J. Phil Thien's Projects

On the HF dust collector, the outlet of the impeller housing is about 6x4 inches, then gets choked down to a 5 inch round house. Not a huge choke, but a choke none the less. On an Australian woodwork forum I read about someone that replaced the round hose with a rigid adapter that matched the dimensions of the outlet on the impeller housing.

https://www.woodworkforums.com/f200/.../2#post1659193

Has anyone on here tried that, and if so, HOW, and what did you think of the end results?

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!

Can anyone point me to research on the best location for the hose port on a blade guard.? I've seen some placed at the rear of the guard, others focused on the front of the blade. I'm trying to decide which way to go.

Anybody try the Wen impeller as an upgrade for the HF?
Thanks

Hello all

After seeing a video on you-tube, i am going to take a shot at building a dust collection system for my shop (i do almost exclusively metal work). Sanding and grinding make a hell of a mess and i would love to deal with it, but unless your willing to crank out thousands for one designed for metal your kind of screwed (most are for wood and using them for metal is a fire ball waiting to happen)

My plan is to use a Thien style collector power by a large metal blade blower (similar to the ones used in a house furnace) built inside a fully sheet metal housing. My issue before starting is trying to figure out the min airflow (CFM) i am going to need to make it work as the metal and stone dust is a lot heavier than wood dust. Love this site and have learned a bit so far but have yet to locate the info i need (doesn't mean its not here, i just joined and there is a LOT of info on this site). I'm hoping someone can help or point me in the right direction to be able to figure out what CFM i will need so I don't waste time and money using a blower not strong enough.

Thanks in advance, and now back to hunting the site

That one also says patent pending.

Huh.

Y'know...I just stumbled across this item on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Delmar-Tools-Separator-Engineered-Peformance/dp/B09GYTSQRM/ref=sr_1_145_sspa?crid=3I33956TMREA8&keywords=drill%2Bpress%2Btable%2Bwith%2Bfence&qid=1648936879&sprefix=%22drill%2Bpress%2Btable%22%2Caps%2C407&sr=8-145-spons&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUExUzZKTklZME5TRlNFJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwODUxMjYxU0hQMzJRN0JHMTBQJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTAyMjEzMjcxUElVTEVQUEJFWUMwJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfYXRmX25leHQmYWN0aW9uPWNsaWNrUmVkaXJlY3QmZG9Ob3RMb2dDbGljaz10cnVl&th=1 and thought again about this crap with Huntley.

It kinda looks like a rip-off of Huntley's rip-off of Thein (and this forum's population's) ideas.  I'm not sure whether or not it predates this site or Huntley's offense.

I take it nobody has sued or stopped the guy yet?

--Mik

Response to BigSteve
I modified my HF with the shaft vertical several years ago and it runs fine.

I put the machine back together yesterday, after re-cutting the baffle. The canister filter is delayed so I wanted to test it.

Compared to it with just the constrictor removed, it is quieter, and from a 'hand over the opening' test, it has more suction. I need to do some other work, so by the time the canister arrives, and I pull the top, I will have a good test on the separation and whether there is a build up on top of the baffle

First post--been reading like crazy. First project is to improve my old Delta that I inherited.

So far:

• Removed constrictor plate on intake
• Built baffle per instructions. I was able to use the groove rolled into the bottom edge of the separator by cutting two circles out of 5mm stock, one circle slightly larger, and laminating the two. Then cut the 240 degree drop slot. The DC is not quite round, so the slot narrows a little along one edge. but should be OK. By getting the 120 deg section into the groove, I was able to hold the baffle in place with a single edge mounted screw and finger bracket screwed through the separator side @ 180 degrees. (We'll see if this holds OK. Nice thing about doing it this way is that I can rotate the baffle for testing.
• In a longish thread Phil suggested that those of us with the 850 (because of the wide throat in the separator) might want to try adding a donut to constrict the opening:
  
  

  QuoteI am going to suggest that you guys w/ the 850's make an MDF donut with an I.D. of 8" and an O.D. suitable for mounting in the existing funnel.  Find some flat flashing/thin aluminum approx. 3" wide and wrap that around the I.D. of the donut so it extends approx. 1" below the bottom of the MDF (just staple in place).

  http://www.jpthien.com/smf/index.php?topic=178.msg1035#msg1035
  
  As luck would have it, I had some 8" round HVAC galv. pipe so I added that 3" piece to the inside of my bottom collar piece per Phil's suggestion.

I have a Donaldson P182038 on order for the top (this is the heavy duty version of the 181038) and the next step is to make a mounting collar for the top of the unit. (I'm annoyed with the folks I ordered from--day three and not shipped despite the claim that it was "in stock".)

So my question--does it make sense to continue the same 8" pipe directly into the bottom of the canister filter?

Since the OD of the filter (17.58") is smaller than the ID of the top of the separator (~19.5"), it will be inset from the top. Some people have done a base ring, and then a second narrow outside ring to constrain the canister. (or blocks to do the same).

What I imagined would be efficient would be to make the 8" hole in that top mounting ring, and then add an 8" HVAC take off ring (flange towards the filter, attached male connector extending down into the 8" pipe sticking up from the new collar. So the center pipe would be continuous 8" to the bottom of the filer (filter has 11" ID).

Filter would seal against the top ring, and the dust would move directly from the top of the Thien baffle to the filter, and bypass the angle pan part of the separator.

Or does magic happen in the separator to catch more of the dust and I should leave the pipe open ended at the top (1" below--3/4" ply donut, so about 1 1/4" sticking up), and cut my mounting ring with the OD to fit the top of the separator, and the ID to match the inside of the filter?