trying to save some time and money.

Peter, I will give your plan a try and let you know how it works out for me.

Thank you for the responses.

Do you think I would be better off leaving it round? I can?t afford to have one made. Well, I shouldn?t say that because I don?t know the cost. But seems like it would have to be pretty high.

I think you have to either trust the math, or spend the money and see how it works.

On another subject, I just posted a question ?round to rectangular?. What I made last night looks like your inlet. Well, Kind of like it. Mine isnt quite as pretty. Yours is one piece with no cuts, right?

I was playing around last night with 5? dia duct. I put pieces of rectangular mdf in the end and used a mallet to form the round to rectangular. It doesn?t look bad. The only thing is, the perimeter of the rectangle is the same distance as the diameter. But the area is smaller. I don?t want to spend the money to have one made like Retired2 did. Although that is sweet. I assume retired2 made the area of the rectangle the same square inches as the area of the diameter. Would I be better off just having a round inlet, or the transition I made?

Thanks Phil. I do use zero clearance insert. A sled would be nice. Wow $15. That is a deal.

Looks sweet. Dont forget to update your outlet tube per Phil's advice.

I cant really tell from the shaded view, but it looks like the outside of your drop slot isnt the same radius as the I.D. of the ring. Looks to be like there is a step there.

I have been using a combination blade. I am getting ready to start a project using oak plywood. Anyone have recommendations on a good blade?

That is correct orientation of the drop slot. Some have made the drop slot wider.

I am making a separator with a 5? outlet to D.C. And 4? to tools. Not a central system. I will hook up to tools individually. Is it ideal? No. But it is all I can justify money wise. I ordered the 5" tube yesterday. $6 for part, $11 to ship. I wish home centers sold 5".

There are different opinions out there on this. Most say that the HF cannot handle 6? central system.

But I have no idea what is best.

I am finding that the duct work is so expensive. Would be cheaper to have 3 or 4 H.F. collectors. One dedicated to each machine.

I have the HF as well.

dmh, how did you connect to the H.F.'s 5" inlet?

I've not had any problems. I'm using Internet Explorer 8 with Windows 7.

Very nice. I will be interested to see what you come up with to raise the top-hat with drawer slides.

I am moving very slow on mine. This is my first woodworking project. It took me all afternoon just to make a circle cutting jig.  :-[