J. Phil Thien's Projects

I use plastic Faucet handle buttons to check when the can is full, I have used these since 2008 on my Thien ShopVac unit. You can tell from 25ft away that it's full because it turns from black to sawdust color. Drill a 1" hole and glue it in from the outside with RTV.

I don't think that filling the gap with caulk/silicone will impact the performance of your Thien TopHat at all. I would smooth the caulk/silicone as much as possible to reduce any turbulence. 

If there are any plastic supply or mfg companies in your area, I would check them out. You may be able to get sheet goods cut off material very cheap / free.

Replace the  Super Dust Deputy with a Thein TopHat per the designs on this Forum

Doug, You are doing a great job of documenting your Thien TopHat design, keep up the good work, many will be helped by your drawings which are worth thousands of words. I looked over your drawings and didn't see any issues that should impact your build or performance. The transition drawing is very good and detailed, good luck building it.
Bolting the baffel to the bottom with one screw through the center will stiffen it up a lot.

Ron

I am attaching the drawings I use to create the round to rectangular inlets. I'm not a draftsman I just do this as way to create some basic drawings before I make anything.
I use DoubleCad XT as my drawing package, it's free at this web site (http://www.doublecad.com/). I will attach some other versions of the file so it can be imported into other cad packages.

Here is basically the way I do it.

I use a modified version of Joe Emenaker's spread sheet to create the input for the drawing, which I will attach with Joe's instructions. Joe's web site (http://joe.emenaker.com/DuctEvolution/index.html) also has some help full information.

Using concentric circles draw the inner and outer radius from Joe's spread sheet,
also draw a third circle 1.5" smaller than the radius of the inner circle to serve as the round end extension.  ( you could also use concentric arcs for this also)

Use 10 concentric circles to draw the short tick marks on the inner radius circle. To locate the center of these circles, draw a perpendicular line from the center of large inner/outer circles to locate the center on the arcs to use for the circles.  The radius for these circles are calculated in a chart on the spread sheet.

Draw 3 concentric circles on the outer radius.  The radius for these circles are calculated in a chart on the spread sheet. These determine the tic marks for the rectangular section and corners where the bend lines meet on the outer radius.

Where these smaller circles cross the inner and outer radius lines creates the points needed to draw the diagonal bend/cut lines for the transition. Draw all the diagonal lines per joe's instructions and delete the parts of the circles you don't need.

Then add the dimensions  for the rectangular section at the bottom. From experimentation with paper cut outs I determined that you need to leave some material to connect it all together with rivets when your done bending it, unless your a good welder. These are marked on the drawings as connection tabs/leave this tab. If you use pop rivets you can get closed end rivets that are air tight.
(http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00137PW48/ref=oh_o00_s00_i00_details) I just used small rivets and a hammer.

Ron

Files attached Spread sheet (xls), Instructions (pdf), DoubleCat dwg (2cd), AutoCAD (dwg), AutoCAD (dxf), Pdf printout of drawing.

Bulldog8,
Here is a pdf file for 6" round to a 7"X4.5" rec transition. this will fit on a 12X28 piece of sheet metal. The rectangular section will be about 1.5" deep, the transition section will be 8" and the round section will be about 1.5".  The more you can add to the 12" dem on your SM the deeper the rec section will be. This file prints out on 6 sheets of paper in landscape mode. Print it out and past it to the bench and see what it looks like, use a straight edge to line up the sheets. make the dimensions shown on the drawing are correct on the printout. 

The 6" to 5" tapered transitions are available from Oneida, but they are about $25 plus shipping.

Here is my transition it is also easy and cheap to make.

It is 5 15/16 by 3 7/16 (20.4 SqIn) on one end and 5" (19.6 sqin) round on the other, it is about 12" long with the extensions. Here is the post with some instructions and some pictures. (These are inside dimensions)

http://www.jpthien.com/smf/index.php?topic=637.0


It can be made from a 12X24 sheet of 26 gage sheet metal which can be bought at most hardware stores.

I've attached a PDF file of the full scale drawing printout needed to make this transition.

If you print this drawing set your printer to paper size 8.5 X 11 portrait with no scale factor, don't use fit-to-page. After printing, make sure it is full scale, check by measuring the dimensions at the bottom of the drawing, they should be right on.

