J. Phil Thien's Projects

In our experience the best location is up in front of the blade. This is because while the blade is starting the cut it is buried into the material, therefore any chips or dust are mostly confined within and mostly send downwards. This is also the reason of a second pickup under the blade. Once the cut blade starts its downward travel, the debris is shot forward (against the operator) and the pickup at the front is in the right place to catch them. We use an integral Thien baffle for dust collection.

Bear in mind that no dust collection system is a 100% efficient. In the case of table saws, you'll find that a rip cut so shave just 1 or 2 mm from its witdth will create a lot of dust that the pickup will not be able to collect. This is because the blade is just grazing the workpiece and dust flies everywhere.

You may find interesting a visit to our website www.aw-thinkbold.com. Coincidentally, the first article shown covers the same problem with our blade cover design and free plans to build it. If you're fitting this cover to an American style  of saw, you'll have to devise a suitable way of mounting it. American saws rarely have a riving knife and their blades usually raise following an arched path. Our design incorporates an original system that raises the blade vertically along with the riving knife. For more details it's interesting to have a look of the Reader's projects and, of course, to the videos and pics.

It it possible to add a riving knife to a blade that basculates on a fixed point. I know because I did it in my prototype. However, it's no mean task. If you're interested on how it was done, supply your mail address and I'll send you a white paper on the whole development of the saw with pics on its many parts and the riving knife installation.

Hope this helps!

I also never heard of that name but Marius Hornberger uses a very similar setup in his Small Dust Collector. Have a look at this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tREMRr81olg&t=1116s. The system is described starting at 15'03. I was looking for something of the sort for my Shop Vac which was covered in previous posts in this forum.

As seen in the photos below, I started years ago with a hinged upper part which allowed removal of the dust bin very easily. After some time I decided that a power cable reel would be a convenient addition and installed one at the back. The problem was that now the hinged top required an extra hand to hold it while removing the dust bin. Not very comfortable, really.

The photos show my version of the Younker/Hornberger Lift. In my case as in Marius' the Separator remains fixed and the dust bin is lifted in place. The whole setup is much smaller and therefore the bin is lighter than the rest. Marius uses a bar to link the two levers that lift the dust bin. I left this out to avoid its forward protrusion from bumping things when the vac was moved. I just kneel down and use two a finger on each lever to push them down 90?  and lock/press the bin in place. Works very well.

The flat part of the cam is its greater asset. It lock the lever  in position and will not move under vibration or jolts.

Here are some shots of the Shop Vac, before and after the modification.

Photos 06 and 10 show the original Shop Vac arrangement and the addition of the cable reel.

Photos 11 and 12 show the lever open and closed respectively. Total travel upwards is 18mm

Photo 13 illustrate the alignment blocks screwed from the inside of the dust bin. These guide it properly against the back wall and sides of the frame.

Photos 14 and 15 are with the bin being inserted.

Photo 16 - The dust bin lifted and pressed in place

Photo 17 -The whole arrangement as seen from the front

Photo 19 - View from the back. I have two hoses, one with the standard nozzle and the other (shown in the photo) has a special nozzle that fits in my bandsaw and edge sander when I remove the grey end piece. In a pinch, with this piece installed, I can use other accessories without a hose change.

Yes, it is inserted on the round mounting disc in front of the motor. It was removed to better show the duct connection and the general assembly of the motor housing.

Hello Kelly,

As you can see in the last photo, the motor is an old shop vac one, 1200W. Just that and the rigging the photos show. I have designed a shop-built European style table saw with the same arrangement. Several builders report the system is working well for them. If you're interested, visit www.aw-thinkbold.com for more info on the saw. Some of the Readers Projects are also interesting, especially the one by Luc Scholte, which is also a devoted user of the Thien Separator in his shop in Thailand.

I do have another arrangement for my own shop vac. you can see it in this forum at http://www.jpthien.com/smf/index.php?topic=740.msg4266#msg4266. It works beautifully and keeps my filter clean for very long periods. I can hook it to my bandsaw and belt sander as well as to my hand-held trim router (with a suitable smaller diameter and more flexible extension hose).

Hi Andy,

Yes, the dust piles up moderately higher under the center of the separator. I'd say its nothing to worry about, especially with regular cleaning, which should be done anyway.

Sorry about a couple of typos: It's "cherish" (not cheris) and "building" (not bilding)

Thanks for your kind words about my language command. Most of it I owed to my intelligent mother who back in forties decided to send me to a british school. Quite a foresight which I cheris dearly! My span with Shell also helped a lot and I enjoy both speaking and writing in English. Model aircraft bilding and competition was also a means to communicate with fellow modelers all over the world and eventually travel to championships.

