J. Phil Thien's Projects

I think I know what your saying, after we get out of this -25 degree F weather I think I'll try my hand at building one. I'll post pictures some where whether its successful or not. I've got a fair amount of MDF dust to clean up anyhow! lol

Great idea, i never thought about making a 'template' with the first layer. Well, Alan, you killed my segment idea! how would i go about making/designing an intake port tangent to the outer ring. obviously it'll be 3" tall but how wide should it be.

My Shop-Vac has 128CFM and 54" of pressure. this is what it says on the website.

Im still curious if my 1-1/4" intake/exhaust idea is worth a shot? I'd rather not upsize the hose if i dont have to. I could go up to a 2-1/2", but since i have an 8' hose and a 20' in 1-1/4" I'd rather use the ones I have.

Quote from: alan m on January 18, 2013, 11:17:22 AM
my thinking is if i was going to try this i would put a baffel under the normal design. the inlet and outlet would stay the same.
i would put the second  baffel bellow  the 1st . i would rotate it around so that the slot was below below the non slottted part of the baffle. so that as the air and dust drop the 1first it will still rotate around above the baffle.
hopefully it will be slower below that 2nd baffle
the second air space should mean that the primary air steam at the top will have to pull th edust from the second area and not from the bucket below. that way it can only pull up what hasnt fully setled

i think having the slots oposing would reduce the total area open from the top to the bottom.

not sure if it would improve or ruin everything but its worth trying

Exactly what I was thinking but better wording!

Yeah it'll be round. I'm going to use about four moon shaped cut outs to make a circle shape. Then stack these moon shapes four high (creating 3") glued to the 1/4" mdf baffle. The moon shapes will create a circular shape. I'm using the moon shapes to reduce waste although they can be circle too for ease of the build.

I currently have a Shop-Vac 2-hp 5 gallon but like most of you, mine plugs in minutes. Since I already have 28' of 1-1/4" Shop-Vac Hose. I was wondering if this "design" would be ok to use with 1-1/4" hose.

Here's my considerations:

1: I don't have a planer so I really don't have to worry about the wood stringies clogging up my setup.
2: My biggest chips/chunks I'm making is from a router in which I religiously use MDF. Then the occasional shop floor vacuum.
3: I'm not worried about air born materials I do 75% of my work outside. I just want more separation of the materials BEFORE the filter.
4: I'm thinking of using 1/4" MDF for the baffle and building the "housing" out of 3/4" MDF. The baffle opening about 1" since I'm working with 95% finer chips. If some of the bigger things go to the vacuum, oh well, I just want more fines than chips.
5: intake size: I'm going from round to square, how should I go about this, is there an equivalent size opening to minimize turbulence and "inject" the air cleanly? I was thinking the measurement from the top of the baffle to the bottom of the top piece (or cover) should be 3" (4 pieces of 3/4" MDF stacked/glued) but if my math is correct my tangential injection opening is merely 3/4" x 3". Does this sound correct?
6: my exhaust should poke half way into the 3" chamber.

Does anyone think this will work? Yes, no, why?

I'll be designing/tweaking this until it warms up outside so no real rush. ND winters may last until mid-May, so seriously, no rush!

What if the inlet stayed on top of the top baffle? In my head, the second, lower baffle, should slow the air down more leaving the contents of your container settled...

Note: I have yet to build my own but this was the thought process I was going through too!