J. Phil Thien's Projects

I have a ~40 gallon plastic barrel that could be great as a preseparator.  The question is how to fit a Thien baffle lid in/on it.  As you can see in the attached picture the top opening (~16") is smaller than where the actual baffle would sit (~20"), therefore getting the baffle in the barrel would be difficult, if not impossible.

Two possible solutions to this:
1) Make a lid/baffle like normal but use a piano style hinge to make the baffle foldable. Problems: Finding a way to assemble it once the baffle is inside the container and possible air resistance from the hinge itself (unknown).  Also cleaning out the barrel could be troublesome.
2) Make a lid/baffle that sat on top, as opposed to inside, the barrel.  Problems: No idea what type of material could be used to make the curved part of the lid.

Is this container going to work or should I keep looking for something else?   :'(

Firstly, Phil, you've done a tremendous thing with this lid design.  Thank you for sharing it.

This may be a stupid idea since I've not seen anyone else try it:

If I were to create a [Phil Thien] separator lid with 4" inlet/outlet and hook up 2 1/2" hose using 4"->2 1/2" adapters, would there be any negative impact on airflow?  Would the size of the baffle need to be adjusted to work with 4" ports?  I'm in the planning stage of my separator lid design and want to create something that will stand the test of time.  Currently I'm running with a small 3hp shopvac with 2 1/2" inlet/hose but a true dust collector is on my wishlist, so the ability to go to 4" ducting would be beneficial if my wish ever comes true.

Thanks in advance!

Edit: I should also mention that a 5.5hp shopvac is a possible replacement in the interim if it would perform better than the 3hp.