I've been in the US (3 times), Canada, Europe (5 trips) and, of course, most of our South American neighbouring countries. Argentina is a beautiful country and Patagonia is a special place. We went there some years ago and were very impressed with the Perito Moreno Glacier. We extended our trip to Usuahia and travelled in the End of the World Train (another of my passions!). Really worthwhile.

You're welcome to visit Uruguay, my home and my shop. But all depends now on the outcome from the Covid19 menace. Let's hope it will be soon and with flying colors!

All the best!

Hector

To be fair, I think a succint recount of my life is in order. I am now 84 years old and happily married too! Between my second wife and me we have 5 offsprings, all married and 12 grand children. I worked as a Land Surveyor from 1962 to 2002. Before that, I had 3 jobs, the latest being with Shell Uruguay Ltd.

My woodworking started early since my dad had a fairly big commercial woodshop and I learned my first tasks there for two years. At that time I started with model aircraft, a passion that lasted 50 years. With my youngest son (also a Surveyor) we competed in the WC for Circular Flight (U-Control as it is known in the States) in Kiev (1988). This was also the start point for my world travelling.

I'm now enjoying my retirement mostly in my shop and turned my knowledge on all those fields into designing what became my brainchild: the Format Style table saw. I started in 1997 with plans and some parts from Gilliom and evolved into a protoype still undergoing some improvements. I never built the final design myself (too much work at this age!) but my partner Andŕe Wagner from Germany enticed me into drawing the plans and built the new version impeccably. That was in 1914/15.

He placed some videos in YouTube and they were so well recived that we decided a partnership and started selling the plans. Then came the website and the rest you know. We now have 13500 followers.

BTW, I live in Montevideo, Uruguay, South America and Andr? lives in Elz in Germany. He visited me in 1918 with his girl friend (now his wife) as they were curious about Uruguay.

Hello Retired2:

Thank you for the compliments. Regarding the saw's size, if you look at Specifications, there is a sketch with dimensions. If you take off the Outrigger Table, it's no bigger than a standard cabinet saw. Reader's Projects is also worth a look.

I think my partner Andre went a bit overboard with too many ports! At most, only two ports would work simultaneously: One  connected to the Blade Cover or Guard (as we like to call it) and the other to a Shroud underneath the table. Obviously, for non-through cuts, just the lower connection will be active.

The remaining ports would serve other purposes. The main use would be a router installed at the right side of the table. In my case, I also have a small jointer (built from ShopNotes plans) powered by still another router. So my total requirements are four ports.
Andre also installed a router on the table at a later date and used a fourth port for an outside hose for genearl cleaning. In his case the fifth port remains as a spare.

The blower is indeed a 1200W shop vac motor. BTW our mains is 220V. The electrical arrangement starts the vac motor when each machine is powered on. If a general cleaning port is  used, then a by-pass switch will allow starting the vac motor separately. I attach 2 pages of the plans showing the general arrangement and the electrical connections.

BTW, I'm also retired. Worked 40 years as Surveying Engineer (Land Surveyor). If you require more information, please feel free to ask. There is quite a story (already written) behind the table saw and I will be honored to exchange mails with you if you want. My email is topocalc@gmail.com.

Finally, let me tell you that I daily visit the forum and your posts immediately call my attention. I've learned a lot by reading your contributions.

Best regards,

Hector (AKA Tacuabe)

Failed to include all photos at the first attempt. Here goes the missed ones.

Sorry, my mistake. I forgot to check if our website photos included some of the dust collection system. Actuallly they are part of the package to build the machine. I hereby attach several showing the top hat and blast gates. Apologies and best regards.

Hello again:

If the link to the article in this forum fails to work, just search for the text.

Hello:

I've had very good results with a 4 blast gate input linked to a tophat separator. All that inside a shop-built table saw. Here's the link to what may help you with your project: Shop-made Table Saw with integral Thien DC.

The saw has now been published in an improved version in our web page www.aw-thinkbold.com. You'll find there some additional photos of a cleaner layout of the blast gates. The original ones were just an addition to the existing prototype and were conditioned by the connections inside the available space.

Please let me know if you need any more info to carry out your build.

Best regards

In your first post you mention using a 4" PVC pipe. Looking at the photos the pipe appears to be larger, maybe 8". Can you please confirm the correct size? Maybe you meant to say 4" radius.

Here are some pictures of my arrangement.
Hector AKA Tacuabe