You will notice that this drawing contains 3 sections. The transition is the 8" section in the center where the diagonal (DL) lines are drawn. The piece at the top is the 5" round section extension (about1 3/16). The section at the bottom is the rectangular attachment (about 2 3/4). The 3/8" rectangular pieces  on the sides and where it says "leave this tab" are for attaching it together once the cutting & bending is done.

Here is how to use the drawing: (reference the post above for pictures)

   1. Clean your sheet metal (SM) before you start. Tape the three pieces of the drawing to your SM, keeping the top section as close to top of the SM as possible, make sure the long tab at the bottom right fits on the SM. Use a straight edge to align the sheets using the diagonal marking lines. (First picture in post)

   2. Use a sharp knife to mark through the paper where each of the DL start and end. At the bottom mark the straight lines to the bottom of the SM, the 3 middle lines are bend lines and the 2 on the right & left are cut lines. . Cut the paper away around the top, right & left sides marking the SM as you cut, these will be the top, right & left cut lines. (Second picture in post)

   3, When everything is marked to your satisfaction remove the paper and using a straight edge and knife finish marking the diagonal bend lines and the outer cut lines. I would use a black marker to mark the cut lines. (Third picture in post)

   4. Cut along all the outer cut lines. At the bottom cut the arcs to where it is shown on the drawing. (Forth picture in post)

   5. Bend along the diagonal bend lines, each bend is only about 15 deg, try not to bend into top section any more than necessary since it needs to be round when your done. The 3 center bend lines at the bottom are 90 deg, bend them last. I used 2 pieces of angle iron clamped to the bench to do the bending.

   6. Bend the 3/8 tabs on the right and left so you can attach the thing together. I used a 5" round and 5 7/8 by 3 7/16 wood template on the inside when during the final assembly.

I also made sure it was going to fit into the Thien TopHat inlet and that I could attach a 5" pipe inside the round end. I used small rivets (hammer & anvil) to assemble the seams then taped them all with AL HVAC tape. (The last 3 pictures show the finished transition)

Remember the dimensions on this drawing are the inside dimensions so your outer dimensions will be these dimensions plus twice the thickness of your sheet metal.

If any one is interested I would be willing to create this drawing for a 6" inlet to about a (6" X 5") 0r (7" x 4.5")  ?? outlet.   



Looking at this post by dmh. I like his transition and it looks really easy and cheap to make.


http://www.jpthien.com/smf/index.php?topic=666.0

Here is an article from wood Magazine that has some of the infor and process mentioned above by Retired2. It looks like this article is dated 2007 and it is little blurry but usable. It is a process to determining your SP loses. Do a loss calc for your main run and then for each of your drops, add the main loss to each drop loss and look at your worst case run.

Check out these 2 links:

http://www.jpthien.com/smf/index.php?topic=243.msg1345#msg1345

http://www.zenreich.com/ZenWeb/shop/dustcollector.htm

Ron

Do a search, on this site,  for "harbor freight DC" and you should find a lot of info on what others have done with the
HF DC
Ron

Doug, The inner diameter of the top hat cannot be any larger than the ID of your collector can, since the ID of the tophat is the outter edge of your thien drop slot. If the ID of your collector can is equal to or greater then 20 1/8" then your retaining rings will be work fine.

Ron

Doug
Here is an artical from Fine Woodworking Mag that has some very good Ideas on how to improve the dust collection from Table Saws. 

Ron

Here is an artical from wood Magazine that has some of the infor and process metioned above by Retired2. It looks like this artical is dated 2007 and it is little blurry but usable. It is a process to determining your SP loses. Do a loss calc for your main run and then for each of your drops, add the main loss to each drop loss and look at your worst case run. I would use Retired2's SP loss for the Thien seperator in your main run.

Here is a pdf of the article that appeared in Wood Mag Issue182 testing 15 Under $400, 1.5 & 2 HP DCs, the HF model 45378-1VGA was included in the test. This artical has been posted many times on this site and is a good reference for those trying to decide on which unit to buy. This test includes SP vrs CFM curves for all the units teste, one of the curves shows which of the units can support 6" duct work and which can support 5" duct work.
You might find this artical very interesting
Ron