J. Phil Thien's Projects

I just finished my Top Hat separator.  It works much better than my previous in-barrel design.  I also created it with 6" ports for both inflow and outflow.  I used a 1-1/4" drop slot.  Over the first week of using the new separator with my 12" jointer, the chips sometimes get stuck in the slot.  I am assuming that once I test the Top Hat separator with the 20" surface planer, I will get the same problem.

Here is my question to those of you that have created a Top Hat separator and are using it with a 12" jointer and/or 20" surface planer.   

What is the optimum drop slot width for using the Top Hat with a 12" jointer and/or 20" surface planer?

Thanks,
Eric

Thank you to everyone that has posted on this forum for sharing their ideas and experiences.  A special thanks goes to Phil for hosting the forum and Retired2 for his great posts.

I finished my Top Hat last week and have been testing it out.  Here are a few of my thoughts.

1. I had already been using an in-the-barrel separator for a couple of years, thanks to Phil for the web pages on the idea years ago.  It worked very well, but my jointer and surface planer created too much dust/chips for the 4" hose to keep up. 

2. The motivation for creating a Top Hat design was to create better chip/dust collection at both my 12" Jet JJ-12 jointer and my 20" Grizzly G5850z surface planer. 

3.  I decided to change my flexible piping from 4" to 6" diameter for all my equipment.   First the jointer, then the surface planer, band saw, table saw, etc.

4. Using the larger 6" hose between the DC and the new Top Hat has improved the chip collection at my jointer.  I have been jointing 10" to 12" by 8' to 10' long boards over the last week and I have not got any chip clogs at the jointer!!  This is using only a 5" diameter flexible hose to the jointer.  I will be switching to a 6" hose at the jointer as soon as I get another one.

5. My dust collection bag has gotten very little dust and the filter has stayed clean!

6. The only clog I have gotten is in the Top Hat.    The 1-1/4" wide slot is not wide enough for the chips created by the jointer.  I may have to widen the slot or create another Top Hat with a wider slot.

I have not used the Surface Planer with the Top Hat yet.  Now that I have all the lumber jointed, I will be using the planer to finish the third side.  I will post those thoughts after some planing time.

Thanks again to everyone for contributing to the forum.